Page 43 of Desire

“I’ll take it out.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Brandle sawmy raw fingers and insisted I sip the tea as well. I did so without argument. Truly, my fingers were the most minor of our injuries. Edmund had to reset Brandle’s nose before he drank.

I entertained them with a few stories of the trouble Eloise and I found during our early years while we waited for the brew to work its magic. They laughed as I’d hoped. Even Daemon. His color slowly returned to normal, and Brandle eventually agreed he could nap.

Daemon attempted to coax me into joining him. I declined after seeing the coin Eadric had stolen from the tracker the others had left behind.

“He wasn’t happy when I took it,” Eadric said. “Cursed up a storm.”

“How do we know what it’s for?” I asked, looking at Garron.

He shook his head. “That is something I never mastered.”

I held the coin in my hand and opened myself to the power it held. At first, it felt like the tree—energy without any intent. Then I felt a slight echo in its pulse. It wasn’t a variation in vibration but an actual secondary pulse, faint but true and leading away from the coin. I followed it in my mind and foundthe wounded man on the other side. However, the pulse wasn’t his, even though it was buried deep within him.

I stumbled, and the coin dropped from my hand.

“Snow?” Garron asked, catching me. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I feel dizzy.”

“Check your well.”

The lid was firmly in place. As soon as I nudged it aside, all seven of their amulets flared brightly. I closed the lid firmly again.

“I can’t.”

“What happened?” Garron asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t know why I feel dizzy. I don’t know why your amulets flared when I removed the lid from my well. I don’t know!”

Arms wrapped around me from behind.

“Breathe, Love,” Liam said. “Would you like a honey biscuit?”

Since the simple offer of food made my eyes water in gratitude, I nodded. Eadric fed me a biscuit while Liam combed my hair. Edmund took Liam’s place to rebraid it.

“Are you feeling better?” Garron asked when they finished.

I nodded.

“Good. Check the well again.”

When I hesitated, he added, “I find it fascinating that you have a lid on your well. Mine doesn’t.”

“How do you stop energy from flooding it?”

“Flooding? It takes effort for me to pull energy into the well before I cast.”

“Effort?” I asked absently as I focused inward.

With a nudge, I partially opened the well. Energy flooded into it. From the land. From the trees. From the water deep within the earth. I felt it run toward me like spring streams created by winter’s snowmelt. It didn’t only come from theimmediate area but farther afield too, which explained why things in my immediate vicinity didn’t wither.

I closed the lid.

“There is no effort,” I said, looking at Garron. “I open the well, and energy floods me. I don’t choose from where. It all comes to me.”

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