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“Shall we?”
Instead of responding, Lord Tynan stepped into the portal, holding the blade tightly in his palm as though he was ready to use it.
Gethin followed him in. And as soon as they appeared on the other side, the portal shimmered and disappeared.
“Wasn’t Gethin going to keep the portal open?” Casja asked.
“Yes,” I said, staring at the puddle of water as dread rose in me. “He was.”
Chapter 19: Jasmine
Her leg was covered with an ointment that made her skin look green, but I could still see the bone sticking out from underneath the crusty coating. It smelled, but I could not tell if the stink came from the ointment or the infection of the torn skin.
She stirred as I entered, opening her eyes and searching the room as though she’d sensed something. I thought she might have felt the breeze coming in with me, and quickly released the tent door so that it would close, once Leof was in too.
She became more alert upon noticing me, and that made her face twitch as the pain in her leg came back. But she did not howl or cry out.
This was her. The woman who had reached me from so far away. I had been in her mind, unobstructed since she seemed to trust me completely like all the other monsters.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
As soon as she heard my voice, her expression changed. A smile appeared on her thin lips, and hope lit up her gaze.
The dark-haired man, sitting on the chair beside her bed, stirred in his sleep and opened his eyes. The boy, who was playing with his toys next to the makeshift hearth, stopped playing and met my gaze. He smiled. I could sense a faint connection with him too, although I was sure he had not been a monster like his mother.
“Jasmine?” she asked, cocking her head and attempting to straighten on the bed despite her wounded leg. “Is it really you?”
I gestured to stop her from moving. The broken bone was too close to a major artery; I could sense it in her, even before I attempted to search within her body.
“Yes,” I said, hesitating.
“We are saved!” She turned to the man and smiled. The man had already gotten up.
“How do we know this is her?” he asked.
I realized that his presence was not as obvious to me as hers. I did not understand what that meant, but as he spoke, I could not hear his thoughts as loudly as I could hers.
“I have been hearing her voice for weeks now, Ilerd,” she said. “I know who she is.”
His gaze became hostile as it met mine, but when he opened his mouth, he did not speak to me.
