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He pushed downward, trying to put more force into the thrust, and I felt my resistance slipping. I was off balance, stretched as far as I could reach and unable to gain better traction.
Movement in my outer vision was the only warning before the captain yanked Grey back, pulling him away from Nik. I was still clamped onto his arm, however, so the sudden movement dragged me with him.
The two of us went down in a tangled heap. Grey had stopped pushing, but the momentum of my counter push remained. It thrust his arm back toward his own chest, my weight twisting it as we both collapsed.
When we landed with a thud, I was on top of him, the hilt of the knife digging into me. I scrambled off, grateful it had been the hilt, not the blade. But as soon as I was free, I realized I had been the only one to be so fortunate.
Grey stared back at me, his eyes wide as his hands clutched the hilt sticking out of his chest. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Instead a second groan from behind me made me spin back toward Nik. Grey was a healer. He could deal with the mess he had created.
Nik was in the process of pushing himself up to sitting, groaning all the way.
“Stop!” I cried. “I didn’t finish the healing.”
I pressed my hands against him again, sending my power toward his injuries. I took my time, making sure everything was fully healed before finally withdrawing.
When I had finished, I turned on Grey in fury. But the emotion faded instantly at the sight waiting for me.
Grey still lay where I had left him. He was utterly motionless, his hands still wrapped around the hilt of his dagger.
“But…what…” I tentatively touched the back of his hand, but it only confirmed what my power was already telling me. There was no heartbeat and no breathing rasped in and out. “He’s…dead?” I stared blankly up at the captain. “But he’s a healer! Why didn’t he heal himself?”
“The blade pierced his heart,” the captain said. “He was unconscious within seconds.”
Nik slowly stood, coming forward to stand beside me. He gazed down at Grey, his face unreadable.
“You didn’t help him,” he said to the captain. “Aren’t you a healer, too?”
A reddish tinge rose up the man’s cheeks, but he held his ground, meeting Nik’s eyes.
“I have a strong seed, but only non-mage level. Healing a wound like that is beyond me.” He rubbed the back of his head. “To tell the truth, I thought he was healing himself at first. I didn’t even realize he’d lost consciousness initially.”
“So we just left him to die,” I said softly, trying to process the thought.
“It wasn’t as if we did it intentionally,” Nik said firmly, pulling me to his side. “He brought this end on himself.”
“On that we agree,” the captain said. “And given his crimes, he would have been facing execution in the capital anyway.”
“Still…” I rubbed my hand. “As healers, we are sworn to offer healing to all.”
“And you did,” the captain said. “A royal prince had been stabbed by a murderous traitor, and you were busy healing him. No one could fault you.”
Nik squeezed me tighter.
“Is he really dead?” I whispered.
It was hard to fathom. He had been a specter hanging over my apprenticeship from before it even began. With Grey gone, I felt lighter than I could remember in a long time.
But a kernel of heaviness remained within. I had purged Grey’s lies from my head, but his final words haunted me. He had left one part of himself in me—the knowledge of how to mesmerize. And there was nothing I could do to purge those memories.
I tried not to think about the other part of what he’d said. It didn’t matter what had happened to the Constantines. I wasn’t like them. I didn’t seek to control anyone, and I would never use the skill again. I was done with mesmerizing forever, and with Grey gone, Tartora was also free of its insidious influence.
“Are you all right?” Nik asked, looking down at me with concern.
I shook myself and managed a wobbly smile.
“We’re finally free of him. Right?”
“We are.” Nik turned into me, wrapping his second arm around me as well.
