Nameless (Nameless #1)(56)

Stone stepped behind the woman he loved and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll find a way for us, Eva.” He laid his hand over Eva’s, still resting on her stomach. “For all of us.”

“Let me have a look at that broken arm,” said Zo.

Eva slipped out of Stone’s embrace. “I have to go check on my sister Sara. She’s due to have her baby any moment, and she still won’t let anyone near the house.”

Eva ran off and Zo stared after her with mouth gaping.

Eva and Sara were sisters! Neither knew of the other’s plight.

It took Zo several minutes to digest this new information. She wanted to run to Gryphon and explain the situation, but she still didn’t know if he could be trusted. Trying to help a newborn survive the Ram’s cruel expectations was one thing. Condoning a relationship between a Nameless and a Ram was quite another.





Chapter 29





Three little girls and two boys, all under the age of ten, huddled around their mother as Zo felt their foreheads. All were hot with sticky sweat. They wheezed through half-open lips, like little birds waiting to be fed. Their large round eyes looked to her with caution, piercing the dimly lit room. Zo wiped her hands on her apron. The youngest boy coughed into his threadbare sleeve. He sounded more goose than child.

“How long have they been breathing like this?” asked Zo.

“Maybe two weeks.” The Nameless mother had red, sullen eyes that had clearly not seen sleep for too many nights. The baby in her arms was Zo’s biggest concern. She could barely hear its shallow breath; the babe’s throat passage was all but closed. Slowly suffocating.

Zo went right to work, enlisting Joshua and the oldest girl to help grind ingredients while Zo took the baby from her mother.

Breathe. She hummed another of her mother’s lullabies while rubbing healing oils on the little chest. Breathe, my sweet. She bounced the child in her arms and applied more oil to the baby’s neck. Release and breathe.

If only every healing came so naturally. How could Zo not love this little angel? She rocked and loved the child until it passed into an easy slumber. Already its airway had opened considerably.

“Thank you! Oh bless you and thank you!” The mother cried without shame. Her sobs were interrupted by her own heavy wheezing.

“I think you’re next, ma’am.” Zo took the woman’s arm and led her to a straw-stuffed mattress.

“No. My children. I’m fine.”

Zo held up a hand. “You need to sleep. How will you care for them if you’re not well? I doubt I’ll be allowed to come another night.”

The woman didn’t fight her further. Zo administered to the worn woman who fell asleep halfway through the treatments. She, like the others, would recover with rest and medicine.

After several hours of working, Joshua slumped forward in a chair. “Go home, Ginger,” said Zo.

“No.” He yawned. “I’m not leaving you alone.”

“You have training in the morning and you need your rest. I’m almost done here. I know the way back.”

“You sure?”

Zo nodded while humming the simple healing melody her mother had taught her. In truth it would be hours before she finished. There were still two children she needed to work on. “Just tell Tess not to wait up for me.”

“I will.” Joshua came over and kissed Zo’s cheek like a good boy kissing his mother goodnight. “Hurry home, Zo.”

When the door shut behind Joshua, Zo touched her cheek where he had kissed her. “Good night,” she whispered to no one.





Walking home that night, Zo’s hands burned. Some of the oils tended to irritate if used in excess. A cool wind rolled over her body as she walked under the bright stars. She found herself singing lightly, swinging her medical kit as if it were a basket of flowers in summer.

She’d done some good tonight. Made a real difference in someone’s life. Those children would survive and have a mother to watch them grow up. All because of her knowledge. A gift from her own mother.

Maybe this was what she was meant to do: help the Nameless inside the Gate! A sense of power surged throughout her body, lifting a fraction of the darkness of her past. Maybe she did have a purpose beyond this suicide mission. She could help people.

Zo turned left onto the main road and practically ran into a tall figure with a terrifyingly familiar bald head and popping eyes.

“I must be doing something right.” The Gate Master grabbed the collar of her shirt before she could escape. “I was just on my way to visit you, and here you come to me instead. How fortuitous.”

An explosion of panic expanded from Zo’s heart throughout her whole body. She dropped her kit in the dirt. The Gate Master at night. Alone on an empty road. No one to hear her screams.

“The Seer wanted to come in the morning, but I thought it would be better to surprise you. Wouldn’t want to give you time to hide your little sister.” He pulled Zo to him, whipping her like a length of rope, and placed his hands on her lower back. He licked his lips. “Surprise.” His rotten breath made a stream of bile jump up her throat.

“My sister lives in the Nameless’ barracks, sir.” She turned her head and grimaced as his lips grazed her neck, just below the ear.