“Heal them,” I demanded, taking another step.
Selvina’s eyes scanned the bodies strewn across the valley as a wave of irritation drifted toward me. I stumbled back a step, glancing around.
Selvina snapped her gaze back to mine, noting my reaction.
“Now,” I said again, slamming my own emotions back into her.Obey.
She bared her teeth before cracking her neck and stepping forward. “I don’t take orders from you,” the elf said as she held her hands out.
Empty.
No bone. I didn’t need her to disrobe to know that an eight-pointed, luminous star gleamed on her chest. Selvina harnessed the Ramadiel power, and it now lived within her, marking her as a Bellator. Questions surged from the depths of my mind.
My powers continued to stream from my hand, keeping Olienna captive as I watched Selvina step toward the fallen.Glittering, crystal blue light lifted from her hands and settled on the pirate lord.
“I will need him if I am to heal the rest,” she murmured, and something tight in my chest loosened.
Kellan stirred as the healing, blue light surrounded him. He groaned as he got to his feet, his dark eyes flashing to me before landing on Selvina.
Help me, I wanted to say, but the words caught for some reason. My throat bobbed. His gaze softened on mine as he approached Selvina with an outstretched hand.
Selvina gasped as he sent a spark of power into her, eyes widening. She stretched her hand toward the valley, and light after light shot from her palm in waves of blue and white, each landing on a broken body.
Kellan swayed as the last of them settled on the bodies at the bottom of the hill, on Vulcan and those who had suffered as ashen. The slave woman rushed forward as Selvina collapsed, her hand ripping free from the pirate lord.
My mouth parted as I stared at Kellan Astraeus.
Lord of Marisarma.
Captain of theHydra.
The Starling Sentry.
The Conduit.
All of those names, I thought, not sure who I was really looking at. His throat bobbed as he turned toward me, his lips parting.
“Lyv,” Bayne’s voice broke as he staggered to his feet.
I tore my gaze away from Kellan as Bayne rushed toward me.
Conflicting emotions swarmed as he reached for me. His green eyes were wide as he took in the cage of darkness I spun around Olienna. He snapped his gaze at Kellan, warning biting across his features. Bayne reached for one of my outstretched hands, cutting off the power flowing into the cage, whichdisappeared. Vulcan was at Olienna’s back with a blade to her neck before she could move.
Bayne’s bloody hands were on my face a moment later, and I felt myself jerk backward despite the wave of relief sweeping over me. Bayne’s brows narrowed.
“Lyv, you shouldn’t have…” he stuttered, shaking his head, unable to find the right words. His eyes continued to dart to the thick scar on my neck as if he didn’t yet believe it hadn’t ripped open, its healing undone. My head shook from side to side, my stomach dipping.
“You figured out what caused the deaths,” I continued for him, pulling back. “It’s why you didn’t want me to return to Lotrennia. Because of the Ramadiel poison.”
The corrupted power that Daimos sent into Lotrennia had slowly infected and killed its inhabitants, and had I been there, not knowing what it was… My hand reached for the scar on my neck. The thick, bulbous scar I would never be able to hide.
“I would have died,” I finished.
His dark head bobbed in confirmation.
“I couldn’t risk you returning. And I’m sorry. You…” He shook his head, tearing his eyes away as he dropped his chin to his chest.
“And I couldn’t be there for the marriage, the soulbinding,” I said, my heart steeling under the weight of his decisions. “I would have tried to stop you.”
