Page 119 of A Reign of Roses
Griffin watched her carefully, backlit by the glowing, rosy lights of the city center. I couldn’t tell if his scowl was from disappointment or the discomfort of empathy.
“Don’t do that to yourself,” I said, reaching for her hand. “You didn’t—”
“There’s no excuse.” Mari shook her head vehemently. “I never should have tried something so…My magic has a mind of its own, I fear. And—”
“You didn’t know Ethera would have lilium. Or that we’d end up relying on you so soon after you left Briar’s.”
Mari nodded once but I knew that look. Knew the shame in her eyes. Knew how it affected her to have let us down. I pulled her into my arms. “I love you. Be kind to yourself, please.”
“That’s my cue,” Aleksander deadpanned.
“Not so fast,” Kane growled at him.
I released Mari, sagging a bit with the movement. Too quick. I’d moved too quickly…
Kane motioned to me. “Heal her of the lilium.”
Aleksander sighed, and without another word, shining black claws—long, razor-sharp, not of any creature I could describe—sprouted from his fingers and slashed gently against my wrist. The pain was brief. Just a bloodletting—
But not like any I’d done before as a healer. Aleksander waved a still-clawed hand across the wound and little specs of white alloy—the lilium—lifted from my blood. I flinched but felt no further discomfort, even as drops of red fell from my wrist into the snow at my feet.
That lighte he used—he wasn’t as Fae as Kane and I—I didn’t know if he could even shift. But those claws—something beastly, immortal, ancient as ammonite…I would have recoiled from them if they hadn’t brought me such relief.
Energy funneled through my entire body as he removed each fragment. Liberation andpower—I nearly purred.
Aleksander’s jaw had gone to rigid steel. He kept his eyes on the city before us even as he used his strange power. Those elegant nostrils flared until enough lighte had returned that I healed the small incision on my wrist myself. It would be a bit longer before I’d recovered enough to heal Griffin’s wounds.
I uttered my thanks, and Aleksander paced farther away from us. I wondered if my blood or Griffin’s was bothering him.
“Are we done here?”
Murder glinted in Kane’s eyes, but he nodded once.
Aleksander pursed his lips, as if debating whether to press his luck. He must’ve decided it was worth asking, because he said, in a low voice, “And you and I—we’re…”
“If I was planning to kill you, you’d be dead.”
Aleksander dipped his head as if to say,Fair enough, and turned to leave us.
“Wait,” I called after him.
The Hemolich whirled, those illuminated eyes as bloody as the magical glowing signs and streetlights behind us.
Kane groaned in frustration. “Leave him.”
“You and Griffin were weakened when you found him,” I said under my breath, glaring. “He could have killed you, but hedidn’t.”
I hurried toward Aleksander before he could change his mind. “How did you convince Ethera to let me go?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does to me.” I was desperate for any shred of information he’d spare regarding my future child.
“I told her the truth,” Aleksander said, red eyes studying the place on my wrist where I’d bled. I tucked the offending limb behind my back. “Your lighte can’t heal a spell,” he said.
My jaw slackened. “It can’t? How do you know?”
“You aren’t the only Fae with healing abilities.”
