CHAPTER 25

“Why would a tribe of southern Tarvans attack this far north? Or even attack in Sinta at all?”

Slogging through fog, it takes me a moment to place the voice. Piers.

“Why would they even care about stopping a healing center?” Egeria asks.

“They didn’t care about the healing center.” Griffin’s response is edgy and gruff. It still soothes me to hear his voice. “There’s no reason for them to care, or to even know about it. Someone else was behind this, someone with knowledge of our plans and gold to buy mercenaries.”

“Someone Tarvan or someone Fisan?” Carver asks. “Or both, creating an alliance against us?”

“Or Sintan,” Piers suggests. “Nobles are used to having a certain amount of influence with the royal family. It’s in their best interest to replace us with one of their own.”

Egeria sighs. “I wish Cat would wake up. She’d have ideas about all this, I’m sure.”

“I just wish Cat would wake up,” Griffin says dully.

Emotion swells in my chest. Warm fingers brush my forehead. The touch is gentle, the skin rough. I want to turn into Griffin’s hand. The irony isn’t lost on me. I spent weeks rejecting him, and now that I don’t want to anymore, I can’t even move.

“Do you have any idea who she is?” Piers asks. “She’s the perfect match for a Fisan noble—northern coloring, light-green eyes, a terrifying amount of magic, and the arrogance to match it. She could practically be a Magoi royal in terms of power.”

“Except she’s not a bloodthirsty tyrant,” Griffin says.

They’re all silent. I’m not sure anyone agrees.

“The realm dinner is coming up,” Egeria says nervously. “What if a Sintan noble was behind the attack?”

“Cat will figure it out,” Carver says. I can’t help thinking his confidence is optimistic considering my current state.

“How?” Egeria asks.

I imagine him shrugging, his lean, muscled shoulders rolling with the effortless grace of an expert swordsman. “That’s what she does. Reads people.”

“What if she doesn’t get better?” Egeria voices the question everyone is thinking, especially me.

Griffin strokes my hair. “She will.”

“But what if she doesn’t?” Egeria insists.

Boots stomp, and the door creaks open. “Kato! Flynn! Get a healer in here!”

Egeria’s muttering tells me this ground has already been covered. Repeatedly. “They can’t do anything, Griffin.”

“They’re not trying!” he snaps.

“I think they are.”

He curses. “I need to be sure.” He comes back to the bed and picks up my hand. “Otherwise, I’ll take her to Selena.”

Yes, please.

“You shouldn’t move her,” Egeria frets. “It might disturb her.”

“I don’t care if it disturbs her! She’s not eating or drinking. She’s skin and bones.”

Me? Skin and bones? Ha!

There’s a commotion to my left. The door opens, feet shuffle, and the door closes again.

“No more games, Healer. Fix her.” Griffin is either pointing imperiously at me or he’s got his legs braced apart, his arms crossed over his chest, and a ferocious scowl on his face. I can’t decide.

“My colleagues and I have already tried,” a man responds stiffly.

“Try again,” Griffin orders.

“There’s nothing we can do.”

An ominous sound rises in Griffin’s throat. “She’s northern. She’s Magoi. She’s like you. She saved all of your sorry lives. While you were running away, she was defending this place. It doesn’t matter what you think of me. Fix. Her.”

“She killed Belinda.”

Who? The healer I drained flashes in my mind, limp and vacant. Dead, apparently.

“Belinda should have cooperated.” Griffin’s voice levels out dangerously. The healer would be stupid not to heed the threat.

“I would help her if I could, but I can’t. None of us can. This is what happens to healers who give too much. She drained her life force, and now she’s not strong enough to get it back.”

“Explain yourself,” Griffin says sharply.

“She gave it to you, Beta Sinta. She needs it back.”

Alarm hits me like a lightning bolt. Griffin must realize the same thing. With him, I can only give.

“What if that’s not possible?” Griffin asks.

The healer’s answer is dispassionate. “She’ll die. Look at her. She’s already fading away.”

He’s telling the truth. I’d know even without my gift.

The conversation grows faint, and I feel feverish. I’ve heard the Underworld is hot. Is Hades stoking his furnaces? Will he let me see Selena? I guess prophecies don’t always come true…

The voices around me fade, and a dark wave rolls over me, followed by endless gray. Where’s Eleni?

No! Not yet!

I fight my way back, trudging, clawing, and force my mouth to move. “Griffin?”

His weight instantly buckles the mattress, making me roll toward him. “Take it back!” He lifts my hands to his face. His jaw is prickly, and I wish I could see him—strong, determined features, black stubble, gray eyes that never fail to unmask me. His voice is rough with emotion, and I wonder what I did to earn his affection. I’m not even nice to him.

“Take your life force back!” His grip is urgent, his face close enough for his breath to stir my hair.

I try to find what I’ve lost, but he’s impenetrable. My feeble attempts slide right off. After a while, Griffin must understand that nothing is happening because he snarls in frustration and lays my hands back down.

“She can take ours. Some from each of us,” Kato says on my other side. A moment later, three heavy sets of hands land on me, one by one, followed by a smaller, feminine pair that joins the others.

My heart squeezes painfully in my chest. I don’t take anything from them. I won’t risk taking too much.

“Well?” Griffin asks impatiently.

“Nothing,” Flynn answers. “Either nothing’s happening, or she’s not trying.”

Griffin unleashes a string of curses that likely teach Egeria a thing or two. “Out!” he eventually barks.

Muttering under his breath about how stubborn I am, he lies down next to me, tucking me against his side. I wish I’d kissed him back. I should have thanked him for the lamb steak.

“Can you hear me?” he asks.

I manage to push a sound from my throat.

“Did you even try?”

I don’t respond, and he quietly curses. “I didn’t think so. You don’t always have to have the last word, you know.”

I wish I could laugh. I haven’t won a single fight with Griffin. Right now, I can’t even talk, but he thinks I’m always getting the last word?

He shifts, sitting me upright and propping me against him. My head flops to the side, and he pushes it back, bracing it under his chin. “I have an idea. I don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t know what else to do.” He picks up my hand, rubbing my palm with his callused thumb. “What is life force? Mind? Body? Spirit? All of it combined? Is it in our blood? I can give you my blood. I’m going to cut myself.”

That’s never a good idea.

“Your turn.”

Wait! What?

A blade stings the palm of my hand. Blood seeps out, along with my perpetual fear of discovery. He pulls me onto his lap. My panicked breathing gradually calms as Griffin holds me against him, our fingers laced together. It tingles where our blood mixes, frighteningly intimate.

I listen to his steady heartbeat under my ear and fight exhaustion, terrified that the next time I fall asleep, I won’t wake up.