Page 12 of The Lies of Lena (The Otacian Chronicles #1)

Chapter Eleven

“ S o, let’s start with the basics.”

I had never seen such happiness on Mother’s face until I finally agreed to start learning magic. However, my desire had nothing to do with caring about magic and everything to do with getting laid. I bit my lip to prevent my smile from creeping over.

Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. Being able to make healing elixirs would be beneficial. Even though Quill’s wound wasn’t fatal, what if it had been? What if one of those men had managed to strike him? There would have been nothing I could have done to save him. Perhaps I could even learn healing magic on its own.

Wow.

Somehow, Quill had managed to enthrall me so profoundly that it overpowered this fear I had felt my entire life. Well, not completely. The thought of using any other sort of magic still made me break out in a sweat. But throwing some herbs in a pot and using a small amount of magic couldn’t be that hard. And how could learning healing be dangerous?

“Lena, are you listening?”

I snapped out of my daydream. “Yes, sorry.”

Mother plopped a thick, ancient-looking tome on the table, and my eyes widened.

“You’ve kept a spell book with you?” I hissed in disbelief.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I know many by memory, but there’s plenty I do not. You never know when one might come in handy.”

I figured I would have to ask Mother about a contraceptive elixir in as non-obvious a way as possible, but knowing that it’s most likely in this spell book helped a lot.

She flipped open the book to one of the first pages.

“Healing elixirs, infused with healing magic,” she said as she pointed at one recipe. “Depending on what type of elixir you wish to enchant, you must tap into that power source. Healing is one of the more novice-style magic types.”

I furrowed my brows. “Well, what are the harder types?”

“Healing magic can be learned by any Mage, as you know. Elixirs infused by elemental magic can obviously only be made by those who have unlocked that power,” she mumbled as she flipped through the book. I wondered how old this tome must be as the pages were yellowed and crinkled. “Not only can the difficulty vary based on the type of magic, but also its efficacy. Expert healing Mages can make elixirs that heal gaping wounds, whereas the novice ones can maybe heal a paper cut.” She stopped flipping and looked at me. “That will be our first goal. ”

Mother decided on the most basic healing elixirs to start, and though she had memorized it, she let me look in the book at the recipe listed. I trailed my fingers along the aged, darkened pages.

I wonder where she got this from…

Mother gathered some dried herbs along with other ingredients that I was familiar with.

Chamomile, milk thistle, sage, Epsom salt.

Life had changed so much in the month since I had met Quill…since I held my dagger to that girl’s neck. My hands and body had ached with the desire to let out my abilities my whole life, but never as much as in the past few weeks.

I mixed the ingredients over the wood-burning stove, just as I had seen Mother do many times. That wasn’t the hard part.

“Okay,” Mother said cautiously, removing the mixture from the heat. She looked at me with nothing but seriousness. “Healing magic resonates here—” she said as she touched her fingers to each of her palms.

I frowned and stared down at my own palms.

“Oh, I’m foolish,” Mother muttered, then pulled a knife from a drawer and dragged it across the skin on her forearm, blood beading along the fresh cut.

I gasped. “What are you doing?”

“It’ll be easier for you to tap into the power this way.” She pushed her bleeding arm forward. “Look and identify what you feel.”

With wide eyes, I focused on the bleeding cut.

Heal it. I want to heal it.

I began to feel burning in my palms, and my eyes shot down to them again.

“Did you feel anything when Quill needed those stitches?”

I blinked. “Y-yes…my palms started to burn, just as they are now.”

“Excellent!” Mother exclaimed. “Now, hold your hand above my cut. And concentrate. Will yourself to heal me.”

I began to shake, worried I might do something wrong. Slowly, I brought my hand above her sliced skin and closed my eyes.

Heal her. Heal her.

I repeated it in my head over and over until I gradually felt the burning subside. My eyes shot open to my mother’s wound, and I could only stare in disbelief.

“By the Gods,” she whispered.

A warm glow emitted from my palms before slowly dissipating. I withdrew my hand, and she carefully wiped away the blood, revealing perfectly smooth skin.

“You grasped that much faster than I expected.” She grinned. “I believe you to be gifted, Lena. I always have.”

I didn’t reply—I just gave a nervous smile at the small relief that release gave me.

We spent the rest of the day making multiple healing elixirs, and it began to feel like second nature. Mother warned me not to expect the rest of my powers to come so quickly, but I took the win anyway.

The paralyzing feeling took over again, and I felt a…presence over me. Try as I might, I could not move my arms or open my eyes.

“Lena…Lena…can you hear me?”

I jolted up from my bed in a cold sweat, panting and with a dull headache. My room was still dark, the small clock on my nightstand displaying 2:14 a.m.

