Kiara coughed again, but said nothing.
“Kiara?”
“What. Oh, sorry. My mind goes in and out. I’m…I’m in a lot of pain.”
“Well, that’s something I can help you with.” She reached into her satchel and withdrew a packet of wafers made from pain-relieving herbs. She handed it through the bars then let it drop. “Did you get it?”
“I’m opening it now.” She heard the faint sounds of paper being folded back then Kiara moaning in relief. “Oh, that’s wonderful and so fast. Thank you, Maeve. You’ve been the best friend.”
“You helped me so much when I first arrived. I thought I’d lose my mind, especially after that horrible introduction to the dark coven.”
“You did the right thing that night. Now that I’ve felt the nature of the acid, I wish I was dead.”
“Don’t say that.”
She chuckled. “Well, I don’t feel that way now, not when I have your amazing tonic inside me.”
Maeve sighed. Kiara was one of those women all women admired. She was a goddess. Besides being beautiful with long dark brown hair and dark eyes, she had more compassion than a thousand good women combined. How she’d fallen into Veyda’s snare was a mystery. But then Veyda had been working her dark arts far longer than either Maeve or Kiara had been in Five Bridges combined.
Her thoughts turned to Braden. “You’ll never guess who I plucked out of the Graveyard four nights ago. In fact, he’s the reason I haven’t come back sooner.”
“Who?” How at ease Kiara sounded now.
Maeve stood up on her tip-toes to look inside the cell. Kiara was stretched out on her small cot with her feet toward the wall and her head in the center of the space. With no pillow, she had her hands clasped behind her head.
Kiara’s smiled was crooked as she lifted a hand and waved. “Those wafers are heaven. I’ve tucked the rest beneath the cot for later.”
Kiara’s dark hair spilled over the mattress. She wore a thin, white sleeveless shift that left her thighs exposed. Maeve could see the red, bloody spots on her neck as well as the older scars on her legs.
“Did you lose your voice?” Kiara smiled again. “Tell me about Braden. You know I love him. I mean not love-love him. But I adore him. He’s got the biggest heart.”
“He does.”
“Yes. He’s really good friends with Alpha Warren.” Her brows rose. “Now there’s a man.”
Maeve knew who Warren was. He bore scars like the ones Kiara now had. The sides of his face and head were deeply pitted and scar-streaked, yet here was Kiara expressing real interest.
She told Kiara about Braden’s brush with death, his surgery and wounds, the transfusions and his nightmares afterward.
“That’s terrible. And you think this was Veyda’s doing?”
“Her henchman, Ely Gammet and some of his wolves, were the ones who attacked him.”
“Then it was Veyda for sure. I wonder why?”
“I have no idea.”
Kiara smiled suddenly. “So, you slept in the same bed.”
“It was the only way to keep him calm.”
“Did you do anything?”
Maeve could only laugh. “He was in a coma or delirious for four days and nights. So, no, we didn’t do anything.”
“You have a thing for him, though, don’t you?”
Maeve didn’t feel like hiding anything right now. “I always liked him. You know I did. But ever since I took him from the Graveyard, it’s as though I’m connected to him now. I mean, I can scent him. How often does that happen?”
