I stand up and pull her to me, grinning with mad pride, because my girl is strong, tenacious, so beautiful, and so smart and accomplished on top of that. I couldn’t have picked a better woman to fall in love with.
“He’s clean. How did you do it?”
Instead of answering, she grabs one of my antlers and pulls me closer. An undignified noise of shock and longing tears out of my throat, because it’s been months since I tasted her last. I slick my tongue past her lips to gorge myself on her, and only after a moment do I realize Jaga doesn’t kiss me back.
She sucks air out of my mouth, greedy and focused. I stop moving and breathe into her, giving her all the air I have until she stumbles away, her soul glowing red like a halo.
“You just need to ask,” I tell her, my voice hushed from disappointment and hurt. I do my best to hide them. “It’s yours. I’ll give you anything.”
She turns away, and I can’t see her expression, but her voice is even and unaffected. “I know. Thank you. The cure is magically taxing. I tried it a few times before, but I’ve never used enough power, as it turns out. This time, it took all I had. But I am full again, so I’ll try with another subject, this one more advanced. Watch.”
She presses both hands to a dragon’s head, who snarls, trying to bite her despite his gag. Jaga’s hands glow red as she pours raw magic into him, magic that is not a spell but a force of nature. I gasp when I see how much there is, a flood of it, andshe keeps going while the dragon writhes in his chains, making squalling, pitiful sounds.
It stops suddenly, and she stumbles away, pressing her hand to her temple. I shake my head with annoyance and catch her, sealing my mouth to hers.
“You shouldn’t spend it all like this. You’ll hurt yourself. What if I wasn’t here? What if you lost consciousness and couldn’t call for me?”
“Oh, stop worrying.”
She pushes me away and points at the dragon. “See if he’s clean.”
I check and nod, amazed. “You did it. But how? Whatisthe cure?”
“The rot takes root deep in a person’s magic,” Jaga explains, washing her hands vigorously in a basin, her back to me. “That’s why it cannot be cured like the illnesses of the body. What I did was flush their magic system completely. It’s like pouring clean water into a vessel full of dirt. At some point, you will pour in enough for the water to run clean. That’s what I did. But—I don’t understand why it worked now. I’ve tried this before. It’s not a groundbreaking concept by any means.”
I think I know. Jaga has steadily gained power, even while avoiding me. It’s not only my breath that feeds her then. It’s something else, and I have my suspicions, but I can’t tell her yet. It might be something to bargain with—to make her stay. I just need to confirm that I’m right.
“Can I see your soul?”
She shakes her head without turning. “Another time. I have to figure out how to make this accessible. I can’t very well go around curing every rot patient in Slawa, not to mention that you’d have to come with and feed me air every time, and it’s just so inefficient.”
Since when does Jaga care about being efficient? It’s just an excuse.
“I don’t mind,” I say, knowing it won’t change anything.
“But I do.”
I sigh, closing my eyes, because every time she rejects me, it hurts worse, especially when it’s casual like this.
“Very well,” I say when I’m certain my voice won’t break. “There are natural springs of magic in Wyraj—three of them. If we take it by some miracle, you’ll be able to bring the patients there. If they bathe in raw magic, it should flush out the rot.”
She nods briskly, still turned away. “Thank you for telling me.”
So cold, this woman. She’ll leave me, there is no doubt. Once Wyraj is taken, once Perun falls, she will go. And it could be as soon as tomorrow if we decide to go, if we win.
Or we will all die. Whatever happens, my time is running out.
Chapter forty-three
Wonder
I give up my fight for dignity and let my longing resound in my voice. “Jaga, please, could we…”
“Another time,” she interrupts forcibly, turning to me with a fake smile.
“Now.”
“You’re not my master,” she says with vicious satisfaction. “You don’t get to order me around.”
