Page 144 of The Revered and the Pariah

“If you’d just lay down and rest for a week, it would heal,” Cahira chided, grimacing at the wound.

“I already tried that.”

Cahira dipped a rag into the warm bowl of water at her side, wrung out the excess, and dabbed it against the wound. Ravina hissed and bit the inside of her cheek so hard she tasted blood. If not for the venom eating away at her skin, the damn thing wouldn’t hurt so much.

“Two days is not a week.”

“And those two days made no difference. I don’t have time to sit around. I need to know what these people are planning and I need to make myself a part of it.”

Cahira prodded the skin around the cut and Raevina hissed again. “I’m out of herbs,” her second said. “We need some of the weed at the base of the mountain.”

“We don’t have time to make the journey.” Nor did she have time to keep waiting. “If I could just get this Arianna to leave her room for a few minutes, I could end all this and we’d be back in Fiadh before the next full moon.”

Cahira pulled out some fresh gauze. “If you don’t plan it out carefully, they’ll know, and your father will exile you like he did your brother.”

“I will not end up like that loud-mouthed—” Raevina stopped talking when the door opened. Cahira jumped to her feet, weapon out and shadows filling the space that separated them from the doorway.

Then everything fell silent.

There she was. Alone and completely unguarded. A ghost of her former, cheery self. The Queen, dressed in nothing more than a white nightgown that gave her far too ghostly of an appearance, stood in her doorway. Raevina didn’t move and Cahira’s shadows withdrew. They exchanged an odd look and the Queen stepped inside.

Her bare footsteps were silent as she strode forward, and Raevina offered the young queen a strained half smile. “Any chance you could pass some of that healing magic my way?” She didn’t believe. Hadn’t from the moment she’d spotted this female on the rooftop with the male lesser warriors had labeled The Demon. Then again, maybe he’d given himself the title just to inspire fear.

Arianna didn’t respond and Raevina almost felt sorry for her. This was the moment she’d been waiting for. Raevina could push the would-be queen back into the hall with a single thrust of her hand, then slit her throat. It would be easy and painless. Then Cahira and Raevina would disappear to another floor and mingle with various parties until the body was discovered. No one would ever suspect them.

Another week, and she’d be on her way back to Fiadh and the world would return to normal.

Raevina eyed the blade resting on her dresser. An armlength, that’s all that separated her from her goal. It was perfect and yet— and yet she couldn’t convince her body to move, as if it had a will of its own.

Was she curious?

A few more minutes wouldn’t hurt. She could see what the female planned to do. Maybe she honestly believed herself to be a healer.

The Queen stood before her now. Her cheeks were hollow, her face gaunt and shoulders far too slim.

Cahira stepped aside, her head bowed, and Raevina rolled her eyes. Her second had always been the more religious of the two, believing in all the old fairy tales written in the ancient texts. Her second had even gone so far as to steal one of the heavy tomes from the temple. Raevina was pretty sure that was sacrilegious in itself.

She inwardly smirked. Those texts were nothing more than children’s stories told to keep people in line so they would follow the laws of the land.

The Queen knelt and Raevina quirked a brow. She’d had a few females on their knees before her, but this was certainly a first. Arianna’s hands lifted and Raevina winced when she pressed them over her wound with no regard to the foul smelling liquid seeping out.

Well, the Queen certainly wasn’t squeamish.

Raevina eyed the blade again. Right here, she could do it right here, but then a glowing light formed beneath the Queen’s touch and warmth spread through Raevina’s abdomen.

She froze, then her breath hitched when her wound lit on fire. Raevina clenched the edge of the mattress even as she watched the greenish liquid pour from her abdomen and drip onto the floor. The skin around her wound shifted back to a normal color and closed, leaving nothing more than a thin line in its place.

Raevina breathed easy for the first time in months. Her lips parted as she met Arianna’s gaze. Impossible. It had to be impossible, but her blood was racing, telling her otherwise.

She hadn’t performed any fancy rituals or long chants. She hadn’t even bowed her head to pray to the gods first. This Arianna, their queen, had just placed her hands on Ravina and healed her as easily as Raevina could light a candle.

Arianna stood, but before she could turn away, Raevina grabbed her wrist. She winced when frost shot down her arm and fragments of ice seemed to bury themselves straight into her bones.

Arianna turned back and Raevina saw it then. Saw the cold, calculated look of an individual capable of ruling this country. Of changing everything they’d ever known.

“I don’t like to be touched.” Her voice wasn’t of this world. It echoed to some long forgotten part of Raevina’s soul, calling her home.

Raevina slid to her knees. The Queen didn’t react. She simply pulled away, leaving Raevina to question every legend and story she’d ever been told.

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