Page 208 of Scarlet Wars
“Or magi,” Caden said, his voice low.
“We need a Healer in here,” James growled, barely holding back the edge of his rage.
“I don’t think a Healer is going to magically fix these tissues back into a person,” I muttered, trying to tamp down the fear curling through me with sarcasm.
James shot me an annoyed look. “Thank you for that dark but ratheruselesscomment,” he said tightly. “I meant a Healerto discern whether it’s magi or human blood. Can you nex Hillary? And then portal her out here?”
I stilled. My gaze slid toward Caden, who was already watching me. His look was intense, but steady beneath his lashes.
“How would a Healer know the difference?”
James waved a hand. “Hillary will know what to do.”
But Caden’s intense stare stayed on me, unmoving. His voice was quiet but clear when he finally spoke.
“A Healer’s haze would recognize magi blood because it would feel similar, like its own. Blood infused with translation. Human blood would feel foreign. Different.”
“Would a Healer need some sort of forensic training for that?” The words trembled slightly despite my attempt to steady them.
James’s attention shifted between me and Caden. “What’s going on?”
Caden shook his head once. “No specific training necessary. The haze only needs to touch the blood, and the Healer would know.”
I drew in a shaky breath. “Okay. What I’m about to do,” I said, more forceful now, “does not leave this room. I will not become another experiment.”
James’s brows drew together. “Do what?”
I inhaled slowly, focusing on the heat running through my veins. The haze stirring right below the surface. I reached for it, not the scarlet one. The gold. The one I never let anyone see.
I closed my eyes.
“What the hell is she doing?” James’s frustration cut through the quiet. “We don’t have time for this?—”
“Will you shut up?” Caden’s tone was threaded with a quiet edge of impatience.
The golden haze stirred beneath my skin, curling hot and electric. It coiled tightly, then shot out in a thin, controlled stream as it slid across the room toward the darkest smear of tissue along the wall.
I didn’t focus on making it invisible, choosing to let James see the secret I’d been holding onto for so long.
James stiffened. “What the hell? Since when is her translation gold?”
My energy made contact with the blood, and recognition pulsed through me so fast I almost stumbled. I felt it. Understood it. My haze registered the foreign texture, the wrongness of human blood laced with the unmistakable signature of magic.
Both.
When my haze retracted, I opened my eyes. James’s gaze burned into me like I’d grown two heads. And Caden…
Was perfectly still. His expression smoothed into careful indifference, but his eyes—his eyes were fire. Burning beneath the mask. Pride and something else shining through the edges of his stare.
“So?” Caden’s voice was quiet and cold. Detached. But I knew him too well to believe that was the case.
“It’s both,” I said, straightening my back. “Magi and human blood. So is the tissue.”
The hell did that mean?
James’s jaw went slack. “Hold on. You’re a Healer?”
I straightened my spine. “Yes.”
