A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #1)(121)

Jealous? Even now? “Tried. Didn’t work.”

He glances down, looking even more stricken. “I should have done something about Daphne. I never thought…”

“Not your fault.” I wish I’d been more truthful with him, and not just about Daphne.

In our room, Griffin goes to lay me on the bed, but I rouse myself enough to protest. Whatever my blood touches will have to be destroyed. “Can’t burn the bed.” It’s the only place I’ve ever felt happy, and safe.

Kato grabs a blanket with his free hand and throws it on the thick sheepskin rug. Griffin sets me down without Kato ever taking the pressure off my stomach. Tears keep spilling from my eyes, silently falling. There are too many people to leave behind. There’s Griffin.

As I look at him, he moves to the side, and my gaze falls on the bowl of lemons. My eyes widen. What if I live? “Get the lemons. Wash the blood off with lemon juice.”

Griffin swings a near-frantic look on me. “That’s insane. That’ll hurt like the fires of the Underworld.”

I think we’ve already established that I’m not entirely sane, so I give him the best maniacal glare I can manage under the circumstances. “It’ll corrupt the blood. Confuse her magic. More effective than water.”

A muscle pounds in his jaw. His face turns thunderous. He still cuts open all ten lemons and squeezes the juice over Kato’s hand and my stomach. When the acid hits me, I scream like a child. I scream like the Minotaur is on my tail, and I just hit a dead-end in his maze. I scream for all I’m worth even after Griffin stops what he’s doing and curses violently, hurling the lemon rinds against the wall.

Griffin’s sisters and parents erupt into the room in their nightclothes, panicked.

“Cat!” Jocasta falls to her knees next to me. Trembling fingers brush wet hair off my neck and cheeks. She sniffs loudly and then bursts into tears. The second she starts crying, the other women do, too.

I blink leaden eyelids, wanting to keep looking at them. I have a family crying over me. What a strange idea. I hold on to that thought as I slip in and out of darkness. Eleni emerges from the shadows to greet me, a smile on her lips, blonde hair glowing, green eyes merry, a bottle of Fisan clover water in her hand. Has Hades sent her to collect me?

I guess not because she fades, and I wake up, limp and hurting. There’s a sheet covering my nakedness. Griffin is on his knees next to me, his head bowed, his beautiful, wide mouth moving on silent words, praying. I read Poseidon’s name on his lips.

Poseidon, I beg. Please take care of him.

Piers bursts through the doorway, two people in tow. “I found him! And another one! A girl.”

Griffin jumps to his feet. He grabs the man and drags him down next to me. “Heal her!”

His eyes flicking over me, the healer smiles like he knows he’s about to die and relishes it. “She killed my wife!” he snarls.

What?

“Belinda went to Ios.” He turns burning, hate-filled eyes on me. “She wanted to stop that healing center garbage.”

Ah, Gods. Talk about rotten luck. I had to grab this guy’s wife and then accidentally kill her?

A storm roars to life in Griffin’s eyes. Idiot healer. He’s about to read some sign language.

“Can you drain him?” Griffin asks me, his expression murderous. “Heal yourself?”

I shake my head. My eyes say the rest. I’m already too weak, and it wouldn’t matter anyway. Even healers can’t heal themselves.

“Heal her. That’s an order.” There’s steel in Griffin’s voice.

“You can rot in the fires of the Underworld,” the healer spits. “You and your Fisan whore.”

With a snarl, Griffin grabs the man’s head, snaps his neck, and then launches his body across the room. The healer thumps against the wall and then falls to the floor with the lemon rinds.

Kaia bleats like a frightened sheep and sits abruptly on the bed. Her face ashen, Nerissa wraps her arms around her daughter, but she doesn’t scold Griffin like I half expect her to.

Piers shoves the girl at me. She can’t be more than twelve, which means I’m as good as dead.

“I-I’m just an apprentice. I’m here with my parents. I’ve n-never fully healed anyone before.”

Griffin takes her by the shoulders, doing his best to appear calm and nonthreatening despite having just killed a man and tossed him across the room. “Just help her hold on until someone else gets here. Please. I know you can do it.”

She nods jerkily, shaking all over. “I’m strong. They always tell me I’m strong.”

“Good.” Griffin nudges her toward me. “We need you to be strong.”

With his next breath, Griffin sends Piers to the bathhouse. “Wash the blood off the floor. Drain the pool. Refill and drain again.”

Piers nods and leaves the room but not before I see a shadow flit through his eyes, making me wonder what he’s read in his scrolls about magic and blood.

The girl kneels next to me. She peels the blanket to my waist and then lays her hands on my stomach. I feel a tingle of magic, pure and strong, and hiss a breath through my teeth. The pain intensifies as torn things begin the slow, agonizing process of repairing themselves. When I can’t stand it anymore, I moan.

“What are you doing?” Griffin jerks the child off me.