Warrior's Touch (Deadly Touch book 2)
Game Changer

“Well, this is interesting.” Anya slid the book across the table, displacing the volume Llew had been trailing her eyes across, yet again taking little in.

True to his word, Aris had blocked all communication between Llew and Jonas. Llew’s place at the meal table had been shifted so she was farther from anyone she knew. And Jonas and the other Quavens had usually eaten and gone before she was invited to sit and eat. Llew felt even more lonely. And now Cassidy’s family had claimed his body, she didn’t have that outlet anymore. She’d started talking to her horse, but she wasn’t allowed outside without a guard. They were mostly certain Braph was dead, but it was hard to forget how he had flown in and flown off with her only weeks earlier. She understood the need for a guard, but it stifled the things she could say to Amico’s disinterested ears.

The girls, again, had books spread across the large table on the ground floor of Lord Tovias’s estate library. Llew figured it was a way to pass a morning, even if her mind wasn’t up to much thinking at all. So many dead-ends. She was tired. Still, it was better than being alone with her own thoughts. Much, much better to load up on those of others, especially others who were well in the grave now. They wouldn’t judge her. They wouldn’t imprison her, bleed her, hate her...

“Seems you might grow breasts, yet.” Anya nudged Llew with her elbow.

“What?”

“It says here that Aenuks mature several years later than others.” Anya tapped the relevant page. “It seems that, at eighteen, you’re still growing. Gosh, I hope you’re old enough to have a baby. I’ve heard some horror stories about girls giving birth too young... This isn’t helping, is it?” Anya pulled the book back in front of herself.

Llew gave a sardonic shrug and looked down at the way her dress hung straight down at the front and realized how alien her body was to her. She’d been on her own by the time puberty kicked in. She’d known she was different, because all the other girls of Cheer’s streets had begun using their new assets several years earlier, while Llew still had nothing to interest the men of the night – those willing to pay, anyway. Of course, she’d known about her healing ability. She hadn’t thought to connect the two together.

“This suggests you may even live longer than the average person. How about that, then?” Anya traced her finger down the page, engrossed in the new knowledge about Aenuks.

They fell to silence again as Anya absorbed all she could and Llew tried not to panic about whether her body was ready to have a baby, never mind her sanity. There was no going back, but, by the gods, it was scary. And she was expected to go through it alone?

“Huh.” Anya’s muted exclamation brought Llew’s tumbling thoughts to a standstill.

“What?”

“This one seems to be saying that Immortals existed alongside Aenuks and Kara.” Anya brushed her finger across the relevant lines of text. “No mention of Syaenuks or Syakara, though. I always thought they were the original... varieties, after the Immortals were split. But this is only one book, I suppose.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that until I find the same story written elsewhere, I take this one with a grain of salt. I would consider it mere fiction, but for the fact the writing is most compelling.”

“Uh.” Llew had already lost interest. She leaned heavily on the table, elbows splayed, head heavy in her hands. The baby in her belly was a solid lump of problems.

One afternoon and one night. A fantastic afternoon and the most pleasant night she’d ever had, but the consequences were sorely threatening to outweigh the good.

And where did Aris get off suggesting the child was Braph’s? If Llew believed that for a moment she would have been figuring out ways to end the problem already.

Her hand settled protectively over the invisible bump. Not Braph’s. Jonas’s. And safe from such thoughts.

Damned Aris and his hold over Jonas. How could she do this alone?

The library door opened and both girls turned to the rare intrusion.

As if conjured from Llew’s thoughts, Aris entered, giving them a nod.

He swept his gaze up and around the lengths of shelves, then he approached the table. He took a moment to scan the volumes open before them then looked at Llew and forced a smile, friendly-like. It could very well have been genuine, but Llew was struggling to take it that way after everything he’d said the day before.

