Page 14 of Veiled Fate
“Jada, I held you,” he said, barely able to whisper. “I watched you die. I’ve seen it a thousand times before. Iknowwhat death looks like. You died in my arms in that alley.”
“Technically, I think I was still alive when the guards hauled you up,” I said.
“You know what I mean.”His voice was a tangled snarl of pain, which was reflected in the crinkling of his eyes. “I lost you … How is this possible? He ran the sword right through you.”
I shuddered, reliving the moment, the tip of the sword piercing my belly, driving through my internal organs, and then out my back. The sensation of the skin to the left of my spine stretching for just a second before being punctured rippled through my body.
“Jada?”
Kiel grabbed me as I sagged forward, shaking so hard he had to wrap me up in his arms and hold me tight. I whimpered fearfully, barely able to think straight as the memories of dying poured over and through me, incapacitating my body and mind and assaulting me with it repeatedly.
“It’s okay,” Kiel whispered in my ear. “Jada, it’s okay. It’s over now. I have you. It’s okay. You’re okay. I’m not letting go. You can relax.”
Easing me down onto the captain’s bunk, he continued to hold me, his head resting on mine, occasionally moving just enough to kiss the top of mine.
“That’s better,” he murmured into my ear as my tremors finally faded.
My lungs rose and fell with a slow, deep breath as I reasserted control over my body. I didn’t try to free myself from Kiel. It felt warm, comforting, andrightto be in his arms. I disliked that it was my weakness that had driven me there. I hated having to rely on others, but there was no doubting the peace and joy I found while wrapped up in his thick, powerful arms. Arms that held me without a tremor of their own.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be,” he assured me. “You’ve been through a lot for one day.”
“Yeah. I could really do with not being stabbed again, that’s for sure. Not an experience I want to repeat.”
He murmured a heartfelt agreement.
“I still need to know how you did this,” he said, his hand feeling my stomach. “Healing this fast after dying? Jada, that’s not p—it’s not normal.”
He’d been about to say it wasn’t possible. But that wasn’t true now, was it?
“I know.”
“How did nobody ever find out about this? When you got hurt as a child, how did nobody ever realize you healed instantly? I don’t understand how you kept it a secret your entire life.”
“You don’t understand.”
“So,makeme understand,” he said, all but pleading with me. “This should have been impossible to conceal.”
“I agree. The reason it didn’t get out is because, as a child, Ididn’theal instantly. I broke my arm when I was eleven. It took several days to be fully functional again.Days, Kiel. Not minutes.”
“So, what’s changed?” he asked. “When did this begin to happen? How long have you known?”
“I …”
How did I even begin to explain this?
Kiel, thinking I was looking for a lie, narrowed his eyes. “What is it, Jada? What aren’t you telling me?”
“This is the first time it’s happened to me,” I explained. “You saw me in the prison cell the very first time after Andracis whipped me. That was hours, days even, and my back was still a mess.”
Kiel’s eyes flickered with icy hatred at the mention of the former Arcadian Beta. Former, because he was now the proud recipient of eight inches of steel in his brain. Tough to help rule as a corpse. However, the satisfaction of knowing he was dead did nothing to sully Kiel’s memory of the condition I’d been in when we’d first met.
“I don’t get it. How did you suddenly develop this power?”
“I didn’t,” I said. “At least, I don’tthinkI developed it. More like inherited it, I think, is the better terminology in this case. If my guess is right, which it might not be, I don’t know. I’m just making a guess here, based on what I know.”
“And what is it that you know?”
