Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) Chapter 47: 47: I'm Ready

Read chapter 47 of Magician's Touch (Deadly Touch book 3) by Deb E Howell on NovelPedia.

Llew and Jonas still hadn’t eaten. Eirian brought Llew some water and a cooling cake of fried smashed potato, then went to collect the syringes that had gone unused for the past several days. Ivor managed to get Jonas to swallow some water laced with a little sugar in an effort to boost his energy so he could make better use of Llew’s blood. Using raw blood meant Jonas had to heal from any damage the blood did to him before he could heal that inflicted by Braph’s bug. And if he was still failing to fight the bug itself, it was only growing, attacking all the faster, while they had taken a step back. But he was drinking. Llew could do nothing more than bleed. Her blood trickled through the Gravinator and directly into Jonas. At the same time, Eirian and Delwynn drew syringe loads of Llew’s blood and injected it into Jonas’s other arm. With a hand pressed to an Ajnai, her skin closed swiftly after each syringe needle exited her skin. And yet, each time, a bead of blood escaped. Such a tiny amount. But when she thought of what Jonas could do with it, it seemed a terrible waste. Around mid-morning Jonas was able to chew some bread and potato. The blood collected the night before had finally been purified, and that was injected, too, giving Jonas a true boost and freeing him from the Gravinator so Llew’s blood could be redirected to building the next stockpile of purified magic. Garnoc and Edwyn took over filling syringes and emptying them into collection vessels. Karlani and Sam were moved into the bunker below the farmhouse in the hopes the cooler temperature would allow a proper farewell in a few days’ time. If their bodies had to be buried or burned before Llew could afford to leave the Ajnais, she would figure out how to make peace with that. She hoped she wouldn’t have to. Jonas sat and dozed beneath the next Ajnai over from Llew, providing company with no expectations, and avoiding using more energy than he needed to, while Garnoc and Edwyn continued to work in an industrious silence, allowing Llew to turn her attention to her connection with the Ajnai. Braph was dead, he could no longer hurt her tree or her baby’s soul. Her baby no longer screamed for her. That absence worried her, until her awareness reached the Taither tree where a dull ache pulsed through her palm, along with a forlorn sense of something lost. She sensed an eerie, infantile moan, alongside an impression of sorrow and defeat that belonged to the tree itself. Why? Over Braph? Surely not. Orin? Perhaps. Or purely over damage Braph had done to it? You were healing? An affirmative, resigned mood flowed through her. She didn’t fully understand it, and wouldn’t until they made it to Taither themselves. Was her mother still there awaiting the return of Braph and Orin? A stab of guilt made Llew’s belly ache. Her mother would be heartbroken over Orin, if not Braph. Regardless, she would blame Llew. Llew had mourned her mother’s death, celebrated her life and freedom … And now? Her mother lived, but Llew couldn’t fathom salvaging their relationship. Not if her mother still loved Braph. How could she ever have loved him given all he had done? Could her mother be conversing with the tree and bonding with that baby’s soul? Llew wasn’t sure how she felt about that. If her mother still chose Braph over her, what right did she have to behave as a grandmother to Llew’s children? Surely now her mother must know Braph for what he was. Her mother had every right to love Orin as her child, even if it left Llew aching to know why she couldn’t love her too, but how could she still love the magician? Surely he couldn’t have treated her so well his love blotted out all others. It was hard to believe Braph could’ve been kind and loving to anyone. A snort escaped her. Garnoc and Edwyn paused in their work. “It’s fine. Keep going,” Llew said, then looked beyond them to meet Jonas’s inquiring gaze. “I was wondering what my mother must be thinking.” Jonas raised an eyebrow. “And that