Page 188 of Salt Between the Wolves

A pause followed before the healer answered.

"I don't know."

Silence lingered for a moment before another phrase reached her.

"The old mark is active."

The words drifted through the haze while Eira remained motionless. The old mark. Her father's mark.

Another pause followed.

"And the other one?"

This time the silence stretched long enough to become unsettling. When the healer finally answered, her voice sounded grim.

"Stronger."

Something tightened in Eira's chest.

The conversation continued, but it was too quiet and too distant for her to follow clearly. Then another question reached her.

"Can they interfere with one another?"

It was Leander.

The healer did not answer immediately, and when she finally spoke, each word seemed carefully chosen.

"They already are."

Silence followed, lingering long enough that Eira almost convinced herself she had imagined it.

Then came another question.

"Does she know?"

The healer again.

"No."

Leander's answer came immediately.

"She should."

"Not yet."

The exhaustion dragging at her thoughts suddenly felt much less important as her heart began beating faster.

Not yet. Not yet what?

Another stretch of silence followed before the healer spoke again, this time so quietly that Eira nearly missed it.

"If my suspicions are correct..."

A brief pause followed.

"...the man who placed the second mark is in far greater danger than she is."

Everything inside Eira seemed to stop. For a moment she thought she had misunderstood. The second mark.