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

Chapter 18: Stay Optimistic

"If I ran, would you need to use a crystal to catch me?"

It felt as though they had been scuffing through the long grass for hours, but Llew supposed it had more than likely only been one, if that. She was hungry. She hadn't had breakfast.

"No." One side of Braph's mouth lifted. "I am Karan. You are merely Aenuk."

"Syaenuk."

"So, you know what you are. Very good."

"You tried to have me killed. Of course, I know!"

Braph said nothing.

"It was you, wasn't it? You tried to kill me."

"I believe I succeeded."

"How did you know Jonas wouldn't kill me?"

Braph was silent.

"What would you have done if he'd made it permanent?"

Braph pressed his lips tighter.

Llew gave up. "How far are we going?"

A chill wind blew, but whatever snowy peaks Turhmos had, they were too distant to rise above the horizon.

"The closest town is a day's walk. From there, it is a couple of days' riding."

"You couldn't have flown us a little closer?"

"I took us as far as the crystal could carry us," he growled. "Do you know how huge Turhmos is?" Llew shook her head. "And that's the last piece of Orinia I had. You had better be worth it." He continued muttering, but the only words to reach Llew with any clarity were 'father' and 'dilute'. Llew's hand went to the hard shape in her pocket. Suddenly, she stopped walking. As soon as he sensed her no longer beside him, Braph stopped too, and looked back to her.

own my mother?" She had believed her mother dead for all these years and had made peace with that. But now she was having visions of her mother in this man's cage, of him coming to drain her blood once a day, or week, and leaving her in the dark. Her sorrow was colored by guilt for the times she'd cursed her mother if she were still alive. It had never occurred to Llew that her mother might have been kept against her will.

Braph walked back, turned her, and pushed her onward. "It's a long way," he said. "I didn't own her. We loved one another."

Her mother loving this man? She couldn't believe it; he clearly did.

"But you kidnapped her." She still remembered the day, even twelve years later, waiting for her mother to return from the store. Her father thought she might have been captured by the Quaven authorities, and he kept Llew indoors for several days before bundling her up and leaving Quaver forever. Quaver had no reason to keep an Aenuk alive. But there had been no rumors, no stories of an Aenuk in Quaver, and as Llew grew that lack had grown in significance, and she had clung to it – her mother hadn't been captured, she must have left.

"I... I captured her to study, yes. But it grew into more than that."

"She was married. And had a child!" She spun to face him again, but he grabbed her arm roughly, turning her and propelling her forward with a shove.

"Move!" Llew tried to pull her arm free, but his grip was too strong. "You're beginning to fray my nerves, girl. Don't forget that I have been working with Aenuks and Syaenuks for half my life. I know how to hurt you in extremely interesting ways."

Llew mentally cringed. She didn't know the full extent of Braph's powers, but his arrogance both infuriated and intimidated her.

"What happened to her?" she asked as they trudged on.