Page 46 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
He opened the door and swiftly took a step back.
“Don’t worry,” Rayna said with a gentle smile. “I wouldn’t let him hurt you.”
“Are you a slayer?” he asked, eyes rounding.
She nodded.
“Wish I’d been born one,” he sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Life would be easier.”
I shook my head. “No, it wouldn’t.”
“She’s right,” Rayna agreed, a hint of misery flashing in her gaze before she covered it. “We can’t get sick or die of old age, but we’re hard-wired to put ourselves in danger all the time. Our life expectancy is pathetically low compared to normal people. It’s not worth the tradeoff.”
It was a rare admission from her on how she felt about her job.
The guard cleared his throat. “Sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Rayna’s expression went back to business as usual. She turned and entered the cell to crouch over the sleeping man. He didn’t stir in any way as she lifted his shirt. “Based on your description before, it looks like the infection dug in deeper over the last couple of days.”
Even from my vantage point, I could see that. His chest and stomach were covered in black spider veins. The way the spell worked, one had to be close to feel it, but I’d been sensing the malevolence since we entered the prison ward. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Think you can still cure him?” I asked.
Rayna’s brows knitted. “I think so, but it will take longer than I’d like.”
By my estimation, we had about an hour before the prisoners woke up.
“Do the best you can,” I said.
She pressed her palms over the central point of the infection, and a glow began to form. Her shoulders tensed, and a look of concentration came over her face as she worked, coppery brown strands of hair falling over her eyes.
Freya paced the corridor, glancing inside the cell with each pass. I could see the doubt in her expression, but she kept silent. The shifter had to know this was our best shot. We needed information on the rest of the group as soon as possible before they hurt anyone else.
A clock above the door at the end of the corridor kept the time for me. I counted as the minutes passed. After ten, I noted Rayna’s brows had sweat beading on them, and she began to breathe hard. She specialized in lightning and telepathy, butall sorcerers could do some rudimentary spells with their magic. It would exhaust her more because she’d likely have to borrow from her slayer strength to pull off curing three prisoners in one afternoon.
I felt bad for asking her, but she’d told me when I approached her that she was dying to do something useful. Helping people seemed to genuinely matter to her.
Two minutes later, she sat back on her heels and wiped her forehead. “It’s done, but if he’d been even a little worse, I doubt any sorcerer could have fixed him.”
I noted that the man’s skin was clear of all blemishes, though a bit pale. He’d be sick for a couple of days. I’d been told the body still had to flush out some remaining toxins from the spells, and those who were cured usually behaved out of sorts for a while. Their memories from their time while under the influence of dark magic were clearest in the first few days—often causing a lot of shock—before fading to almost nothing.
“Take a minute,” Freya said, sounding a little kinder toward the slayer. “But then you have to get to the next one.”
Maybe there was hope that the female shifter would warm to Rayna.
“I’ve still got plenty of juice. Finding and eradicating the magic is complicated because it spreads as far and deep as possible. I must ensure I get every little bit, or it can return.”
I’d heard that from the other sorcerers as well.
The slayer slowly rose to her feet, and the guard came forward to lock the cell before moving to open the next one. We wouldn’t let the men free until they were questioned and entirely back to themselves. They’d stay here in the meantime, especiallysince we couldn’t be sure they hadn’t been up to no good before they got infected.
Rayna started on the next man, who didn’t appear as bad as the first. She managed to finish with him in eight minutes, which, according to her, was still a long time compared to catching an infected person early.
We shifted our attention to the final cell with the guy I’d knocked out with the potion. Rayna went inside and lifted his shirt. His torso was covered with more black veins than I’d ever seen on someone tainted with dark magic. Even before she shook her head, I knew her response wouldn’t be good.
“It’s too late for this one,” she said with a sigh. “He was probably the first guy infected in their group and spread it to everyone else.”
Grim looks came over our faces as Freya and I entered the cell. If you couldn’t cure the person, they had to be executed. There was no choice in the matter. None of us liked it, but we knew it had to be done and preferably before the others woke up.
