Page 102 of Of Blood and Banes
I give her a gentle shake. “I’m serious.”
“The reason I know you’re capable of all these great things is because I once was you. You were not the first one rumored to be the savior. That’s why some of the rebels don’t entirely believeSethan’s choice in making a blood pact with you. Because the ones before you failed. And I was one of those failures.”
I drop my hand from her shoulder. “You…you’ve been in The White before?”
“No, I never could channel like you. It nearly killed me.”
“And you survived? How?” My gaze falls to her hands. To the wicked scars wrapped around them, angry and haunting. My voice lowers, if only slightly. “Were those scars actually from when you were sick as a little girl, or was that a lie?”
Her expression stills. “A lie.”
I flinch, even though I knew deep down her story wasn’t all it seemed. She was hiding things. The depths of those secrets were unknown, but some intuition told me they were there. Lurking beneath the surface.
I whisper, “What were they from, Marge?”
Silence.
“Answer me!”
She flicks her gaze down at her hand and clenches her fist. “They were from taking dragonblood. I am a Spoiled—that much is true. When I was your age, I fit the description of who they thought the savior would be. I was young, with long icy-blonde hair so much like yours. I knew far too much of dragons, and my grandmother taught me the secrets of medicine and magic. When a Close Circle member got wind of it in my town, I was taken to the King. The King thought I was the chosen one. He dragged me through the halls and demanded I try to hatch the dragon eggs he had been collecting. But it didn’t work. He beat and tortured me, pulling me back from death every time with dragonblood. And when that didn’t work, he raided my town, pulling people to use against me and force my hand into helping him. He killed friend after friend in front of me. My eldest brother escaped to the Dragon Lands, while my other brother stayed behind. For me. But my eldest brother was killed inbattle. The King tempted me to pull the ley line magic so I could see my brother again and raise him from the dead if I tried hard enough. Eventually, the King realized I wasn’t who he thought I was. He knew I couldn’t do it. So, he sentenced me to a life as a healer for the throne, figuring he could at least make use of my knowledge. Just as you are bound to your blood pact with Sethan…”
She flips her hand open, exposing her palm and a sliver of white scarring her skin. “I am bound to the Arterian throne. To heal those in the royal family, regardless of whatever my reservations may be.”
“You…you signed a blood pact with the King? That’s why you always gave Darian alcohol?”
“No. Well…sometimes he might have swiped some. But what he was really after was dragonblood.”
The confession smacks surprise across my face. “Darian’s a Spoiled? That’s why he’s so much weaker now without it? Why he has so many scars? Why…”
Why he’s been shaking. It was never the cold. It waswithdrawals. Was that also why he was so damn aggressive in the early days?
“Yes…go on?” Marge urges.
“I’ve noticed him shivering. And I thought maybe he was weakening because of the lack of training. He’s always been a bit of a temperamental man. But…it’s withdrawals, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“So…what happens if he doesn’t get more dragonblood? Will he die?”
“We all die eventually, do we not?”
“Will you just give me a straightforward godsdamned answer?” I hiss.
“Fine. It’s possible he could die a slow, painful death the longer he goes without it, yes. Though, it’s hard to say howlong it would take. He’s been taking it since he was a boy. Could be months, could be decades. Side effects and long-lasting repercussions vary depending on each individual.”
My stomach twists as I recall one of the last few nights in Arterias. “I drank from his flask one night. And I thought perhaps my alcohol tolerance was lacking but…I hallucinated. And one night when Archie and I swiped a bottle from the healer’s quadrant, I had a similar feeling. Was it all dragonblood?”
“Indeed. Though, the dragonblood I kept in the healer’s quadrant was much more diluted, and a different strain than Darian normally carried. The unrefined blood was designated for him only.”
The crates. The night Darian and I slept together, I turned the corner of his room and kicked a crate with liquid. Not wine, but dragonblood.
I take a small step back. “So, the times you used medicine on me…you were using dragonblood? You’ve…you’ve essentially tainted me to be a Spoiled? And everyone else you’ve treated?”
“Now, now, Katerina. Consuming diluted dragonblood a few times will help speed up the healing process. It won’t automatically make you a Spoiled. You need a strong dosage of dragonblood and at a consistent rate for it to taint your blood permanently.”
“So then if you’re a Spoiled…you’re still taking dragonblood?”
“No,” she answers softly.
