Page 29 of Steeling Light (Shadowed Debts #3)

The Moonlit Pools are most commonly visited by new lovers, their unique effects amplifying a budding connection. Yet, the true secret to their popularity is that they are not aphrodisiacs; they simply bring out the truest desires within a person.

~Countess Alyth Corvanne, A Visitor’s Guide to Selithar

Rhion

Gods, I can’t believe she carried that trough. A normal Steel soldier would have struggled with it, and she’s only half-blooded. For the hundredth time, I wonder whose bloodline she’s from because whoever her father is, he would certainly be an asset as a soldier.

She’s burned everywhere. Her clothes caught fire, and she must not have even noticed. The burns are bad, but the scalding is worse. There are pieces of her skin, especially along her arms where she was holding the trough, that have sloughed off completely, and her muscles are showing.

If she didn’t have House of Steel blood in her, I’d be worried she wouldn’t survive this.

With her bloodline, I know she’ll survive, but without medicines that I don’t have, she’ll be forced to live with scars that will cover her entire body.

She’s lying on a bed at the inn she just saved, stripped bare as I examine her wounds.

The door is barred, and I know what I have to do.

I pull out the bag of spellstones I keep with me at all times on the offhand chance that I need them.

Kept in a tiny bag, the silver stones that are barely larger than a bead hold the magical essence of a fallen Steel soldier.

I personally collected these from the men and women I lost during the Shattering.

They’re the last five Steel spellstones I know of.

Every other soldier had been left too long after their death to collect their essence.

I pour them into my hand and hold them to my lips.

Softly, I mutter an awakening incantation, one of the first bits of enchanting I learned as a child.

The magic inside them stirs, yearning for purpose.

It’s not very much, and it certainly can’t help Ainslee, but I can use it to do something no one has ever done before. At least, I hope I can.

That bit of magical power outside my body can create a bridge that the rest of my power can cross. My powers allow me to do things only my father can rival in the manipulation of the physical body.

I take the smallest breath from the air around the spellstones, and for the briefest of moments, their power is both inside and outside me. Without breathing, I whisper a command, and the magical essence flows from the spellstones into Ainslee’s mouth.

With every bit of control I have, I reach across that bridge.

I can feel every burn, every charred bit of flesh, and the powers of the Prince of Steel take control, ferreting them out and shifting them into healthy flesh.

Every single wound heals in the blink of an eye as my power is siphoned from me into her.

Her eyes flash open and center on me. “Rhion,” she says, and her voice is like a caress. I’d been terrified I couldn’t heal her. I’ve never done anything like that before.

“I’m here,” I say and run my hand along her cheek. “You’re okay now.”

She blinks twice and says, “I feel strange. Rhion, what did you do? My body feels… odd. Like it’s not mine.” She looks down and sees that she’s completely naked. She immediately covers up with her freshly healed arms.

I turn away from her. “I’m sorry. I needed to take off your clothes to heal you. Your pack is at the foot of the bed.”

There’s a bit of shuffling around as Ainslee gets up and goes to her pack. Then she stops and says, “Wait. How did you heal me? I was burned. Badly. You… You’re the Prince of Steel. You can’t heal anyone.”

I glance over at her, and she’s still standing, her clothes balled in a hand as she stares at me. This time, she doesn’t cover up. “How’d you heal me, Rhion?” she demands.

“Spellstones,” I say. “I… I used spellstones to create a bridge between us, and then I used my powers to heal your wounds because, for that brief moment, your body was my body.”

Shock covers her face. “That’s… that’s not possible. Is it? Steel powers can’t work on anyone else. Can other people do it? How’d you learn to do that?”

I chuckle at her barrage of questions, but my eyes can’t help but roam over her body, truly taking it in for the first time.

She notices, but she doesn’t turn away. “I don’t think anyone else has ever done it before,” I admit.

“Most Steel powers can’t heal effectively.

I can do things others can’t, but the real thing that limits how often it can be done is the scarcity of Steel spellstones. ”

“Could you do it again? If someone was hurt, could you heal them?”

I shake my head. “I don’t have any more spellstones, and I don’t know anyone who has more.”

She sighs and frowns. She’s obviously considering something, but she doesn’t speak her thoughts.

Instead, she walks across the room, her clothes still bunched in her hand.

Reaching up on her tiptoes, she presses her body against mine, and she kisses me.

Not the passionate kind that we had that night at the Pools, but one of tenderness, of soft feelings. “Thank you,” she whispers.

Then she steps back, and says, “Now turn around so I can get dressed. There’s a difference between being naked after someone saves and heals you, and being naked and awkward trying to put on my pants.”

And this time, instead of feeling uncomfortable, I chuckle as I turn around. The sound of her clothes moving makes me hungry for her, for the things that her eyes had whispered of that night before I left.

