A Promise of Fire (33 page)

“Stop,” I order sharply. “You’re giving too much.”

She pulls back, trembling with exhaustion.

I flop my head toward Egeria. “Wash her hands. She’s done everything she can without hurting herself.”

Egeria hurries over and half carries the healer child from the room.

I shift, wincing in pain but amazed I can move. The girl made a start at repairing the damage, although the gash is still open and oozing. “Rub the lemon rinds over it,” I say to anyone who’s listening.

Griffin leans over me, glowering. “There’s been too much blood already. Don’t hurt yourself for no reason.”

No reason?
I’d cut off my own arm to keep Andromeda from finding me. I was going to be happy here. With Griffin. “Do it!” I grind out.

“No!”

I’m cursing at him when Flynn barrels through the door along with a stranger. “Met him at a tavern. Found him again,” he pants. “Not like the others. Supports the healing centers.”

Griffin sizes up the healer with a glance. So do I. His chest is heaving, and he’s so out of breath he looks like he’s about to throw up, but otherwise he doesn’t seem unwilling. He’s about thirty, so fully trained but not yet at the peak of his power. He has unpretentious eyes.

“Save her and you can have the new healing center in Ios,” Griffin says. “It’s yours.”

The healer’s gaze darts to his dead colleague, easily recognizable from the symbol of Asklepios tattooed on his mangled neck. He doesn’t hesitate. He drops down next to me and places his hands over my wound. “You’ve lost a lot of blood.” He presses firmly, and I suck in a sharp breath. “I’m surprised you’re still alive.”

“Strong constitution,” Kato says.

“Stubborn as a Cyclops,” Griffin mutters at the same time.

“Get on with it.” I grit my teeth. This is going to hurt.

Magic ignites, incinerating my insides as skin, muscle, and organs start knitting back together again, much faster than before. My back bows, and I scream, suddenly hating the healer girl for fixing me just enough to keep me conscious.

Griffin whirls and punches the wall. The marble wins that fight, and his hand comes away bloody.

“Don’t bleed!” I shout at him and then scream some more.

He strings together an impressive number of obscenities, grinding his bloody knuckles into an emptied-out lemon rind. When he’s done with that, he picks up a massive chair and pounds it against the wall until there’s nothing left. He glares in disgust at the shattered chunk of wood left in his hand and then hurls it out the window with a bellow.

His family stares at him in shock. Only Anatole looks like he understands and would do the same.

“If you don’t like it,” Griffin rages, “get out!”

No one moves. Jocasta goes back to stroking my hair.

The healer rocks back on his heels, lifting his hands from me and using his forearm to wipe the sweat from his brow.

Griffin pounces on him. “What are you doing? You’re not done yet!”

The healer tries not to cringe in the face of Griffin’s wrath, and succeeds—for the most part. “I have to rest, gather more magic. It’s impossible to keep going until it’s done. Using that much healing power that fast can have dire results.”

We’re well placed to know
that’s
true. With a frustrated curse, Griffin drops to my side.

I scowl at him. “I liked that chair.”

His lips jump up in surprise. “I’ll get you a new one.”

“I liked
that
one.”

Light returns to his eyes. He lifts my hand to his mouth, pressing my palm to his lips for a scorching kiss. “You must be feeling better. You’re arguing.”

Heat kindles where his breath whispers over my skin. I’m still cold, and there’s only one thing I’m certain of in my life. Only he can warm me.

“Cat’s not dying anymore, is she?” Kaia asks.

Griffin shakes his head, his eyes focused solely on me. “Everyone go back to bed. Cat needs quiet. And rest.”

Griffin’s family shuffles out, reluctantly, I think. Flynn and Kato plant themselves near the door, clearly with no intention of leaving.

I turn to the healer and ask his name.

“Eneas,” he answers.

“When can you finish?”

“Soon.” His face is pallid, his voice lacking vigor.

Eneas finishes the job as soon as he’s able. It doesn’t hurt like before, but it isn’t easy. Griffin paces furiously and looks like he wants to destroy anything within reach. I moan nonstop, sounding a lot like a coward.

When it’s done, Griffin bends over me, his eyebrows drawn together in dark, foreboding slashes. “Why is there a scar?” he demands.

