“Your cuts will heal quickly with this salve, but you can join me in the spa later to help the bruises. The water in there is perfect for healing the body from strenuous exercise.”
Smirking, I cocked my head. “I can imagine you’ll need it as much as I do.”
Her grin matched mine. “You have no idea.”
A moment passed, and she sobered, very much the master again. “Danai’s funeral is in two more days. I know you don’t want to go…”
A heavy sigh escaped me. “The Breaker should be there. The person who caused her death should have the decency to show her face.”
“No, Kimber. You didn’t cause her death. The temple was attacked. There was nothing you did to cause that.”
I tried to protest, but she cut me off with a twitch of her finger.
“No. They would have attacked us even if you weren’t there. Go to be there for Danai and for your own heart. Not because you feel like it’s your fault. If you feel that way, stay home.”
For just a moment, I thought about staying away.
I shook my head. “No. For Mistress Danai, I will be there.”
I shivered in the cavern, even though it wasn’t the least bit cold. My terror chilled me to the bone.
Desperate to leave, the same something that had called me there so many weeks ago held me in place.
There was so much turbulence flying through the magic in the cave. It felt a bit like I was in the middle of a stampede of spooked horses. It wreaked havoc on my nerves.
Pacing from wall to wall, all I wanted was to leave.
And find Elex. He was hurt, and I couldn’t bear that.
After pacing for nearly an hour I was exhausted, and I sat down against one of the walls.
The contact with the mountain was shocking. The magic was boiling inside the ground. Not actually hot boiling, but it rolled and bubbled as though it were.
I pulled myself away from the contact.
I didn’t like that feeling at all. It was unsettled.
Unsettled was more than I could handle at the moment.
“Kimber!”
I stood up and started running for the entrance to the cavern. I didn’t know who it was—
That thought pulled me up short.
No. I couldn’t blindly run to someone calling my name. Not anymore.
Stopping myself just out of view of the entrance, I pulled myself near the wall and listened.
“Kimber, oh gods and stars, please be okay. Kimber! Are you here?”
I suddenly recognized both the voice and the feel of the person out there.
Master Tymon.
I raced the rest of the way out and right into his arms, screaming his name.
“Oh, thank the Lost God,” he mumbled and gave me a near-crushing hug. “You listened.”
“I ran.” Nodding, I stepped back from him. “Everyone told me to.”
“And you managed to avoid all the foot soldiers who were looking for you. Well done, little one. Come on. Your horse is thirsty. So am I.”
Grabbing his arm, I pulled him to a halt. “What’s happened? What’s going on?”
A deep, tired sigh escaped him. “The residence is destroyed. We’ve lost a dozen dedicants, and…”
“Mistress Danai…”
His shaggy brown hair seemed to tremble in sadness and anger. “Yes. We’ve lost her.”
The urge to vomit welled up and choked me. I swallowed it back and tried not to cry. “Elex?”
“He’s hurt, but nothing our healers can’t handle. He’ll be as right as rain soon enough. Come on, Kimber. We need to get you back. There are people worried about you.”
I jerked awake with the rising of the sun. Today was the end of the mourning period.
Tonight, we would burn my friend.
* * *
The smoke rose from the pyre, mingling with the dust from the decimated temple.
I did not want to be here.
After all the time I had spent convincing myself I wanted to attend, I didn’t want to be at this funeral. But it was too late.
Elex laced his fingers with mine in the silence that always surrounded the death of a temple master.
I desperately wanted Danai back, even if my reasons were selfish. I was scared. When I was scared before, Danai would reassure me it was fine. Everything would work out. There was no reason to be scared.
Standing in front of her funeral pyre, I was terrified to my very core. Too much had happened in less than a few weeks. Too much was changing.
“You’re trembling,” Elex whispered in my ear.
I nodded. How could I not? This wasn’t what I was expecting out of life.
Someone had attacked the temple.
Someone had killed a master.
A temple was destroyed around my ears, and every single master made me run. The magic pulled me to the cave in the mountain. Despite the shaking and trembling and uncertainty in the very ground we walked on, I knew I would be safe there.
The flames danced around Danai’s body, drawing the ashes up into the air.
The sight was morbid.
The silence was disarming.
The crowds were vast and eerily distant.
S’Kir was in chaos—except for this moment.
Master Dorian stood at the head of the temple members: the masters, the teachers, the dedicants, and the acolytes.
Elex and I stood apart, backed by our friends—Jallina, Jennila, Pierce, Drez, and Arik—we were also not part of the crowds.
I hated this.
A horrid scowl slid into place on Master Dorian’s face. He was clearly disgusted and done. He snapped around on his heel and marched away from the gathering.
The tension in the air released and the crowd slipped away while the temple members did the same.
My feet were rooted in place. It wasn’t even that I didn’t want to move. I couldn’t.
I stared transfixed at the pyre as it slowed its burn. I stayed until Elex finally tugged on my arm and pulled me away.
“Come on, Kimber. We need to leave. They have to—”
“Knock down the pyre and incinerate the remains?”
He shook his head. “I know you’re upset and angry, but this is our tradition.”
Staring at him, I was shocked at his misunderstanding and yanked my hand out of his. “You think I’m angry because of a pyre? I’m angry because that pyre shouldn’t have been. Danai should not have died! Someone killed her! You shouldn’t have been trapped in the wreckage! None of this should have happened!”
“Kimber, please—”
“Do not patronize me, Elex. Do not.”
This time, I spun on my heel and marched away from him, out into the city.
My solitude didn’t last long.
Surprisingly, Elex wasn’t who had broken it. It was Drez. “Kimber, wait!”
I slowed just enough to let him catch up. He took my arm and guided me into the shadows. There was quiet for a moment, and then he spoke.
“Kimber. Acting like this is making you more of a target. You were already on their lists, but being so vocal… Well, you’re going to get your ass killed. I don’t pretend to know what’s going on with the temple, but I do know what’s going on out there.” He pointed to the city beyond the shadows. “It’s damned dangerous.”
“She was murdered.”