This was the third time Kerrick had used this trick. It was effective, but he wouldn’t last long. My magic stirred in response to his weakened physical condition and burning pain. Instead of sending my healing power, I shared more of my energy.

Hours passed before we felt safe enough to move. By this time, Kerrick could barely stand.

I searched my memory for a mundane way to ease his pain. “Is there a stream or creek nearby?”

He nodded. I supported him as we shuffled east. When we reached a small tributary, I sat him down and helped him remove his cape. The back of his shirt was soaked with blood. It clung to the gashes and in a few places it had dried.

“This is going to hurt,” I warned him.

He barked a laugh. “Hard to imagine anything worse.”

I scooped icy water from the stream and poured it down his back.

Kerrick hissed. “I stand corrected.”

Once his shirt was dripping wet, I pulled the fabric from the lacerations and over his head. Then I grabbed fistfuls of muddy sediment from the stream’s bottom. I smoothed the mud over the raw cuts. Kerrick paled.

When I finished, we were both shivering in the cold late-morning air. The temperature was the only thing keeping him from passing out. He had his short cape, but the mud needed to dry first. My cloak was back at the training camp and his shirt was sopping wet. I hung it over a tree branch.

“Should I build a fire?” I asked.

“No. The wind is wrong. Lean-to,” he said.

I collected branches, vines and leaves with numb hands. He called instructions and I built a small shelter. Using mud to plug the gaps between the branches, I completed the structure.

Kerrick collapsed inside it. I crawled in to cover him with his cape, but he drew me down next to him.

“You’re frozen.” He draped the cloth over us both, pulling me close.

Our combined body heat eased the shivers. He fell asleep, but I could still sense the forest around us even though he slept. Nice to know no one came close to our hiding spot.

Should I heal him? I debated. He wouldn’t want me to. Low on energy and with no food the past twelve hours, I wouldn’t have the strength to defend myself if I assumed his injuries. However, his forest magic was more useful right now than my healing power. Plus he shouldn’t suffer anymore. It was my fault he’d been captured in the first place. If we were discovered, he could camouflage us. I really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

His arm was wrapped around my waist. I laid my hand on his forearm, releasing the magic. It flowed into him. The cuts on his back throbbed, but didn’t sting as sharp as before. I collected the power, pulling it into me. My back blazed. My tunic irritated the lacerations. And my temple throbbed.

Then it seemed as if the roots in the earth swelled, enveloping me in a cocoon of living green and spring sunshine. The pain eased, and I drifted to sleep.

“Avry.” Kerrick managed to pack my name with both annoyance and exasperation.

I opened my eyes, but the darkness remained.

Kerrick’s hand pressed on my back. “Can you move?”

Stretching, I tested my range of motion. My muscles were tight. The fabric of my shirt stuck to my skin.

“Do I need to cover your back with mud?” he asked.

I sat up and reached under my shirt. Touching the welts along my lower back, I felt a line of scabs. “No.”

Kerrick slid from the lean-to. “Come out in the moonlight and let me see.”

An achy stiffness slowed me. I felt like an old grandmother as I joined him outside. A brisk wind sent goose bumps along my skin. He pulled up the back of my shirt. The icy air bit deeper. I shivered.

“The wounds are already half-healed.” His tone carried a note of awe. “Why? I thought you hated—”

“I do.” I yanked my shirt down and stepped away from him. Even for me, the cuts shouldn’t be so far along. Unless… “How long did we sleep?”

“About ten hours.”

Not enough time. But I wasn’t about to credit the faster recovery to Kerrick’s forest magic. That wouldn’t change anything. However, a little voice in my head wouldn’t be quiet. It reasoned he must have saved my life back when I had taken Belen’s injury. I threw the annoying voice down a deep well in my mind and locked the lid.

“What’s wrong?” Kerrick asked.

“Nothing. Shouldn’t we go? We need to intercept Belen and the guys before they storm the training camp.”

He offered me his cape, but his shirt hadn’t dried. It was frozen.

“I’ll be fine as long as we keep moving.” I ignored his hand, too.

But after stumbling through the woods for an hour, I didn’t protest when he laced his fingers through mine. Nor did I complain later when he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close, sharing his warmth.

We stopped at dawn. Without a word, we built a shelter and ate the nuts Kerrick had found. Lying next to him, I stared out at the gray landscape. Once again his arm hugged my waist, but I felt the tension in his muscles and knew he wasn’t asleep.

“I’m sorry about my sister,” I said.

“You couldn’t have known she’d ambush us.”

“She’d survived years on her own and had changed so much, but still, she’d given me plenty of clues when I talked to her the first time. I missed them. And look what happened…”

“It worked out.”

“Not without considerable…consequences. And it makes me wonder, what else am I missing?”