Page 172 of Ash and Feather

I choked back a sob at this last thought. The tears still trailed silently down my cheeks, but I managed to keep my breaths and words relatively steady.

“I don’t think I’ve ever told you this,” I said as my old house came into view once more, “but I used to have actual healing magic, when I was a mortal. Or, at least, I could sense the places where healing power had pooled, and I could draw it from those places. From the very earth, sometimes. I created recipes for all sorts of ailments, too, and everyone swore that when I made them, my touch infused them with extra healing power.”

Valas tilted his head toward me, his attention clearly focused for once.

“And I always thought the Marr became exaggerated versions of the beings they’d been before they became divine—but then I ascended, and I think I lost whatever talent for healing I possessed.”

“Did you?”

I gritted my teeth. “My sister is dying. The world is splintering. Everything feels broken beyond repair, and I don’t even know what piece to reach for first. And even if I did, things will never go back to the way they were—so I can’t fix anything I set out to fix.”

“What if they aren’t meant to go back to the way they were?”

I opened my mouth to argue.

Then I realized I once again didn’t know what to say.

Valas didn’t elaborate. He was uncharacteristically quiet as we reached the house. While I went inside to check on my sister, he stayed in the yard, pacing and occasionally kneeling in the overgrown grass, swiping through it as if searching for something.

Mairu met me at the door of my sister’s room—or ran into me, more like, as she was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice me until it was too late.

She quickly transformed her distracted expression into something more optimistic. “She’s resting easier, I think. The pain medicine you gave her earlier helped.”

I could tell she was forcing the words, the smile.

“Tell me the truth.” I braced myself against the doorframe. “You can sense energies of living creatures, so you know better than most how Savna istrulyfaring.”

She hesitated.

“Just…tell me.”

“Her life force is very faint, Karys. It’s getting fainter.”

I swallowed hard. “Thank you.”

She tried once more to press her lips into an optimistic smile, but didn’t quite manage it. “Dravyn will be back soon, I’m sure.”

My magic swelled at the thought, giving me courage to move.

As I stepped into the dimly-lit room, it was impossible not to draw comparisons to that fateful day over five years ago, when Savna had disappeared. When I’d stumbled into her room and found her bed coated in blood.

I’d changed her blood-soaked clothing earlier. Made sure her sheets were clean. Wiped away all the drops that had gotten on the floor.

Yet the stench of blood lingered.

Whether from the most recent wound in her back, or a trick of my memory, I wasn’t sure.

I pulled up a chair next to her bed and numbly lowered myself into it. My hand fumbled for her wrist, feeling for her pulse.

So, soweak.

I slipped from the chair, dropped instead to my knees. Buried my face against the mattress, my fingers clenching the sheets next to my sister’s still body.

“Please don’t leave me again,” I begged, softly. “Not now.”

Not when you finally started to come back to me.

I couldn’t stop thinking about her hand reaching for mine just before the arrow struck it.

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