Eneas frowns. “It may have something to do with the lemon juice.” He studies me with a sidelong glance that tells me he knows something about location spells. He very thoroughly washes my blood from his hands. Smart man.

Egeria pokes her head into the room, the healer child in tow. “Do you need Calla again?”

I shake my head, but Griffin motions the girl forward. Kneeling so they’re roughly the same height, he asks, “How would you like to be the personal and primary apprentice of the healer in charge of Ios?” He nods toward Eneas.

Calla blushes and dips into a respectable curtsy. “Very much, Your Highness.”

Griffin stands. “Now that that’s settled, everyone out. Cat needs to sleep.” He herds everyone out of the room, asking Kato and Flynn to stay close. He uncovers me and washes the blood off while I lie there, tired and sore. Once I’m clean, he carries me to the bed and wraps me in one of his tunics before tucking the sheet up under my chin.

I watch from under sagging eyelids as he removes all traces of blood from the room, rolling stained clothing and bloodied cloths into the soiled rug. Griffin, Kato, and Flynn take everything from the room, promising me a bonfire behind the barracks that’ll make me complain about the heat soon.

When he comes back, Griffin strips out of his boots and lies down next to me, gathering me close. “Still cold?” he asks.

I shake my head even though I am still chilled. Curling into him helps.

Gruffly, he says, “You scared me to death.”

“Me too,” I mumble drowsily. I sink deeper into my cocoon of safety and warmth, knowing Griffin will keep my monsters at bay.

“Sleep,” he says, his arms tightening around me. “When you wake up, I’ll make love to you and give you as much life force as you can take.”

I grin against his chest. I can’t wait. “How smug do you look right now?”

“Very,” he admits.

“Feed me first.”

He chuckles. “If I have to.” After a slight pause, he adds, “And then you and I are having a conversation. No more mysteries, Cat.”

I stop smiling. For
that
, I can wait.

* * *

A whispered argument wakes me up. “Eight years with me and
one
broken arm because she was overambitious with the acrobats. A few months with you and she almost dies! Repeatedly! What in the Underworld is wrong with you?”

Selena.

“She’s fine,” Griffin grumbles.

“Because you found a healer who doesn’t hate you! And you’re not even keeping him at the castle. You’re sending him to Ios!”

“We’ll find one for the castle.”

Selena snorts. “Most healers don’t give a Cyclops’s eye about healing Hoi Polloi.”

Griffin’s voice turns deceptively casual. “I could always keep you.”

My eyes fly open. I’ve never seen perfectly groomed, perfectly poised Selena lose her temper, and I don’t want to miss it. What I see is startling. Her long braid is a mess. Her ageless face is flushed with anger, and her blue eyes flash with that otherworldly light I can never quite nail down or see the other side of. She looks as vengeful as the Furies, and just as ready to light Griffin’s hide on fire.

“I wouldn’t have gotten here in time. This is
over
!” She slices her hand through the air with finality. “I’m taking her back.”

“Over my dead body.” Griffin steps in front of me, crossing his arms.

Selena stares him down. “That can be arranged.”

My heart jumps into my throat. She’s not bluffing. “No one’s killing anyone,” I say, my voice hoarse from sleep. “And it’s a sorry day for the realms when
I’m
the peacekeeper. The world must be about to implode.”

Actually, that’s not funny.

“Cat!” Selena flies to my side like she has wings. She lands next to me, taking my hand in hers. Her eyes are unnaturally bright.

“Thank you for coming,” I murmur.

She throws a dark look over her shoulder at Griffin. “I didn’t do anything. I would have been too late.”

I squeeze her hand. “You would have found a way.”

She turns back to me, her face etched with worry. “Even I can’t bring back the dead.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’m not dead.” My attempt at a joke is shaky, and no one laughs.

“Tell me truthfully, Cat. Are you happy here?” It’s not a simple question, but there’s a simple answer.

“Yes.” My eyes find Griffin’s. My voice softens. My whole body does.

“I see.” Selena’s lips purse. “Aetos and Desma will be disappointed. Vasili, too. Everyone misses you, especially Cerberus.”

I grin. Cerberus couldn’t care less. “I’ll visit soon.”

“When you’re stronger,” Selena says briskly, her expression smoothing into its usual cool lines.

“I miss you,” I tell her. “I miss everyone.”

