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Collin’s gaze dropped. “What happened to your leg?”
“A gift from Ukinim or his friend.”
He stiffened. “You’re bleeding.”
Blood was seeping through the gauze. “Gashes from claws will do that,” I said with a snotty tone.
Before I knew what he was doing, he grasped my right hand with his, pressing our marks together.
The sensation of every living creature in the vicinity filled me. I felt the heartbeats of the seventy-two humans by the sound. The flutter of mosquito wings in the parking lot below. Grass in the park, stretching upward.
Collin stared into my eyes and I felt the yearning in his heart. The ache that soaked every cell of his body.
A burning sensation engulfed my calf, and the gashes on my leg closed, the cells repairing and knitting together.
Collin pulled his hand from mine and dizziness swamped my head.
“What did you just do?” I gasped.
He looked down at my leg. “Testing a theory. It looks like it worked.” His jaw clenched. “But I might not be around to help you next time.” He pointed to David, getting angrier by the second. “And that fool sure as hell can’t do anything.”
Collin stormed down the stairs, and my mouth gaped open as I watched him go.
“What just happened?” David asked.
“He healed my leg.”
I opened the apartment door and went inside, David following behind me. I bent down and ripped the gauze off my leg, still amazed. There was no sign of the injury. Not even a scar.
“He’s right, you know.”
My anger rekindled and I spun around. “About what?”
“I might get you killed.”
I shook my head and sat down. “I don’t expect you to know everything, David. Any information is better than none.”
“I have something new on Ukinim.”
I froze. “You do?”
David sat on the sofa beside me. “I found a text that lists him by name. It says he was a warrior turned into a badger.”
“Yes! That’s what he told me.” I stood up and went into the kitchen.
He turned to watch me. “You had aconversationwith a demon?”
“Once I realized it was a trap, I figured I might as well get something out of it.” I grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge, handing one to David as I sunk back into the sofa cushions.
He twisted the cap off his bottle. “What else did you find out?”
I looked up. “Well, there are two of them. That caught me by surprise.”
“The text said the second one’s his wife. They were cursed together.”
“His wife? How did that happen?”
“I copied the text into an e-mail. Hold on a second.” David grabbed his phone out of his pocket, pulled up the e-mail, and scowled, enlarging the text. “The story says that Ukinim was the greatest warrior in all the tribes. He was boastful and claimed he could beat Okeus in a wrestling match. One evening at twilight, Okeus walked into the camp and accepted Ukinim’s challenge, but Okeus insisted on setting the rules. If Ukinim won, he could have everything he wanted—power and wealth. But if Okeus won, Ukinim would be banished; he would spend the rest of his life ostracized from his people. Ukinim accepted. If neither of them won, they would walk away with nothing. Their match would be the next night.