But I know I can’t push for anything more. Today is the day that she’s supposed to talk to Maerlix. That means that by tonight, she’ll probably be leaving Selithar.

And our month of happiness will be over.

“I’m decent,” she says as she bends down to pick up her pack.

I turn around, and when she’s standing, she stops moving for a second, her eyes looking past me to the wall.

As if she’s decided something, she nods and says, “That’s what it is.

I can feel you inside me, Rhion. Your power still lingers.

Not a lot, but it’s there. It’s excited.

” Her eyes focus on me. “I wonder if this is how it would feel to be betrothed. I’ve heard Cole and Maeve talk about it a little.

Their souls and powers are tied together.

They can feel each other through that bond. ”

I try to imagine what it would be like to have her power inside me, for her soul to be bound to mine. It sends a thrill through me. To be connected to Ainslee like that… it would be a dream come true. No, it’d be more than a dream.

“Well, it should probably fade with time,” I say. “I hope it’s not too uncomfortable.”

The corner of her lip turns up. “No, uncomfortable is definitely the wrong word. Just strange.” Then she stops and snarls as if she’s just realized something. “Someone tried to kill me, Rhion. I woke up to that fire in my room.”

Every muscle in my body tenses at the thought, and I leave behind the happy path my mind had been on. I move closer to her. Every protective instinct inside me glides to the surface, and I know I’m not letting her out of my sight.

“Tell me what happened, Ainslee,” I say, my voice low and calm, but she hears the deadly seriousness in it.

Without hesitation, she describes how she woke up, how the bit of spiderweb above her was burning and had caught the ceiling on fire. She explains how I found her nearly roasted alive after saving a terrible inn and its inhabitants. And this time, it’s me who snarls.

“You shouldn’t have risked yourself like that. You knew that trough was too heavy.”

She growls back. “It obviously wasn’t. I saved the inn, didn’t I?”

“And you could have died.” It’s in a flat tone, and she doesn’t respond, staring daggers at me.

The change in her attitude is sharper than I’ve ever seen.

“You didn’t see your body. I did. Every crispy piece of skin.

The muscles where your skin had melted. The bit of your cheek with a hole in it so large that I could run a spoon through.

I never want you to have to experience that kind of pain again. You have to be more careful.”

She stares at me, not saying a word. Finally, after I refuse to look away, she says, “You don’t have to watch out for me, Rhion. I’ve done fine for nine…”

“I’m not watching out for you. I’m being completely selfish, Ainslee.

I need you to stay alive. I need you to be happy.

” I look past her, at the window into the world beyond.

The clouds drift by as if nothing had happened today.

“I do not want to live in a world without you in it. I don’t know if I could because you are my heart, and a man cannot live without his heart. ”

It’s like she can’t believe me. I take a step toward her, and she doesn’t back away.

“You are the only good thing I have ever had.” I raise my hand to show her the silver band around my wrist. “I would do anything to keep you safe because as long as you still breathe I can still hope for more happiness in my life. If you were gone…” I shake my head. “Then nothing would matter anymore.”

She sighs. “I can’t promise you I’ll be safe, Rhion. I just can’t. The world is crumbling, and I’m one of the few people still trying to prop up the walls. I can’t tell you I won’t ever put myself in danger.”

I nod to her. “I know that. But today was an unnecessary risk. Carry buckets. Use your powers to scoop up the water from that stupidly heavy trough and carry it to the fire.”

“I thought about that, Rhion. It wouldn’t have been enough. The fire would have spread. How much of the city would have burned because of it? Even if you weren’t here to heal me, I was hurt to keep an unknowable number of people safe. What’s more important? My pain or all of theirs?”

“Yours,” I say without a bit of hesitation. “You matter more than them, Ainslee Emlyn.” I let out a snarl and step even closer. My hand goes to her cheek so softly, but every muscle in my body is tense, and she can see it. “I’d let Selithar burn to ash to keep you from a moment of pain.”

“That’s not right, Rhion. They’re people…”

My nails dig into her skin, turning sharp but not sharp enough to draw blood. “Only you matter to me, Ainslee. Remember that.”

Then I let her go, and it’s like she can breathe again. Her hand moves over her cheek to the little white marks my nails left on her skin. She brushes them softly as she thinks. “I have to go to the Keep of Webs today,” she says. “Maerlix should be awake now.”

She looks up at me. “He’s supposed to know where Vesta should be.”

I could continue to harp on what I’d told her, but I don’t. I let the moment pass like the breeze, and I grin at her. “I’ve never been to the Keep of Webs. Let’s go for a walk through a spider den, Ainslee.”

She cocks her head for a moment and shrugs. “Maybe you’ll scare them into actually answering me without riddles.”