Another nightmare, one just like before. Only this time, it was a voice. Familiar, yet not. I sighed as I pulled the cover off, letting the air cool off my body.

I was going crazy. It had been weeks since this last happened. I had almost forgotten all about it. Was I losing it? Or was that perhaps someone trying to talk to me—someone who knew my name?

I needed to tell Mother, but that could wait until morning. After cooling down, I snuggled back into my quilt and, after a long while, drifted back to sleep.

When I mentioned my nightmares to Mother, she just shrugged them off, and I felt silly for even mentioning it. She said it could just be sleep paralysis, which wasn’t as comforting as she thought it would be.

Another week had passed, and I couldn’t wait to see Quill, but I was also nervous. We had been so…close, intimate, the last time we saw one another. I wasn’t sure how we would talk about what happened.

And then there were his injuries. Mother’s healing elixir would have helped, but it wouldn’t have been as powerful as possible since we couldn’t risk arousing suspicion. I know it would be healed, though the stitches would need removal if he hadn’t already removed them himself.

I just wanted to see him. So, I waited .

And I waited some more.

And he never showed.

It was now 7:00 a.m., and Quill was still nowhere to be seen. He had been consistently on time for the last five weeks. This was the first time he hadn’t shown.

What if he regretted what happened between us? What if he got in trouble? What if he was hurt?

My mind instantly went to the worst-case scenario, and I was brought back to reality by Mother’s hand on my shoulder, her deep green cloak on as she was about to head over to our stand.

“I’m sure everything’s okay. He may be busy today.”

I frowned and looked at my feet. “I’ll just wait in case he shows up,” I said quietly.

Mother nodded, then left.

I finally went to deliver orders just before 9:00 a.m. The entire time I was delivering, my mind kept wandering. I kept glancing around, hoping to see him, but I never did. Once the last order was complete at 9:38 a.m., I decided to walk through the Inner Ring in the hopes of catching him. Like always, I passed well-dressed folk who gave me dirty looks like I was some rat. Normally, it would bother me, but I only cared about seeing Quill.

I should know where he lives.

It was almost 10:00 a.m., and I sighed in defeat, making my way down the steps and back to the Outer Ring. As I made my way home, I glanced back at the darkened area that was Serpent’s Cove, and my stomach dropped.

What if they took him?

I froze.

What if he never made it home? Or what if he did, and they stole him from his home?

Fuck…what if he’d been there this entire time?

What if he was being tortured?

Anger took over as my thoughts continued to spiral, and I found myself charging towards Serpent’s Cove.

If I knew one thing for certain, it was that Quill would do whatever it took to protect me. He’d proven that on multiple occasions. So, if the Serpents had him and were trying to find me too, Quill would remain silent.

They better hope to the Gods he is okay.

Under my cloak, I gripped my dagger, staring at the men smoking outside, backs resting against the brick building of the tavern from before. Despite it being morning, there were many outside, probably all drunk.

I made eye contact with a man I had seen last week; his smug look turned to disdain as I charged towards him.

“Where is he?” I demanded.

He cackled. “Who do you think you’re talking to, little girl?”

I whipped out my dagger and, without thinking, swung it at the man. He cursed as he dodged it.

“You bitch,” he huffed, then wielded the sword on his back.

Panic overwhelmed me as he prowled toward me. My head craned up to meet his sneer, and I feared I was in over my head .

No. Quill needs me.

I smothered the panic down until all that was left was vengeance. The man began swinging his sword, and, using the maneuvers Quill had taught me, I dodged every one of them.

“Tell me where he is, you bastard! What did you do to him?” I shouted.

The man let out a cruel laugh, and I bit back my tears. I spun my dagger when I saw an opening and slashed his leg.

He yelped, then went to swing once more. I barely dodged, and the tip of his sword slashed my cheek, blood now coursing down my face.

The man saw an opening and took it, slamming his body into me. The force had me on the ground in seconds, my tailbone throbbing in pain from the blunt force. He stepped forward and kicked me in my side, and I choked as the wind was knocked out of me.

“You know,” he hissed, “a few of my men are missing. I wonder if you had anything to do with that, considering your boyfriend glared them down last week.” He delivered another kick to my side, and I cried out, his comrades cheering beside us. “But, seeing as though you’re a weak bitch, I don’t see that as a possibility.”

I clenched my fists, holding on to my dagger as tears flooded my eyes. He kicked me over and over again.

He wasn’t wrong. Quill was the one who had taken out those men, and I had just stood there and watched. If they took Quill, how could I stand a chance?

My head was spinning as another kick turned me to my front, and I took that opportunity to shove my dagger into his lower leg. He cried out, and just as the other men came charging at me, I heard a voice yelling my name.

“LENA!”