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I laid my chin across my paws.

"You were ready to put yourself between her and us when we found them."

When we found them, her kits had been hurt, surrounded and carrying the scent of people who had trapped them. Now they were whole, on familiar ground and free to leave. The adult remembered us. More importantly, she could see we were not moving toward them.

Jade lowered herself onto a flat stone several paces from me. She placed the route card beside her and rested both hands on her knees, making no attempt to call the kits closer.

The one in the water surfaced first. It rolled onto its back, paws tucked against its chest, then spun and vanished again. The second launched after it. Their glowing markings turned the pool into streaks of blue light.

The third continued watching Jade.

She watched it back.

"I healed that one last," she whispered.

I lifted my head.

"The smallest tear was in its right shoulder. The restraint had tightened around its middle, but it hadn't taken as much electrical damage as the others." Her gaze shifted to the kit's smooth movement across the stones. "Nothing hurts now."

The words were not a question. She could feel the answer if she chose to look. I watched her close her eyes for less than a breath, then open them again.

"Nothing needs fixing."

The kit approached the edge of the pool. Its body remained low, but curiosity drew it forward one careful step at a time. Jade didn't offer her hand. She had learned from the trap site, or perhaps she had always known this part and pain had simply made waiting impossible.

The Kelvarin reached her boot and sniffed the laces.

Jade looked at me without moving her head. "What do I do?"

I put my chin back on my paws.

Her eyes narrowed. "Exceptionally useful."

The kit bit the end of her lace and pulled.

Jade looked down.

It pulled again.

"That is attached."

The kit braced all four paws against the stone.

Jade's mouth twitched. "You're going to lose."

The lace slid several inches through the knot.

I watched her attempt to free the lace without reaching for the animal. The kit twisted, rolled sideways and took the end with it. Its siblings noticed the movement and abandoned the pool. Within seconds all three had gathered around her boots, each convinced that the black cord had been placed there for their entertainment.

Jade tried to lift one foot.

The smallest kit climbed onto it.

She went completely still.

I knew that stillness. I had seen it when Ashter first pressed his head beneath her hand in front of us, and whenever casual contact in the house caught her before she decided how to respond. Her body prepared for the wrong thing, then waited for her mind to correct it.

The kit stood against her shin and sniffed the mud on her pants.