Page 73 of Despite Mortal Sins

Jaeda shrugged. “He was probably doing it unconsciously.”

Rukia thought back to all the nights they’d spent tangled in each other’s arms. When she’d slept alone in Isaiah’s bed right after he’d gone into recoil, nightmares haunted her dreams. But when she’d come downstairs and crashed on the couch with him, they’d disappeared.

“Does his ability not apply to himself?”

“I’ve never asked him.” The healer frowned. “Why do you ask?”

“He had a nightmare the night he sent me home.” Rukia shuddered unintentionally as goosebumps rose on her skin. “Woke up in a panic, didn’t want me to touch him. Forbade me to, in fact.”

Horror bled into Jaeda’s features as she spoke, followed swiftly by sorrow. “I’ve never seen that side of him. None of us do.”

Rukia cringed at the expression on Jaeda’s face, then came to the startling realization that Jaeda knew exactly what Isaiah had experienced. “You know what he dreams about, what he fears, don’t you?”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jaeda’soceanicblueeyesscanned the crowd around them, then settled back on Rukia. With a half-hearted nod of her head, Rukia followed the female Raeth into a less crowded area of the room before she spoke again.

“Isaiah has been our sovereign for five hundred years.” Her tone low and subdued, a hint of hesitation trembled through Jaeda’s voice. “No one outside of our clan knows of what I’m about to tell you.”

Features twisting, Rukia blanched. “Then why tell me?”

“Because I read the soul, Rukia, and yours is tied with Isaiah’s in a way you don’t yet understand.” Jaeda squared her shoulders. “Do you remember when I told you of the scar on Isaiah’s chest?”

Rukia nodded, her mind offering up a visual of the faint silver line that marred the skin near his breastbone, the overwhelming tension in the room when she had first mentioned it.

“That scar was left by an assassination attempt,” Jaeda explained, her voice low. “Five Raeths came for him while he slept, held him down with the intent to stab him to death with amerjha.”

Gasping, Rukia’s hand went to her throat protectively, horror and anger blistering through her blood at the thought of Isaiah’s vulnerability. A sinking feeling pitted in her stomach as Jaeda continued.

“One of them had a cloaking ability, allowing the five of them to remain physically and psychically invisible to him until they already had him pinned down. Once they’d forcibly restrained him, the fifth Raeth impaled his chest with themerjhadagger, all the way to the hilt. Fortunately, before the assassin was able to remove it and go for a second strike, Isaiah’s abilities sprung to life and all five of them died instantly.”

A pregnant pause as Jaeda wrangled her emotions. “Even though the dagger only pierced him once, it penetrated all the way through his chest and barely missed his heart.” Tears misted in Jaeda’s eyes. “When we found him, Isaiah couldn’t even lift his head, the blade still embedded in him. I almost couldn’t save him, Rukia.

Jaeda shook her head nervously and continued while Rukia tightened her arms around her body, shivering. “Merjhawounds aren’t meant to heal; they aren’t meant to be survived. With the effect of the recoil compounding the near-fatal wound he sustained, his heart stopped in the aftermath. The only reason he’s still here is because the young healer I was mentoring manually kept his heart beating while I worked to heal the stab wound.”

Jaeda’s eyes fixated on hers. “It’s a miracle he’s still alive, Rukia.”

As the weight of Isaiah’s past settled into her soul, Rukia’s face crumpled. “I can’t even imagine. While he slept? Such cowards.”

“It was indefensible.” Anger bled across Jaeda’s features. “The only reason we knew something had happened to him was the veritable shockwave that went through the psychic network when Isaiah’s abilities waned.”

Pity tugged on her heart, the thought of him dying alone with no one to comfort him. “How long before you found him?”

“Three or four minutes at the most. At that point, all his energy had gone to keeping alive. He wasn’t even able to call for us telepathically.”

“How horrible.”

Tears blurred Rukia’s vision, heavy emotion constricting in her chest. For a man who’d served as a protector for most of his life, he’d become defenseless and completely vulnerable in the span of mere minutes. Rukia couldn’t imagine the horror.

“Rukia, you should know,” Jaeda caught her eyes, solemn, “the threat on his life isn’t what terrifies him. Isaiah doesn’t fear death; he never has. What he fears is killing someone else by accident, that the lethal ability that lives in his skin will take the life of someone he loves.”

“But he controls that, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, our abilities are controlled as if they were another appendage, or as you control your Element,” Jaeda confirmed, but then took a steadying breath. “But sometimes, they lash out unconsciously, and his did that day. The ability you saw him use on Jaden was the same ability that killed his assassins, except that time, he didn’t consciously choose to kill those men.”

Rukia frowned, outraged. “He was protecting himself! How can he see that as a negative?”

“I’m not saying that Isaiah’s logic is without fault.” The Raeth sighed sadly and shrugged. “But that’s the reason why he doesn’t get involved past a certain point.”

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