Page 51 of The Alien Warrior's Vow

Emma had trusted him on sight.

Maybe that had been the wrong decision.

A few hours ago, Clavas rushed her to the sacred lake, keeping her out of sight. The Healer saw to those with the most devastating wounds first and, since Lans counted among that number, he had gotten to Lans quickly.

Strangely, the Healer had known she was there even though Emma had been hiding in another room.

“He wants to see you,” Clavas had said.

They’d taken her to a dark cavern where the lake flowed and pooled into a sort of reservoir. Somewhere, deep in the back of her mind, Emma had known that she should probably be asking questions. Like how the Healer had known who she was. Why he’d invited her in here. What his master plan was.

Instead, she’d kept her eyes on Lans and hadn’t taken them off once.

While the Healer worked, she’d waited.

Waited.

Waited.

At any moment, she expected breath to fill his lungs.

Expected his eyes to burst open.

Expected him to scold her for endangering all the other girls by sneaking into a place crawling with Plutonian warriors. By exposing herself to the biggest, most important Plutonian—the Healer himself.

But Lans didn’t wake up the first hour.

Or the second.

Or the third.

They were crawling into the fourth hour and he was still lying there.

The Healer had taken out the arrow that caused the damage to his tissues, but there was still no progress.

“What the hell is he even doing?” Emma flung a crooked finger at the Healer. “He just poured some water and hovered his hand over Lans body! You expect that to work?” She glanced around, her voice echoing in the cavern. “Don’t you have medicine up here? Surgeons?”

The Healer’s voice remained calm. “His body is healed.”

“What?”

“He can wake up.”

“Then why isn’t he?”

The Healer glanced at Lans and said softly, “He doesn’t want to.”

If Emma could have throttled the most sacred Plutonian warrior on the planet and gotten away with it, she would have.

Gritting her teeth, she said instead, “You’re a Healer, sohealhim!”

“I did.”

“Emma!Emma!” Clavas grabbed her elbows and wrestled her out of the water.

She fought him every step of the way, digging her heels into the sand and trying to remain by Lans’s side, but the warrior was too strong. He carted her easily through the hewn entrance and into a private side room away from Lans’s floating body.

When he set her down, Emma huffed. “What are you doing? We can’t leave Lans alone with that quack!”