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Chapter 3
Carleah
“Carleah!”
Even though I want nothing more than to be alone, I stop walking and turn to face Alysia as the healer crosses toward me. The expression on her face is hard. Untrusting. It puts me on edge, but I force a smile anyway.
As far as everyone in this camp knows, I’m merely happy to be returned with my brother. And that’s the way it must stay. “Alysia, what can I do for you?”
“Fort is awake,” she says, tone clipped.
“I know,” I tell her as we begin walking. “I saw him earlier.”
“Not just awake. He’s moving around as though nothing happened.”
“I know,” I repeat. “A credit to your healing abilities, to be sure.”
“That’s horseshit, and you know it.”
I take a deep breath and face her. “Excuse me?”
“I’m good—your brother being alive is proof of that—but I’m not that good. Fort had been injured and poisoned. He should have been asleep for another week at minimum. And it should take him even longer than that to move around like he is now.”
The giant’s blood. Fort told me he heals faster than most men, thanks to the blood he’d been injected with as a child. But no one else can know that. Unease churns in my belly. “I don’t know what to tell you, Alysia. I had nothing to do with him waking like he did. I would say you had more to do with it than anyone.”
“While your brother had been seriously injured, it was all external damage. Stop the bleeding, cleanse the wound, apply herbs for quick healing. Which I also did for Fort’s external wound. But internally—his body shouldn’t have burned the poison off as fast as it did.”
“And I told you that I had nothing to do with it.” My tone is harsh now because I desperately need out of this conversation before this woman, who seems to see far more than most, discovers that there is more going on than meets the eye.
“Carleah—”
I stop. “No, Alysia. Whatever you’re looking for? You’re not going to get it because I know as much as you do. Perhaps the poison wasn’t as far along as you thought. But he’s awake, and I’m grateful to you for saving two men I care about now.”
She glares back at me. “Then you and your brother fighting earlier had nothing to do with the giant blood likely in his system?”
My blood goes cold. I grab her arm and drag her into the nearest tent, grateful when I find it empty. Alysia crosses her arms. “What the hell did you just say?”
“Cut the crap, Your Highness. I am part elf. Which means I heard your entire argument with your brother, thanks to the exceptional hearing I got from my father. What I don’t understand, though, is why you kept the fact that Fort is not just from the land that created the Tenebris, but he is one, from your brother.”
I take a deep breath.
“And if you tell me that you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll take the information to Bowman and have him help me fill in the pieces.”
“Are you not loyal to my brother then?”
“I’m loyal to no kingdom,” she replies.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I serve the realm. Which means, as far as I’m concerned, you are my queen.”
I narrow my gaze, trying to see what game she’s playing at. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that everyone has an angle. Even those you believe have your best interests at heart. “Yet you saved him.”
“Because of who he is to you…and who he must be to Navalis.”
“What is it you are asking me?”
She takes a step closer, her bright gaze darkening a shade. “I want to know why you kept that information from him.”