“And we miss you.” She leans close and whispers the ancient word for family in my ear. Its power electrifies me like a lightning bolt, and magic whooshes through my veins. I gape at Selena as my body settles. She’s hiding more power than I ever imagined.

“Real family works both ways,” she says with an enigmatic smile. Then her eyes narrow on my willowy frame. “What happened to your curves? You look like you did when I found you.”

Funny. I thought I’d found her. “They’ll be back. I’ll be struggling with certain pants again soon enough. Some people are just made that way, and spice cakes don’t help.”

She sits back, straightening her rumpled clothing. “Do you want me to stay?”

I shrug. “Yes. But you have a circus to run, and I’ll just be sleeping for days.”

“Sleeping and eating,” Selena says firmly, bending down to kiss my forehead. She smells like blossoms and budding leaves, and I wonder if this is what it feels like to have a mother who loves you.

“How’s Hades?” I ask before she goes.

She gives me a significant look. “Virile. As always.”

I smile. I get it now. “Give Cerberus a pat.”

She arches one sculpted eyebrow. No one pats Cerberus. Selena and I are the only ones who even go near him. He terrifies everyone else.

She squeezes my fingers before rising. “Cerberus didn’t guard the circus until you came. He hasn’t been around since you left.”

It takes a moment for her words to sink in. Hades may be her lover, but Cerberus is my watchdog. My eyes blur, and my nose stings, and I’m not really sure why. I press my lips together, holding a flood of emotion at bay.

Selena leaves with Carver after delivering a series of grisly threats to Griffin. I don’t hear everything, but I hear enough to know he’d better not let anything happen to me.

Taking a slow breath, I turn to the man I love. He’s been standing off to one side, hovering, protective and extremely male. “She won’t carry through.”

He looks dubious. Selena must have been pretty convincing. “You mean she won’t personally rip my beating heart from my chest and string my innards from one end of the Underworld to the other?”

I make a face.

“Or lop off my head and give it to Cerberus for a chew toy?”

I mash my lips together to keep from smiling. “That would be a terrible waste of a handsome head.”

“Or have a Cyclops pummel me with its meaty fists until my bones are splinters and my organs ooze out?”

I grimace. “Ack!”

Griffin grunts. “More like ouch.”

I laugh, clutching my aching middle, and in that moment, I don’t care that Griffin has all but vowed to uncover everything I can’t bear to confide in him, that he wants to take over the realms, that Andromeda is coming for me, that I have thunder and lightning in my veins, or that I am destined to end the world as we know it. But when my smile dies, I close my eyes for the briefest of seconds and see war and crumbling kingdoms and me in the middle of it all, and I can’t help wondering how fleeting my happiness will be, and how many people will suffer along with me.

I open my eyes and meet Griffin’s steady gaze. “I love you, and I’m so glad you love me, too.”

His eyes widen at my admission. He stops mid-breath, his whole body going utterly still. “Live together, or die trying?” he asks, his voice a deep rasp.

I nod. “Us. Together. Forever.” I speak instinctively, trustingly, and this time magic whips through me, acknowledging the unbreakable promise even as fate whispers in my ear that my forever might not last long.

I hold out my hand. “Make love to me.”

His gray eyes ignite. “Are you sure?”

“I want you. In me. Around me. Always.”

He’s by my side in an instant, achingly fierce, terrifyingly gentle, afraid that I might break. With each caress, each softly spoken endearment or sensual drag of his lips over my skin, Griffin heals me in a way no magic ever could. And when he rises above me, filling me completely, he’s a rock and a wall—my shelter, my home. He wraps his arms tightly around me, thrusting slowly to drive my pleasure to new heights. He kisses my shoulder when I shudder beneath him and then joins me in completion, offering me his strength as his head drops to my neck and his powerful body quakes and trembles. When he shifts to the side, he cups my jaw and feathers his lips over mine, murmuring words of adoration and praise that sweep aside my fear of the confrontation between us I know is yet to come.

I kiss him back and touch every part of him that I can reach. And when he makes love to me again, I don’t cry at his tenderness even though I feel like I might, and I don’t tell him that if I were going to break, it would have happened a long time ago.

The series continues in Book 2 of The Kingmaker Chronicles,
Breath of Fire
!

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