Page 12 of Salt in the Seas
Aeliana stilled. “Drained them?”
“They’re lighter.” He picked up the egg as if weighing it. “I thought it was because they decayed. But it’s the fluid. It’s all gone.”
“Aeliana?” Lukai called, his voice strained. “I think this is what you’re looking for.”
She turned back to the lab table. Lukai’s face looked pale in the lantern light.
“Felk’s right,” he said. “She drained the fluid, then bottled it up, testing it for its regeneration properties.”
A memory clicked in her mind. When they’d met up with Felk to join forces against Mayvus, he’d said there were rumors among the soldiers of the blood holding regenerative properties. It had sounded unbelievable at the time, but now it seemed eerily possible. When the blood hadn’t worked, she must have tested the fluid from the eggs. Had that worked?
Aeliana took the papers Lukai offered, skimming through the various trials Mayvus had done. “She revived animals with it?”
Lukai nodded, then shuddered. “It didn’t work on people, but not because she didn’t try. It did, however, bring some of them back from the brink of death.”
Aeliana’s mouth grew dry. “We need to tell Sylmar.”
“You’re bleeding.” Lukai took the papers from her hand, turning her palm over to reveal a cut dripping blood.
“Oh, I guess the glass must have gotten me.” She took the handkerchief he’d given her for the stench and used it to staunch the flow.
Lukai grimaced. “I hope you didn’t get any of that winex blood inthere. Let me heal you.” His hands were gentle as he ran his fingers over her palm. He closed his pale blue eyes and leaned closer, his breath hitting her cheek. His proximity heightened Aeliana’s awareness of how alone they were.
They still hadn’t talked much about the bond that connected them. Aeliana’s parents had bonded her to Lukai as an infant, an old tradition now only held by royalty as a precursor to betrothals and marriages. Supposedly it had been for her protection, but now it left them connected in ways Aeliana wasn’t sure she wanted, even though they’d agreed to just focus on building a friendship for now.
With the bond, they could each sense if the other was in danger, and at times, it made them put the other’s needs before their own. But Lukai had used that connection to justify taking Aeliana’s blood without her permission. For her protection. They hadn’t talked aboutthatmuch either. She scowled and pulled her hand away before he finished.
“That’s good enough. Thank you.”
His eyebrows rose at her sharp tone, but he let his hands drop and stepped away, the nervous shuffle of his feet making her think he too had suddenly become aware of just how alone they were. Except his gaze kept dropping to her lips, and she suspected his discomfort was for far different reasons than hers.
“Aeliana, maybe we should?—”
“Yes. Let’s go see if Sylmar’s back.” She grabbed the papers from the table and spun around, eager to leave both Lukai and the stench of death and torture behind.
CHAPTER 6
“We heard rumors of this.”Sylmar set the papers down on the table in the training room, his tone far too relaxed. “I don’t understand your surprise. Mayvus was intrigued by immortality long before she tested the winex. The fact that she continued to study it up to the battle gives me reassurance that she never found answers.” His gaze strayed to Lukai, who picked up a sword and approached Kendalyhn while gesturing to the sparring ring.
“But what if by the time we got here, she was no longer researching immortality but building up stores of what she needed?” Aeliana twisted her hands together, unwilling to sit in the chair next to Sylmar’s with her nerves so taut.
Sylmar sat back, frowning. “You heard what Holm found at the cave Durriken showed you?”
Aeliana held back a groan. “Yes. The ground was full of blood and flesh.”
“Let’s say Mayvus discovered something that could revive her from the brink of death—then what? Who could have aided her up in Durriken’s lair? Mayvus is dead.”
His scars puckered with pain Aeliana would never understand. The loss he felt over a bond he’d grown to hate seemed contradictory, but she supposed that was what madeit so painful.
“It’s time for us to all move on,” he added. As if bolstered by his own words, he set his jaw and turned back to Lukai and Kendalyhn.
Aeliana crossed her arms over her chest, irritated at the way their sparring match held his attention far more than her revelation. A sheen of sweat formed on each of the combatants’ foreheads, and they grinned at each other before Lukai made another lunge.
In the back of her mind, a need to protect him niggled at her, as if ready to surface should Kendalyhn’s advances become more than just practice. The bond was designed for protection, but sometimes it felt too similar to the brand Aeliana had imposed on Durriken, the brand Mayvus had briefly forced on her.
The brand Mayvus had also used to keep Aeliana’s mother prisoner for over a dozen years.
“We didn’t find all of her supporters,” she said. “Just because we cut the brand marks off all those left behind and just because they swore fealty to my mother doesn’t mean the ones we should be worried about aren’t still out there giving Mayvus what she needs.”