“I’m mighty interested in how you were able to heal him,” he said. “I am ’specially interested by the lack of news out of Turhmos. I had it in mind that Jonas, being as powerful as he is, might make a bit of a mess of the Turhmos landscape, or cause one or two deaths.” Aris’s eyes widened. “That’s not what happened to Cassidy, is it?”

Llew shook her head. “Cassidy was an accident. I didn’t want to kill too much, so I only brought them back to life, I didn’t heal them properly. I was going to take them both to the Ajnai, but...” Llew could feel her eyes burning. “Cassidy passed in the night and had been gone too long by the time I woke. I should’ve woken in the night.” She felt the trickle of a tear cross her cheek. “I didn’t think … I should’ve …” She fought to hold back the threatening blubber. The self-loathing she’d felt at the time was rising. She’d failed Cassidy.

“Shh. No one blames you,” said Aris.

Cassidy’s cousin Alvaro did. He’d made that clear, and had every right to. And yet, somehow, Aris’s comment soothed.

“You said ‘the Ajnai’?” he prompted.

Damn it. He’d put her off balance, bringing up Cassidy. No point denying it now. “The Ajnai tree.” Llew wiped her hand across her face, smearing the salty dampness evenly into her skin.

“You found one.” It wasn’t a question. It sounded as though he’d heard exactly what he hoped to get out of her.

Llew watched him, trying to read him. What interest did he have in her tree? After Hisham had told her it was Quavens who had cut down all the other Ajnais, she couldn’t help feeling wary of sharing too much. Especially with this particular Quaven. On that score, she was afraid she’d already said too much.

“Where?”

“In Turhmos.” The hairs on the back of her neck prickled.

A flicker of annoyance disrupted Aris’s projected warmth. “No. I mean where exactly.”

“I don’t remember,” she said aloud, although she struggled to keep the ‘I’m not telling you’ out of her narrowing eyes.

Aris watched her a moment more, but she was determined not to break. He didn’t like her because of what she was. She could live with that. They didn’t have to be friends.

“Ah, well. At least we know it’s out there. And we know there is a way for Aenuks to heal Kara. That is good news.” He tapped the table a couple of times, retreating into his own thoughts. He continued into the library, up the stairs and to the shelves the girls had pulled their books from.

Llew supposed it was good news, although she doubted there would be a line of female Aenuks at the border to be impregnated by Quaver’s finest anytime soon.

The fact that news of widespread devastation across Turhmos hadn’t made it across the border didn’t mean there hadn’t been any. With the tiny cut Llew had given herself with Jonas’s knife, she’d left several huge signposts of her progress across the countryside in the form of dead trees and undergrowth. That the news had spread less than her destruction likely meant Turhmos wanted to keep her existence quiet. Too bad for them they had been the last to know.

“You found an Ajnai tree?” Anya’s eyes were bright. “Llew!” She leaned closer to whisper. “Do you know what this means? You could grow them back! Aenuks could be free again.” She sat back in her seat, lost in some Utopian future. “What a shame you don’t remember where it is. We could have sent an emissary to collect cuttings—”

Llew flinched at the word. No one would cut her tree.

“... or seeds,” Anya finished.

With a sidelong glance up at Aris, Llew murmured, “I have seeds. I brought some back.”

Anya punched her in the arm. Well, punch was generous. Tapped, was more like it. Anya tapped her with her fist.

“This is a game-changer, Llew. How could you keep that a secret?”

Llew shrugged. “I kind of forgot about them. I don’t know where I’ll be settling, so I haven’t thought about them since I got back.”

Anya’s face scrunched in a disappointed scowl. “You may not be settling here, but can I have one for my garden? If nothing else, it will remind me of you when you’re gone. Although, you will write, won’t you?”

“Sure, why not?” Llew, only half-listening, was still watching Aris out the corner of her eye. He’d picked out a book and was flipping pages.

Anya grinned. Behind those bright eyes, Llew could see her picturing a world full of Ajnais. A world where Aenuks could walk free and not damage the world around them. Llew could picture it, too. She liked it.

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