Page 13 of Ties of Frost

“Will you consent to him treating your wound?”

“Fine,” I ground out. “But you better not do anything else.”

“What else could I possibly do?” Kyrundar muttered as he switched places with the physician.

Since I didn’t actually know, I kept my mouth shut. The worst thing that could possibly happen already had, and it wasn’t as if he could make us any more connected than we already were.

Because the emotion sharing, Kyrundar feeling my pain—it could mean only one thing.

Shifters and elves had slightly different magics and so had their own traditions and methods, but both had heartbonds—strong magic that tied a couple together in body, heart, and soul.

“It’s impossible,” I whispered to myself. There were prerequisites to these things. Like marriage, being in love, and Iskyr’s blessing.

Kyrundar placed his hands on either side of my wound. “This might hurt. I’m sorry.”

A new sensation of cold spread into my arm, but this cold wasn’t painful. Kyrundar’s magic caressed my skin like cool silk on a hot day…until it touched the twisted magic of the curse. I bit my tongue to smother a shout, and Kyrundar grimaced. Sweat beaded along his hairline. Bit by excruciating bit, he wrangled the fingers of frost back toward the wound. When he released my arm, we were both shaking.

The moment Kyrundar stepped back, Quillan moved into his spot at my side. After inspecting my arm and doingsomething else with his soothing fleshmage healing magic, he looked to Kyrundar.

“Outstanding work. That seems even more stable than before.” Quillan turned back to me. “I’m afraid there’s very little I can do. I’ve healed the damage to the surrounding skin and muscle, but closing the wound over the curse would make things worse. For now, I’ll clean and rebandage the puncture. Hopefully Mirlanwen can do more.”

Suddenly exhausted, I barely managed a half-hearted nod. Quillan cleaned my arm with something that stung, then covered the puncture with gauze and neatly wrapped my arm in a white bandage.

“When will Physician Mirlanwen arrive?” Kyrundar asked.

Quillan lifted a shoulder. “She lives a few streets away, but she might not be at home due to all the Dawning Festival celebrations tonight. The apprentice will have to find her and hope she’s in condition to treat a patient.”

Kyrundar’s lips pursed. “I see. Might I have a moment alone with Zidra?”

Quillan bowed his head. “Actually, I was just going to return to bed, unless either of you require any other medical attention.” He indicated Kyrundar’s arm. “You appear to have been wounded yourself.”

“Oh, it’s minor.”

I lowered my gaze to my hands, a little ashamed I’d forgotten Kyrundar had been hurt first. A surge of renewed annoyance followed the thought. If that idiot hadn’t followed me, interfered with my meeting, jumped into afight without proper armor, gotten himself hurt, and then been on his knees trying to ward off that ice elf’s attack, I wouldn’t have been distracted. Without his distraction, surely this ice curse never would have touched me.

“Still,” Quillan said, “best to be sure, lest any infection set in.” He ushered Kyrundar to the chair in the corner, where he removed the sleeve of Kyrundar’s tunic with a pair of shears, much to the vain elf’s chagrin.

I shook my head, then lay down and closed my eyes, determined to ignore Kyrundar and the binding.

Ignoring the heartbond proved difficult, as I felt a muted stinging in my arm when Quillan cleansed Kyr’s cut, then a tingling sensation as the healer used his fleshmagic to close the wound. Kyr expressed his thanks, and Quillan took his leave.

Before Kyrundar could say anything, I said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That won’t make it go away.”

I waved a hand above me. “This ice elf physician will remove the curse, and then you’ll remove your magic from me, and then whatever this is will go away.”

For a moment, he was silent. Through our unwanted bond, I sensed him sifting through possibilities, as well as a bit of relief.

“I suppose itcouldbe simply because I placed my magic in you,” he said slowly. “I had to channel magic uncomfortably close to your heart to pull back the curse. Then I had to leave some in you… Yes. I don’t know much about how our vastly different magics might interact—”

“Ours are much more tied to our bodies,” I interjected. Thinking about Kyrundar’s magic traveling through my veins, entangling itself with the dragon fire that allowed me to shift, made me nauseated.

The chair in the corner creaked as Kyrundar moved. “What do you need? Why are you feeling ill?”

I groaned and rolled onto my side so I faced the wall. “Why did you go to the ruins? How did you even know I was there? You know what, unimportant. What matters is that you need to stop doing this!”

“Doing what, exactly? Saving your life?”

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