His look told me he hated that we were in this situation, but he accepted two bedrolls from a villager. Our hands touched as he passed one to me, that familiar jolt flowing between us. Our eyes caught, and he opened his mouth to say something more.
“My lord!” a man cried, holding a pitchfork and shoving a boy into the circle of firelight. He couldn’t be more than fifteen, tears streaming down his face. “We found an infected.” He ripped the boy’s shirt open to reveal a spiderweb of black surrounding the boy’s heart.
A woman collapsed in the corner, sobbing. The boy reached toward her, but she recoiled in fear.
Griff strode over, mask firmly in place, walking as if he had all the energy in the world. I felt a wave of sadness that wasn’t my own as he closed his eyes in resignation. That was all they needed.
The chieftain leveled a sword at the boy’s heart.
“Wait!” I cried, throwing myself in front of the blade.
Griff tore it from the man’s hands a second before it would have cut me down. “Lexa, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I had never heard Griff take that tone with me.
WhatwasI doing? All I knew was that my soul channel was flaring in pain, telling me I couldn’t let an innocent boy be killed simply because he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Let me try,” I begged him.
Confusion gave way to understanding as he comprehended what I was only just beginning to understand myself.
“Lady, get out of the way!” The chieftain tried to shove me aside, but I refused to budge.
My eyes never left Griff’s. “He’s just a boy. Let me try.”
Griff swore, grasping my chin and searching my eyes. Whatever he saw there made him give in. “Try. But I will stop you if you go too deep. I won’t let you lose yourself.”
“Deal.”
Turning my back on the rest of the village, I knelt in front of the boy, who whimpered and tried to back away.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “My name is Lexa. I’m going to help you.”
Behind me, the chieftain argued with Griff, his voice raised in fear and anger. I could understand that. Every moment the boy lived meant that he could infect others. Griff kept his tone even, but I could hear the tension underneath.
“I didn’t mean to touch the darkness,” the boy stammered. “It just came. It surrounded me. I tried to stop it. I didn’t let it into my heart.”
“Shhh, I know.” I closed my eyes, bringing up my body channel for the second time tonight. My soul channel leaped into my mental hands as I touched it, as though it had just been waiting for this chance. Gold mixed with burgundy in a spiral pattern as my power flowed over him, examining the infection spreadingrapidly through his body. Already, it had reached beyond his heart, heading toward his extremities.
No one really knew how the darkness spread, other than through the touch of the hufen. I hoped he wasn’t so far gone that it would pass to me. Because this was never going to work if I couldn’t touch him.
I reached toward his chest, toward those black veins, stopping a hairsbreadth away. Warmth spread through my hand. My eyes were still closed but I imagined that if I opened them, I would see my hand glowing in a soft golden light, tinged with burgundy. Gingerly, I touched the center of his chest and heard his sharp intake of breath at the same time Griff swore.
I could see the darkness inside him, swirling and diving, tunneling through his body, reaching toward mine, while his poor heart desperately tried to protect itself.
“Think of something that brings you peace,” I told him softly.
I had never performed such detailed work with my channels. I tried not to think about how high the stakes were as I pushed that small thread of golden light into him.
“Search,”I commanded it.
It swirled out from my fingertips and settled into his chest, golden designs swirling amidst the darkness. Andrei’s voice came back to me, reminding me that fire could burn a sickness—not the most precise method, he had said, but it would do the trick.
“Burn.”
The gold and burgundy light doubled its tempo, surrounding each of the dark veins. He cried out as it suffocated the darkness, purifying his body. I cringed at the sound, wishing I knew how to do this with more finesse, but being burned was better than turning hufen.
I kept my hand there until all of the darkness was purged and he slumped over. His mother cried out and enveloped him in her arms.
It was only then I realized my eyes had been closed the whole time.
