“What do you mean, nothing is wrong with her?” Nesta hissed under her breath as the ancient female braced a hand on the stair railing to help herself down. I kept beside the healer, a hand in easy reach of her elbow, should she need it.
Madja, I reminded myself, had healed Cassian and Azriel—and countless injuries beyond that. She’d healed Rhys’s wings during the War. She looked ancient, but I had no doubt of her stamina—or sheer will to help her patients.
Madja didn’t deign to answer Nesta until we were at the bottom of the steps. Lucien was already waiting in the sitting room, Mor still lingering in the dining room. Both of them rose to their feet, but remained in their respective rooms, flanking the foyer.
“What I mean,” Madja said at last, sizing up Nesta, then me, “is that I can find nothing wrong with her. Her body is fine—too thin and in need of more food and fresh air, but nothing amiss. And as for her mind … I cannot enter it.”
I blinked. “She has a shield?”
“She is Cauldron-Made,” the healer said, again looking over Nesta. “You are not like the rest of us. I cannot pierce the places it left its mark most deeply.” The mind. The soul. She shot me a warning glance. “And I would not try if I were you, Lady.”
“But do you think there’s something wrong, even if there are no signs?” Nesta pushed.
“I have seen the victims of trauma before. Her symptoms match well with many of those invisible wounds. But … she was also Made by something I do not understand. Is there something wrong with her?” Madja chewed over the words. “I do not like that word—wrong. Different, perhaps. Changed.”
“Does she need further help?” Nesta said through her teeth.
The ancient healer jerked her chin toward Lucien. “See what he can do. If anyone can sense if something is amiss, it’s a mate.”
“How.” The word was barely more than a barked command.
I braced myself to warn Nesta to be polite, but Madja said to my sister, as if she were a small child, “The mating bond. It is a bridge between souls.”
The healer’s tone made my sister stiffen, but Madja was already hobbling for the front door. She pointed at Lucien as she saw herself out. “Try sitting down with her. Just talking—sensing. See what you pick up. But don’t push.” Then she was gone.
I whirled on Nesta. “A little respect, Nesta—”
“Call another healer.”
“Not if you’re going to bark them out of the house.”
“Call another healer.”
Mor strode for us with deceptive calm, and Nesta gave her a withering glare.
I caught Lucien’s eye. “Would you try it?”
Nesta snarled, “Don’t you even attempt—”
“Be quiet,” I snapped.
Nesta blinked.
I bared my teeth at her. “He will try. And if he doesn’t find anything amiss, we’ll consider bringing another healer.”
“You’re just going to drag her down here?”
“I’m going to invite her.”
Nesta faced Mor, still watching from the archway. “And what will you be doing?”
Mor gave my sister a half smile. “I’ll be sitting with Feyre. Keeping an eye on things.”
Lucien muttered something about not needing to be monitored, and we all looked at him with raised brows.
He just lifted his hands, claimed he wanted to freshen up, and headed down the hall.
CHAPTER
29
It was the most uncomfortable thirty minutes I could recall.
Mor and I sipped chilled mint tea by the bay window, the replies of the three High Lords piled on the little table between our twin chairs, pretending to be watching the summer-kissed street beyond us, the children, High Fae and faerie, darting about with kites and streamers and all manner of toys.
Pretending, while Lucien and Elain sat in stilted silence by the dim fireplace, an untouched tea service between them. I didn’t dare ask if he was trying to get into her head, or if he was feeling a bond similar to that black adamant bridge between Rhys’s mind and my own. If a normal mating bond felt wholly different.
A teacup rattled and rasped against a saucer, and Mor and I glanced over.
Elain had picked up the teacup, and now sipped from it without so much as looking toward him.
In the dining room across the hall, I knew Nesta was craning her neck to look.
Knew, because Amren snapped at my sister to pay attention.
They were building walls—in their minds, Amren had told me as she ordered Nesta to sit at the dining room table, directly across from her.
Walls that Amren was teaching her to sense—to find the holes she’d laid throughout. And repair them. If the fell objects at the Court of Nightmares had not allowed my sister to grasp what must be done, then this was their next attempt—a different, invisible route. Not all magic was flash and glittering, Amren had declared, and then shooed me out.
But any sign of that power within my sister … I did not hear it or see it or feel it. And neither offered any explanation for what it was, exactly, that they were trying to coax from within her.
Outside the house, movement again caught our eye, and we found Rhys and Cassian strolling in through the low front gate, returning from their first meeting with Keir’s Darkbringer army commanders—already rallying and preparing. At least that much had gone right yesterday.
Both of them spotted us in the window within a heartbeat. Stopped cold.
Don’t come in, I warned him through the bond. Lucien is trying to sense what’s wrong with Elain. Through the bond.
Rhys murmured what I’d said to Cassian, who now angled his head, much in the way I had no doubt Nesta had done, to peer beyond us.
Rhys said wryly, Does Elain know this?
She was invited down for tea. So we’re having it.
Rhys muttered again to Cassian, who choked on a laugh and turned right around, heading into the street. Rhys lingered, sliding his hands into his pockets. He’s getting a drink. I’m inclined to join him. When can I return without fearing for my life?
I gave him a vulgar gesture through the window. Such a big, strong Illyrian warrior.
Illyrian warriors know when to pick their battles. And with Nesta watching everything like a hawk and you two circling like vultures … I know who will walk away from that fight.
I made the gesture again, and Mor figured out enough of what was being said that she echoed the movement. Rhys laughed quietly and sketched a bow.
The High Lords sent replies, I said as he strolled away. Day, Dawn, and Winter will come.
I know, he said. And I just received word from Cresseida that Tarquin is contemplating it.
Better than nothing. I said as much.
Rhys smiled at me over his shoulder. Enjoy your tea, you overbearing chaperone.
I could have used a chaperone around you, you realize.
You had four of them in this house.
I smiled as he finally reached the low front gate where Cassian waited, apparently using the momentary delay to stretch out his wings, to the delight of the half-dozen children now gawking at them.
Amren hissed from the other room, “Focus.” The dining table rattled.
The sound seemed to startle Elain, who swiftly set down her teacup. She rose to her feet, and Lucien shot to his.
“I’m sorry,” he blurted.