Page 40 of Lies That Blemish
That night, I dreamed of Kohen, of swollen kisses and whispered promises. It all felt so real that when I woke up, I was breathless and feeling empty inside.
If loving Kohen didn’t kill me, his lies would.
Tetra and I woke up,made some breakfast, and looked through some boxes in the office for a couple of hours by the time the girls arrived. We only had three boxes left, and I was really starting to fear the end of this journey with no solid evidence.
“My purple nail polish! Bless the stars!” Virtue came out of her room clutching the tiny bottle like it was ember.
I snort-laughed. My gaze swept the room and landed on Valor, who was staring at Tetra’s foot with a horror-stricken look on her face.
What the…?
Movement at the back door caused my gaze to peer out the back window to see Zara staring intently in the window at us.
“What’s going on, Valor?” I asked my sister. She didn’t look okay, and her creature normally stayed deeper in the yard with Liana.
Valor shook her head. “Nothing.” She tore her gaze away from Tetra’s foot and chewed on her lip.
Now even Tetra had seemed to notice. “Does my mangled foot bother you now, Val? I can put a sock over the ugly thing,” she joked.
Valor looked pained. “No. It isn’t that.”
‘Zara says Valor’s gift is emerging, and she’s fighting it,’Liana told me.
Oh, that made more sense.
“Val, can I speak to you in your room for a moment?” I asked.
She nodded, looking on the verge of tears, which was very off-brand for my stoic sister. She was the one made of steel, the one most like me.
Tetra caught my gaze as I passed, and I gave her a small smile.
‘Did she say what the power might be?’ I asked as we walked to Valor’s room.
‘No,’Liana said.
If Valor was about to display some firepower, I would want her outside.
The second we got into Valor’s room, I shut the door, and she spun to face me. “It hurts,” she whimpered, tears streaming down her face.
I gasped at the sudden change in her. “What hurts? Where?” I peered over her body, looking for injuries.
She lifted her right socked foot and began to massage it.
I frowned. “Did you get injured?”
Valor’s chest heaved up and down as she fought to keep control of her emotions. She shook her head.
“Then how does it—?” My eyes widened.
That was the same foot as Tetra’s.
“Valor, do you think you can pick up on people’s pain? Take it away?” Those healers were extremely rare, but completely removing pain was such a valuable asset to the Fleet.
“I think I can do more than that.” Her voice cracked. “I think I can heal it.”
Oh.
I reached out and grasped her shoulders. “That’s so very sweet, Val, but Tetra has seen a healer. They said she was born with it, and it couldn’t be healed. It’s a birth deformity, not an injury.”
