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“Jasmine!”
The shout came from behind me. His tone suggested that he had been trying to call out to me for a while.
He was not of the monster folk. But his heart was open to me just the same.
“Kieran!” I replied as I turned around to see him.
He was atop the battlement. Our eyes met.
I missed you, I said as I went to his mind.
I thought you would die, he thought, attempting to turn it into a conversation but not knowing how, as I listened to his thoughts. I love you. I’m so glad you are alive. I can’t wait to kiss you. I’m coming down.
His thoughts rushed into me. His fear about losing me, his grief over his father. His guilt. His failure. He opened himself up to me like he never had, making me feel almost guilty for having that power over him.
Be careful, he finally said, forcing order into his thoughts. I can’t lose you again.
You won’t, I told him. We will win this.
He radiated with doubt. I tried to ignore it.
I turned away from the battlement as Kieran shouted at the air elementals to help him down. Now that I was open to the monster folk, their pain was mine.
It wasn’t a physical thing, but it added to my guilt. They were being hurt because I had decided to come here to help my friends and they had decided to come with me because they thought of me as their leader. No matter how much I had insisted they stayed behind, they had refused.
And now, they were being hurt.
We were being hurt.
A sword cut through Bryce’s leg. He fell, his scream reaching my ears as I felt his pain.
Nora, I said as I darted toward him. Help Alys. Make a barrier before her to push the dark-haired soldier away so that she can strike the other. Efa, climb on top of that hill, you can see the field better. Bryce has fallen, bring him to the back so that I can heal him.
Can’t you heal him from where you are? Karson asked.
I stopped running.
It shouldn’t have been possible.
I don’t know, I replied.
Try it! The joint voice of the former monsters rose within me. I could not locate each voice, but a few had spoken at once.
Perhaps it was possible. I was already in their minds.
I had to try.
Bryce knew what was happening. As Efa and Alys got before him to protect their fallen friend from oncoming attacks, I tried to sow his skin together. He had received a wound to his right leg. It bled and made it impossible for him to stand as he tried to push down the blood using a torn piece of clothing.
I pushed the skin together even though I could not see it. The blood stopped first. Bryce exhaled with surprise. Then, his skin mended itself upon my command.
I hadn’t even touched him. I didn’t even see him with my own eyes, and yet, as Bryce stepped onto his foot, the joyous roar that rose from the monster folk told me I wasn’t imagining it.
Bryce’s leg was healed.
This could change everything, Leof said. Healing from afar. We cannot be defeated if you keep healing us.
Protect Jasmine, someone shouted at the others through our minds.
