Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (54 page)

Dominic raised his eyebrows at the comment, but said nothing.

“
Because of
Destiratu
,
” Jenna continued, “the vampires will not travel out in groups smaller than three, so Dara and Genevieve came along. When I saw that you faced four foes, I was glad
to have two more vampires here with me.
But Marcio
refused to
let Kristi fight, so I thought we were still not going to be able to help you. Unbeknownst to any of us,
though,
Stefan had
been following
his fellow vampires
. Why, I’m not sure
.
He
did not reveal himself
to us
until
you stepped out of hiding
, and then he
quickly
took over.
He seems to be a leader among the vampires.
” She shrugged. “
You saw the rest.”

Leesa remained silent for a few moments, digesting everything Jenna had said.

“Yes, we did,” Dominic said
,
his eyes locked onto Jenna’s. “All of which begs the question of how you knew what we were doing. And how you knew there were only supposed to be two waziri here.”

Leesa watched Jenna expectantly. She
seemed to shrink a little
under Dominic’s gaze. Her eyes dropped downward.

“I, uh, inserted
a bit of my magic
into Leesa’s mind,” she said quietly, n
ot meeting either of their eyes,
“
w
hile I was helping her practice her magic. When I choose to, I can see what she sees, hear what she hears,
even
feel what she feels.” She looked up at Leesa. “I’m so sorry
I
betray
ed
your trust like that
. I wasn’t really thinking when I did it. I just like to know things. Sometimes my thirst for knowledge gets the best of me. I know that’s no excuse,
but it’s the truth.” She sigh
ed. “Anyhow, that’s how I knew
about today
.”

Leesa remembered
Balin’s
concern when she told him Jenna was using her magic to help Leesa practice. The old volkaane had been right—Jenna had been doing more than just reinforcing Leesa’s magic. She was struck by an embarrassing thought and felt herself
beginning to blush
.

“You could see and feel
everything
?” she asked Jenna.
“Even when I was with Rave?”

It was Jenna’s turn to blush. “Oh, no, I always turned it off whenever you and Rave were doing anything
, uh,
romantic, I promise.” She smiled. “Not that I wasn’t curious
to know what it felt
like to be kissed by a volkaane, but I managed to restrain myself.”

Leesa drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it. “I’m not happy with what you did, Jenna, but since Dominic and I would
n’
t be standing here if you hadn’t done it, I guess I can’t be too angry. Can you please undo the spell, or whatever it was?”

Jenna nodded eagerly.
“Of course.
I’ll do it right now.
Immediately.”
She lifted her had toward Leesa. “I have to touch you to do it. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, of course.
Go ahead.
”

Jenna placed her hand on Leesa’s forearm and closed her eyes. Leesa didn’t feel anything, but after
just a few seconds, Jenna removed her hand.

“That’s it,” she said.
“All gone.
I promise.
I hope we can we still be friends.
”

Leesa smiled. “Like I said, you did save our lives. I just want to make sure you don’t have any other witch powers I need to worry about.”

“No, nothing.
I’ll never use any of my magic on you again, without your asking
me to
, I promise.”

Leesa looked to Dominic. “Are you okay with this?
With
me
forgiving Jenna and remaining friends?”

Dominic grinned. “It wasn’t my mind she took up residence in. Besides, her powers may one day again prove useful.”

“Okay, we’re cool,” Leesa said to Jenna. She opened her arms and Jenna stepped into them.

When the hug ended, Leesa turned to the bodies of the dead waziri.

“What about them?” she asked Dominic. “Are you going to do that thing you did to Josef’s body?” She remembered how when Dominic was done with Josef, nothing was left but wisps of smoke
,
not even any ashes.

“Unfortunately, I cannot
. My magic is not strong enough right now. We will have to content ourselves with burying them.”

Leesa grimaced. She didn’t look forward to that task. They didn’t even have any tools to dig with.

Luckily, Dominic retained enough power to dig a trench deep enough for all four corpses. Leesa and Jenna helped roll the bodies into the hole, and Dominic used his magic to cover them with dirt. When he was done, there was no sign of the grave at all.

“Well, at least they’re dead and buried,” Jenna said, rubbing her hands together to get any lingering dirt or traces of black waziri off them.

“Yeah,” Leesa said. “I just hope they stay that way.”

THE END