Page 34 of A Healer's Wrath

“Danai—”

“You don’t have to say anything. I know your anger is not aimed at me.” I looked up the path where we had been heading before we stopped. “We still have time to make it to the top.”

She stared a moment, then gave me a weak smile and nodded. As we turned and started up the trail, my shoulder brushed hers, and I gripped her hand. She squeezed, then let go and stuffed her hand into her pocket.

Irina did not see my shoulders fall as we hiked.

Chapter eighteen

Irina

Isipped amber liquid from a crystal tumbler as King Melric smiled and watched my every move.

When he summoned me for an official audience to advise him on matters of health and the state, we met in the Privy Council chamber, surrounded by guards and the bustle of Councilors and messengers. More often, though, he hosted me in the private dining room over a meal that felt more intimate than official.

That night, following a most delicious dinner, the King suggested we retire to his study.

“You love to study, do you not?” he asked.

I smiled and took his proffered hand and stood. “I do, Your Majesty.”

“Did you know, my library contains the oldest tomes in the Kingdom, perhaps in the world? There is an entire section of journals by Kings and Privy Councilors dating back to the time before we were one kingdom.”

He didn’t release my hand as we strode toward the door. A servant waiting to clear the last of our glasses glanced down, and her eyes widened before flitting away.

“I dream of a day when no crisis or audience commands my attention, so I might read alone and explore the mysteries bound in leather in my own home.” He squeezed my hand as we made our way down the hall.

“What would you read?” I asked, flustered by his clasp and his leading me into his most cherished part of the Palace.

“I think the question should be, what would you read?” He glanced sideways, a grin playing at his lips.

The hairs on my arms perked at his smile.

“What do you mean, sire?”

He stopped before a large wooden door. Ornate braces held torches on either side. The King removed a chain about his neck I knew he wore beneath his tunic. I had seen it several times when examining his health. A single key slid down the chain as he held it out to me.

“That is the key to your library?” I asked.

He nodded.

“I wondered what room you held so close to your heart,” I said, taking the key.

“Please, do the honor then,” he said, motioning to the brass plate with the keyhole. “Did I mention that some of the journals were written by Crown Healers? If I recall, one is six hundred years old.”

I fumbled the key before sliding into the lock. “Six hundred?”

Click.

Melric leaned down and whispered so close to my ear I could almost feel his lips. “That is not the key to my library. It is the key to my heart.”

The door swung open, and I stood frozen beneath its arched frame. What lay before me was no study. It could barely be described as a library. The cavernous chamber behind the simple door was lit by only a few candles and stretched beyond my sight.

“Would you please your King with a ball of Light?”

I looked back, puzzled. He had never asked me to use magic for anything beyond Healing. Still, he was King.

I focused on my Light and called a ball of bright bluish flame. As it grew, darkness fled, revealing a palace unto itself.