The Blessed Curse (The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 4)(129)

“Seth, if you could have one thing, what would it be?” Zoelyn asked quietly as she untied the laces of the leather bag he had thrown to her. The silence stretched between them for several breaths and she glanced up to see him watching her with an enigmatic expression on his handsome face.

A flicker of doubt crossed his face and was quickly replaced by one of his devilish grins. “For you to do well with your less ons today,” he answered and waved once more to the bag.

“Then I will do my best,” Zoelyn said softly and shook her head as she sat down cross-legged in the floor. “You know what would be better than whatever surprise you have waiting for me, Seth?” she asked.

“Hmm?” Seth mumbled. His attention was focused on his countless knives as he fastened them back onto belt carefully.

“An honest answer to my question. I know you want me to do well with my lessons, but that can’t be the one thing you would as k for if wishes were granted.” Zoelyn watched him as she spoke. He paused at her words and glanced at her with a neutral expression.

“Never wish for something, Zoey. If you want it, work for it. From what I’ve seen in life, when you try to take the easy road it blows up in your face.” His voice was level, without anger or sadness, as if the words were cold hard facts in his mind.

Zoelyn nodded wordlessly and lifted the first gem. Closing her eyes she focused on the magic inside and felt her curse draining the power. As always there was no hint of the flavor that Seth spoke of so often. It felt like raw power in her veins with no hint of what it had been intended to be. With a faint sigh she dropped the stone and picked up the next. Within moments warmth rose in her hand and she stared down at the gem in wonder. It was different from what the first had been. Elation rose in her chest as her eyes snapped up to Seth once more.

“It feels different. I have no idea what it is, but it’s different!” she exclaimed excitedly.

Seth smiled at her and nodded faintly. “I had an idea last night, but I wasn’t sure it would work. It seems it has, and now we can truly make progress.”

“What?” she asked in confusion. Her smile faltered for a moment as she tried to understand him.

“I can’t heal so the mage stones I gave you were all arcane or offensive magic. Jala has a very difficult time healing, so it stands to reason that she wouldn’t waste the extra effort to craft stones with healing magic in them either. Neph can’t heal, so his stones are all arcane. Your words, after my poor choice of lessons with Legacy, made me think of it. Violence begets violence…” his voice trailed off and he shrugged at her then smiled again. “So I went to Sanctuary and attained healing stones from a friend of mine and you just had your first breakthrough. Well done, Zoey.”

Her smile rose once more and she clutched the stone tighter in her hand. “Thank you Seth,” she replied and bowed her head to him in gratitude. Rolling the stone around in her hand, she considered his words and looked up at him once more. “You said you would call me Undrae until you determined what my true name was, but lately you have taken to calling me Zoey. Does that mean you don’t think you can find out who I was?” She watched him closely as she spoke, not really sure what reaction she wanted. Her past was utterly lost to her, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted it back at all. Seth seemed to think it was important, but it had always been a gamble in her eyes.

“On the contrary, I think I’m very close to figuring out who you are. I have most of the clues now and I have a good suspicion. I want to be certain before we discuss it, though,” Seth replied softly and his eyes moved away from her as he walked to the small window. “I started calling you Zoey when I started considering you my friend,” he added in a quieter voice.

Zoelyn stared at his back and smiled faintly. “Fair’s, fair, I suppose. I stopped using the words Crow King or demon when I began to think of you as a friend.” She fell silent once more and returned to her focus on the stones. She sat the healing stone aside reverently where it wouldn’t get confused with the others and began lifting the remaining stones one by one to test them.

Seth remained by the window, gazing out into the eternal shadows of the Darklands for a very long time before turning to look at her once more. “Vengeance would have been my answer to that question had anyone else asked, but when you asked, I actually put thought into what my answer would truly be, and I’m not sure,” The sound of his voice drew her gaze and the hesitation in his voice held it. Seth was never truly hesitant, not like this. In his every action he radiated confidence. With his words, he sometimes seemed unsure, but nothing like this. Seth rubbed his face with a hand and shook his head again slowly before meeting her eyes. “I’ve lived so long focusing on nothing but revenge, that I’m not sure what I would focus on aside from it. I want to say it’s my answer now, but I’m not certain it is,” he admitted quietly and seemed almost ashamed of his answer.