Page 168 of Esperance

“I’m relieved you’re all right,” Felinus said.

She sensed truth in that, but his relief was horribly overshadowed by his fear.

“I’m glad you’re all right, too,” she said. “I didn’t expect you to be walking around yet.”

He touched his stomach. “Yes, I . . . I must not have been as wounded as I thought. Shock does strange things to a body.” His eyes lifted until they locked on hers. “At least, that’s what I told the high cleric when he visited me last night.”

A chill swept through her. “I don’t understand.”

Felinus’s resolve sharpened as he stared at her. “Where is the stone, Amryn? I know you have it.”

Her pulse tripped. “What?”

The skin around his eyes tightened. “The bloodstone. You have one. Where is it?”

The amulet.

Her suspicion was confirmed, then. The powerful gem in the necklace was indeed a bloodstone.

She just didn’t know how Felinus knew she had it.

“The healing,” the cleric said. “That kind of power . . . it wouldn’t have been possible without a bloodstone. You used it last night, so I know you have it. Where is it?”

She took a step back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I want you to leave.”

“No.” Felinus’s jaw tensed. “And you won’t call for the guards, because you won’t want them to hear this. I know what you are, Amryn. I’ve known since the first moment I saw you.”

Her stomach dropped. “I don’t—”

“You’re an empath. I can sense your ability, even without my bone ring.”

Everything in her went cold.

Bone ring.

Only knights were given bone rings.

Felinus was a knight—an empath killer.

Her heart clenched.

“I used to be a knight,” Felinus said, his voice quiet, though his hard gaze didn’t waver. “I was very good at my job. Even after I retired and turned in my ring, I could still sense empaths. I think the ring changed me—gave me a gift. Or perhaps I always had a gift, and I just didn’t know how to use it until the knights taught me how to harness it. But I know the truth. I know what you did last night.”

Sweat broke out over her body, and a tremor started in her legs. She locked her knees, hoping to hide any sign of dread. “I don’t know what you’re talking about—”

Felinus shot forward and grabbed her arms.

A cry pinched in her throat, but she silenced it—she didn’t want the guards coming in. They couldn’t know. They’d kill her.

Felinuswas going to kill her.

She tried to jerk away, but his grip was like iron.

“Amryn, listen to me,” he hissed. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not going to turn you in. I left the Order because I learned the truth—that not all empaths are monsters. The things I did . . .Iwas the monster.”

Regret, self-hatred, horror, pain—all of it slammed into her, stealing her breath.

The old cleric’s eyes were tortured. “Divinities know, I’ve tried to cleanse my sins. I don’t know if I’ll ever be free of it all, but I left them. I left that life. I became a cleric. And neveroncehave I considered turning you over to them. You have to know that.”