AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded and she sank back with a sigh. “I had hoped…”
“That the end of the line of Constantine healers meant an end to mesmerization?” I asked, and she nodded. “Unfortunately, not all the Constantines with a healing affinity are dead.”
Her eyes widened. “But you said—”
“When I said all the healer Constantines are deceased,” Amara interjected, “I meant all the Constantines who resided on this island.”
Isolde gasped. “Chloe?” she asked, instantly understanding.
“My aunt died many years ago,” Costas said, “but her son survives.”
“Grey is alive and trained to mesmerize? But he was just a baby when his mother fled from her parents…” Isolde stared from Costas to Amara and finally to me. “Is he the one who trained you?”
I nodded. “And unfortunately, after instigating chaos on the island, he was able to escape to the mainland.”
“The story has gotten out of order,” Amara interrupted. “We now know why you fled, Isolde, but not how.”
She shook her head, as if trying to put her thoughts back into order. “Yes, sorry. Obviously I couldn’t kill the child. But I also knew he would never be safe in the town.”
“So you smuggled him out to the forest,” Costas breathed, looking around the house with fresh eyes.
“Lady Isolde was our rescuer then, and has been many times since,” the matriarch said firmly. “My son would have been murdered without her intervention—and us none the wiser.” Fury still blazed in her eyes at the memory of the long-ago crime.
“So you’re a strong healer?” Amara looked at the younger of the two men in confusion.
I could understand her emotion. If he was a strong healer himself, why had they been in such desperate need of my services?
The man shook his head. “They’re talking of my older brother. He died in an accident two years ago.” Grief clouded his eyes.
“A strong healer died in an accident?” Ida asked, clearly confused at the idea.
“We were cutting wood and—” His voice choked slightly. “Death was immediate. There was no time for healing.”
I swallowed. Healers had a better chance than most, but we weren’t impervious to danger.
Nik tensed at my side, his eyes on my face, and I knew he was thinking the same thing, remembering all the times I’d been in danger. Careful not to look in his direction, I kept my focus on the people around the table.
“But he lived many extra years beyond childhood and even survived long enough to give us a beautiful granddaughter,” the matriarch said in a muffled voice. Her eyes came up to meet mine. “We cannot thank you enough for saving Nina.”
“Delphine had to heal Nina?” Isolde looked at me again. “She was sick with this new illness?”
“You know about it?” I asked.
“Of course.” She ran a hand over her face, the exhaustion from earlier still showing on her features. “I discovered it several days ago and have been constantly on the go since. Because of where I started, yours happened to be the last house on my circuit.”
“You pushed yourself too hard.” Costas’s voice softened for the first time since his mother’s arrival. “You’re fortunate Delphine was here to help you. Otherwise you might not have survived trying to heal Nina.”
“These are my people,” she said fiercely. “I couldn’t leave any of them to die.”
“So these people aren’t the only ones you’ve smuggled out of the town?” Amara asked. “They were just the first?”
Isolde nodded. “I helped them pack up and flee as soon as it was dark. And then I returned to the manor and told them the matter was taken care of. So great was their confidence, they didn’t even check on the family or notice they were gone. I thought I might have gotten away with it, but two weeks later, I tested a young boy and discovered he had a strong healing seed. I thought it would be easier to get him and his family out of town before they ever came to the Constantines’ attention.”
She sighed. “And that’s when I discovered the difficulty of making solo trips into town and the forest without arousing suspicion. It took weeks before I got the chance to approach the child’s family and get them out. I took them to a different location from my first evacuees—it’s easier for individual families to escape notice than a whole second village—but on my way back, I checked in here.”
“And she found me sick,” the matriarch said. “We were unused to living in such a wild place, and I had been infected with something unfamiliar. By the time her ladyship arrived, I was stretched out on the bed too ill to move.”
“I healed her, of course,” Isolde said. “But I also realized that I couldn’t bring these people out here and abandon them. They had no experience of living in a wilderness like this, and they had no strong healers of their own—at least not until their children grew old enough to be activated. And when that time did come, those children would need someone to activate and train them.”
