She grasped his face in both hands, the stubble on his jaw scraping her palms. His eyes blinked slowly. Sluggishly. “You’re going to be all right,” she whispered. “I promise.” She set her forehead against his, and then she forced herself into his pain. Felt every part of it. Her body shook at the overwhelming agony. Tears tracked down her cheeks—hers or his, she wasn’t sure.
She isolated the most grievous injury, the one that would kill him first, and then she pulled it into herself. Pain blinded her. Her breath hitched, but she didn’t stop. The damage would kill him, but she could survive the pain of it. That was the price of healing him.
She would have done far more to save him.
Fire burned inside her, a scorching inferno that caused so much pain she wasn’t sure how she wasn’t screaming. She didn’t know howhewasn’t screaming. But she ignored the anguish. She ignored everything except Carver. Saving his life was all that mattered.
Internal damage knit inside him, the healing happening at a blinding speed. By the time she’d healed his first wound, dizziness assaulted her and her breathing was heavy.
Carver’s forehead was still pressed against hers. Both of them were shaking. “Stop,” he croaked. “Rhone . . . is here.”
Alarm roared through her, but she ignored it. She couldn’t stop. Not now. It didn’t matter if Rhone was standing right behind her. She would heal Carver in full view of the knight if she had to.
She had to save him.
She took every bit of his injury, including the scar it would have left behind. He had too many scars already. She didn’t want him bearing any for her.
The bloodstone around her neck hummed. She didn’t hesitate to reach for it. Her fingers curled around the amulet as she drew it from beneath her dress, the tarnished edges biting into her skin. Heat flared against her palm.Yes,a voice crooned in her mind.More.
It was a pale echo of the bloodstone’s voice that had filled her mind at Esperance. It chilled her now as it had then. But she wasn’t about to stop. Ysabel’s warnings, Amryn’s own misgivings . . . they didn’t matter right now.
Help me,she begged.
The bloodstone flared in silent answer. She took everything it offered, reinforcing her own strength with its power as she healed all of Carver’s injuries—the stabbings, and the other blows he’d taken.
Using the bloodstone felt different this time. She’d gone with her instincts when she’d used it in Esperance, but now she knew what the amulet was capable of. She demanded, and the bloodstone responded, giving her a burst of power that left her breathless. The more strength she pulled from the bloodstone, the less urgency she felt. There was no need to fear. No need to panic. With the amulet, she had all the power she could ever need.
A voice murmured soothingly in her head, though she barely heard the actual words. The tone was coaxing. Urging her to continue. To do more. To heal every person in the square. She could do it.
With the bloodstone, she could do anything. Harnessing such vast power was exhilarating. Freeing.Intoxicating.
Carver’s fingers clenched around her hand.
Her eyes flew open. Saints, when had she closed them?
She was still clutching the bloodstone, her grip claw-like. Carver was strangling her hand. His face was free of pain, but still pale and streaked with blood. Distantly, she realized what he felt as he stared at her.
Fear.
He was afraid.
Of her.
Chapter 42
Carver
Carver’sheartpoundedashe stared at Amryn, but he wasn’t entirely sure it was her looking back at him. Her ethereal green eyes were remote. Unseeing. Almost cold.
A chill snaked through him, aggravating the fear already clawing inside him. Amryn had just healed him in the middle of a public square filled with witnesses. And not just any witnesses.
Rhone.
Carver had no idea where the knight was, but he was definitely too close. The bloodstone may have shielded Amryn from detection in the past, but she hadn’t been actively using her empathic gifts then. Not like now.
Terror sliced deep, and for a moment he couldn’t breathe. His fear was only exacerbated by the fact that she’d used the bloodstone to save him. A thing that had almost killed her in Esperance. Something that had frightened her when she’d used it last.
She didn’t seem frightened of it now.
