The White Sheep's Disguise ✓

Chapter 7

Eligius has an arrow drawn before I can blink. I stare at the iron tip aimed directly at my heart and hope he doesn't release his pinched fingers from the shaft. Theoden crafted that arrow.

"Explain yourself," he demands. Those wolf eyes watch me intently, their gold dulling in the shadow of the alleyway. The world continues to go on around us, but mine is just ending.

I don't want to explain myself. I don't want to tell him power flows through my veins from that night. More happened than what Eligius heard the following day after hiding away with Rylan as the army of the soulless killed their families and friends. The new Luminaries were smart enough to keep their mouths shut, and like the majority of who had their lives changed that night, they have caught me.

There isn't a way for me to get out of this. I take two steps back in the opposite direction of Rylan's best friend, the one that stands to gain something from my downfall, but boots scrape against the loose stone and I look over my shoulder, spotting those guards that harassed the ill woman a few short minutes ago. Closer than I thought.

They, too, train their weapons on me at Eligius's command. I can't hear; the roaring in my head prohibits me from understanding his shouting orders to call all guards and the rest of the docks' attention towards an inconspicuous alleyway. I'm completely alone except for the woman curled into a ball at my feet, unable to move or speak. She's a target as much as I am.

By healing her, I am putting both of us in danger.

I won't expose the rest of my arsenal. Turning the docks to ice or spinning a storm to strike lightning against these guards—nothing lethal is an option. Seeking help from Chaska, Rylan...they can't help me here. Neither can Theoden or Castiel.

So I come to one simple solution. I raise my hands in the air as the swimming, shifting light dies from my hand and disappears back into my skin. Eligius trains his eyes on it, forever the guard to detect magic in a being he expected to be normal. All these years, I hid it and maintained my status as an elf. Apparently, that wasn't enough.

"I'm only a healer," I promise shakily. "The Void Queen got ahold of me that night, Eligius. That's where you're wrong. But she didn't receive the chance to complete the transformation."

The words spill out of my mouth, a lie forming on my tongue before I can think about it. My mind works on its own when trying to save itself from certain death. Healers don't come about through the Void Queen; they're born into their powers and forced to follow a career path that surrounds it. Tending to royals and the rich; there aren't enough of them to beautify the land and heal the people, but they do as they can.

And it's that fact, the possibility that they exist, that keeps Eligius from releasing his pinch on the arrow's shaft to end my existence right here and now. Being that I'm Rylan's wife, my fate doesn't come about through his order. I realize that and hope, more than anything, that my dear husband doesn't kill me for this.

I swallow the lump in my throat. "I managed to get away. Only a lick of her power reached my heart, and the ability to heal came as a result. Nothing more."

A crowd gathers. Faces peek out from behind Eligius's shoulder, craning their necks to view the next Luminary victim. Maybe they'll make it a public execution for the gratification of the fishermen. They enjoy them too much to be considered sane. While everyone else looks on, bowing their heads down to another Luminary lost to something they can't control, the fishermen practically clap and cheer. As long as the land becomes safer.

"You're a Luminary," Eligius spits. "There's no such thing as a healing power derived from her filth."

My desire to live gets the best of me. "You don't know what you're talking about. I possess nothing else. I'm a healer, Eligius. You have to trust me on that."