Page 190 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

I tried to focus on what I had seen and done so he could understand what I was asking of him.

I felt a ripple of sorrow wash over me like a wave and then another of gratefulness.

Take what you need,he offered.

The sensation of him opening the connection between us fully was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. He was used to sharing this kind of link, so he would have trained his mind to maintain some control of it. But I’d never had this kind of connection before, and it was overwhelming. Almost as if I had been extended. The distance between our locations came into such sharp focus that I could almost feel every step and every heartbeat between us. But at the same time, that great distance was rendered utterly meaningless as if he were right beside me kneeling over that poor child.

Two bodies with one soul, one half made of flame and the other earthen, a singular heartbeat thrumming louder in my ears, and just one breath in our lungs.

I knew it would not be like this when I bonded with the other riders. Nothing else would ever compare to this.

A flush of awareness that was wildly inappropriate to be feeling whilst I was kneeling at the bedside of a dying fey began to spread across my flesh. I forcefully tamped it down before it could be reflected in my expression or change my scent.

Sage had also shared his magic before, so when I was unsure how to take it, he was able to gently push some of his fire into me. And absolutelynothingcould have ever prepared me for the hot rush of him suddenly searing through my veins. His inferno hit my ocean, and it felt like my body erupted into a geyser of hot steam that was at once painfully explosive and euphoric. Smoke wafted off my skin and began to pour out of his armour. I could hear Ivie calling my name, but I remained focused on figuring out how to reshape his fire magic into something that I could use to heal.

Sage was quiet and watchful as I worked on the child in front of me. The scent of our combined power was different than mine which usually smelled like rain and honeysuckle. Now that scent was combined with the arid smell of fire and cinnamon.

“Are you alright?” Ivie hissed once I had stepped back so the little girl’s family could see her. The healer was clearly worried that I had hurt myself using my magic too deeply again. She would have sensed the change in it.

“I’m alright. I was just channelling Sage,” I explained hastily and turned to lead her outside so we could get on to the next patient.

I stopped short when I saw Orlaith was waiting for us inside the beaded entrance of the yurt, her lips parted in awe as her wide eyes moved from the healed child to me. Like her sister,Ivie, she was wearing a headscarf to keep her hair from falling into her eyes, and she looked utterly exhausted from their endeavours to care for injured fey.

She was about to speak, undoubtedly to offer praise based on her expression, but her nostrils flared, and then her brows condensed. She could smell him. I was not sure if his scent was merely on my skin or in my scent after I’d used his magic, but she could smell him.

And it made me irrationally angry that she still knew his smell well enough to recognize it so quickly.

“Is everything alright?” Ivie asked her.

Orlaith blinked, reminded of herself, and then nodded.

“I heard you were here,” she explained, looking at me again with a nod. “I wondered if you would come to one of my patients. He is not doing well.”

“Lead the way,” I bid her, feeling refreshed enough to heal at least as many fey as I already had after Sage had refueled me. I noticed that he had gone quiet in my mind, and I wasn’t sure if that was because of Orlaith or if I had merely lost hold of the link once my mind had calmed.

Regardless, his magic remained, my body felt warm and flush with it, and I fully intended to use it wisely.

“I am going to continue my rounds. There is no use in both of us guiding her around,” Ivie pointed out once we stepped outside the yurt. And then she gave her sister a list of the most critically injured fey to heal first.

“Wait,” I called to Ivie, taking her hands and holding them tightly when she tried to rip them away from me.

“Do not waste a drop on me!” she protested.

“It is not wasted when you are their only hope once I have used up my magic. You need this,” I insisted.

Ivie was determined to reject my offer, but I was doing this for her. If she was going to continue to be a pillar of strength for her patients, then she needed this boost.

She seemed to know it deep down as well, so although it appeared to pain her to accept help, she nodded for me to heal her. I watched colour come back into her cheeks, and the purple wells beneath her eyes disappeared as she breathed in more deeply in relief.

“Thank you,” she said reluctantly, still looking guilty before she turned away.

I turned to find Orlaith waiting, looking appreciative of me for attending to her sister. Her expression changed, however, when I stopped in front of her.

“You too.”

“No—” she attempted to object, just like her sister.

“Yes,” I insisted in annoyance with their selflessness and seized her hands. She sighed but did not attempt to prevent me from giving her an energy boost that restored her the way it had for her sister. Making her even more stunningly beautiful than she was even when exhausted.

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