Jaser continued, “Since we only have a week to prepare, I think we should stick to the staff. It will be less threatening to Cade and Poppy, so they’ll feel less pressure to kill you.”
“That’s a plus,” Scarlett said, half-serious, half-jokingly.
“I agree,” Raith said. It was the first thing he’d said in a while. Scarlett felt sadness from the bond. Something was on his mind. Either Jaser didn’t notice, or didn’t care, because his focus was solely on Scarlett.
Jaser continued to show Scarlett defensive moves with the staff—how to block from one attack to the next. Even she was pleasantly surprised at how well she defended herself. She was sure Jaser was going easy on her, but still. She was far better at it than she could have hoped for.
“Okay, now you take this one, and I’ll grab a sword,” Jaser said. “It has fae magic in it which won’t do you much good, but a wooden one would do a piss poor job against a blade.”
Scarlett switched staffs. When she took the metal staff in her hand, the orb glowed purple.
“What in the hell?” Jaser said. “Raith, look.”
Raith glanced at the staff in Scarlett’s hand. “Well, look at that.”
“What?” Scarlett asked. She remembered when the dagger had glowed when she was here with Cade. She was careful not to let him see then—in case it meant something, which, apparently, it did. Somehow, Raith didn’t seem surprised.
“Did you know?” Jaser asked Raith.
“I had a hunch.”
“How?”
And they were both ignoring Scarlett’s question. Great.
“Come here, Scarlett,” Raith said.
She went to him. He placed his hands on the side of her head and closed his eyes. Then a memory came flooding into Scarlett’s mind—when she got bit by the banshee and Raith saved her. He took her to his tree house and then back to her room and erased her memory.
“You messed with my head,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” Raith said. “Truly. I don’t like to do that to people. I just didn’t want you knowing it was me who saved you, at least not then.”
If she couldn’t feel the bond between them, she may have thought he was lying and didn’t care at all about what he’d done. But regret trickled from him and Scarlett couldn’t find it in herself to be mad about it.
Raith told Jaser how the banshee bit Scarlett and he couldn’t find any serum to heal its poison, so he thought Scarlett would die. But she didn’t.
“What does it all mean?” Scarlett asked.
“You have fae blood in you,” Raith said.
Scarlett remembered her healing powers. It all made sense. Yet, how could it be?
She thought long and hard for a moment—should she tell them about her ability to heal or not? She hated to get even more wrapped up in this world than she already was, but if she and Raith didn’t win the battle, she could die.
What choice did she have but to trust them?
“Let me show you something,” Scarlett said. “Do you have a blade that isn’t made with fae magic?”
Jaser gave her a small knife. “This work?”
“Yes.” Scarlett took the blade and asked Raith for his hand. “I need to cut you.”
Raith nodded, eyebrow raised. The blade was sharp and his skin sliced easily. He winced slightly as a wound appeared on his hand. Scarlett felt his pain through the bond.
She covered the wound with her hand and reached inside herself to heal it. Energy flowed from her into where the knife had pierced his skin. When she moved her hand, the cut was gone.
Raith inspected his hand. “I would have healed on my own from that small of a cut,” he said. “But not that quickly. How did you do that?”
“I’m not sure,” Scarlett said. “Kassandra stabbed one of the servants with a spoon and when I pulled it out of her, I just knew I could fix it.”
Had she not seen the magic the fae possessed or felt the change in herself when she stepped into Faerie, she’d be certain she was losing her mind. What would she have thought if her mom told her that she could heal someone? Scarlett would have done everything she could to convince her to take her medication. But her mom never claimed any special powers. Chances were, she was mentally ill.
But Scarlett wasn’t. She was fae—well, part fae, at least.
“She’s got to be part Seelie,” Jaser said. “That’s crazy. They aren’t supposed to mate with humans.”
“We all know how well fae follow that rule,” Raith replied.
“But the high and mighty Seelies are supposed to be perfect.”
“Hello? Can you fill me in?” Scarlett waved her hands back and forth.
“The Seelie and Unseelie like to think of themselves as the elite fae. Seelies are supposed to be the lighter fae, the Unseelie the darker. A few decades ago, to show their superiority, the Seelie Queen banned her court from commingling with mortals. Looks like someone didn’t listen,” Jaser said.
“How does it help us in the battle?” Scarlett asked.
“Well, I don’t think anyone else knows,” Raith said. “So we’ll have the element of surprise. And you should be stronger and faster than a regular human.”
Scarlett was always quicker than the other girls, and a lot of the boys, too. She never thought much of it until now. And the ease of taking down the bully on the playground that time was remarkable. He was a lot bigger than she was and she tackled him like it was nothing.
“That should be enough for today,” Jaser said. “We’ll see what we can figure out about your power tomorrow.”
Scarlett hung the staff back on the wall—the purple in the orb fading when it left her hands.
Raith walked Scarlett to her room. As he left her there alone, he said. “Don’t let Cade know.”
Scarlett had kept it from him this long, so what was another week? It ended up being especially easy that night because Cade didn’t come to her room before she fell asleep like he normally did. Scarlett tried desperately to fall asleep, but her thoughts were too busy—her mother’s death, Ashleigh’s harsh words, her time in Faerie, and now the battle—everything swarmed her, making sleep impossible.
At first, she thought she had a grip on it all. She focused on her breathing, trying to clear her mind. It didn’t work. She felt the pain and panic grow and swirl together inside her chest. She needed to get it under control. If only she knew how.
Scarlett felt trapped in this room. She’d spent too much time in it, waiting for Cade to arrive and take away her pain. He wasn’t coming tonight, and even if he did, the bargain prevented him from feeding from her emotion. Her pain was hers alone now. She needed out.
Still in her nightgown, the cold stone floor sent a chill up her leg as her bare feet pounded against it. She needed air to think. Getting away from her human troubles seemed like such a good idea. Now, she felt lost. She went out the castle backdoor without anyone noticing.
The moonlight lit the garden. Out there, the fresh air relaxed her. She breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of the rose bushes she stood next to.
“It’s awfully late for a lady to be outside alone.” Raith whispered behind Scarlett, his breath on her neck causing a quiver.
“I’m not a typical lady.” Scarlett turned. Raith towered above her. His steel blue eyes glistened in the moonlight.
He placed a hand on her back. “I never thought you were.”
“Cade wouldn’t like us out here alone. It isn’t part of the bargain.” Scarlett didn’t care what Cade thought, but she wondered if Raith feared his younger brother enough to leave her alone. After choosing her for his second, her guess was no.
Raith pulled Scarlett closer. “All the more reason for us to be here.”