Healer's Touch (Deadly Touch #1) [Complete]

Chapter 12: Love

Jonas swayed in his saddle and sang incoherently as they made their way from Osurnu. His condition meant they couldn't travel faster than a walk. Aris fumed, but there was little he could do, and the tired horses and riders weren't in any mood to complain about the easy pace. Llew took the chance to doze in her saddle.

"I'm sorry, Llew."

She was jolted awake.

"Everyone I ever gave a damn about is dead. Except Aris, but I guess it's only a matter of time. I've tried not to, but my heart has condemned you to death."

Llew stared at Jonas's drunken, flailing arms and unsteady seat. He wasn't even looking at her and seemed to speak to the Aghacian landscape at large. And then he began singing again. He sang of heartbreak; he sang a happy drinking song that steadily grew less and less understandable; then he began to snore.

They stopped to eat around noon, and Alvaro, Cassidy and Llew helped the unsteady Jonas from his saddle, hoping that food might sober him up. He sat at his horse's feet, rocking and singing under his breath while rations were divided.

"What's he had?" Aris asked Llew as she collected food for both herself and Jonas.

She shrugged. "Whatever he filled his little bottle with."

Aris looked at Jonas with disappointment, and then his jaw clenched in suppressed anger. "He's not much good to us like that, is he?"

Llew shrugged again and returned to offer Jonas some sobering bread.

"You're really pretty, Llew, you know that?"

She smiled at him and held out some bread they'd picked up in Osurnu.

"Of course you do, cause Al's been smitten since he saw you naked."

She looked at Alvaro. He was busily taking in their surroundings as he ate his rations, but by the color of his ears, he had heard.

"Llewella," Jonas whispered. She loved to hear him say it. No one had called her by her full name since she was a child. But it wasn't a child's name. It was a woman's name.

"You're nice, too. That's why I like you. And funny. Can't forget funny. And when you died, it was like losin' my best friend." He looked around conspiratorially and leaned closer. "Shh. Don't tell Hisham."

"Who?"

But he continued on, oblivious to all. "But then you lived, and I hated you for it. How could you be one of them, Llew?" His eyes pleaded with her, and Llew found herself wanting to apologize. "Then you saved Cassidy. Hooray." He gave a goofy smile and leaned in again. "That was amazin'. It really was." He almost sounded sober for a moment. "But then that girl." He looked pained, sick. "That's why we kill you. Too dangerous. Children dying. So many children. So much destruction..." He stared at her. "I'm drunk and I'm talking nonsense," he said, looking sorry for himself. But it passed and he stuffed his mouth with bread.

Llew struggled to eat her own chunk, chewing each tiny nibble till it was moist enough to swallow. Her mouth was dry. He should have killed her back in Stelt. She was too dangerous.

Barely half a mile down the road, they were forced to a stop by Jonas's need to bring his lunch back up. Llew crouched by him while he kneeled at the side of the road, vomiting and proclaiming his apologies to everyone.

The rest of the afternoon's ride was slow and silent as Jonas mostly slept in his saddle. They stopped for the night at the first town they reached – Benton: Population 378 – spending the night in a very small hotel with just the two rooms that the group needed: Emylia and Anya in one, Aris, Llew and the boys in the other. By the time they were settling for bed, Jonas was almost sober, but poorly. He said little and looked very sorry for himself.