She laughed. “Yes, if you count chicken, potatoes, carrots, and leeks as ‘something.’”

“Oh,” I said, embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I don’t really understand how magic works, I guess.”

She raised a quizzical brow.

“Not your kind of magic, anyway.”

“They say Varenians live longer than any other people,” she said, watching me take a sip of broth. It was so delicious I almost groaned. “That you heal remarkably fast. That your waters make you healthy and strong.”

I nodded. “That’s all true.”

“And you don’t think that’s magic?”

I chewed on a chunk of potato, considering. “I suppose I always thought of that as nature. We die, our bodies nourish the blood coral, which in turn nourishes the ocean, which then nourishes us. It’s a cycle of life and death, not magic.”

“Hmm,” she said, still watching me.

I realized I’d eaten nearly half my bowl of soup and set my spoon down. She hadn’t taken a single bite. “Do you consider that magic?”

“I think the world is full of magic. It’s in the air and the water and the soil and the trees. But only some of us are capable of harnessing it. I sense you are one of those people, Nor. I think that’s why Roan told you about me.”

I blushed, staring into my bowl of soup. “What would give Roan that impression? He hardly knows me.”

“Because Roan’s mother was a healer, like me. And because he’s an empath, believe it or not. He hides behind sarcasm and crude humor, but he’s far more perceptive than people give him credit for. He sensed you were searching for something that you might find here. I think he was right.”

I dug back into my soup to avoid responding. I wasn’t ready to talk about my healing powers or the fact that Ceren needed my blood, and more importantly, I didn’t want to admit that Roan might actually be perceptive, despite his smug exterior.

By the time we finished eating, the storm had blown away, leaving an innocent blue sky in its wake. A man with a cart came by with my little wooden bed, which was placed in a corner of Adriel’s workshop. I was about to sit down and start reading the book Adriel gave me when she knocked on the door.

“Come on,” she said, tossing my still-damp cloak at me.

“Where are we going?” I asked, slightly cranky at being interrupted. I didn’t have much time to figure out how the bloodstones worked, and Adriel’s constant questioning made me anxious.

“I’m taking you to see the bone trees,” she said, and disappeared outside before I had a chance to respond.

15

Adriel and I left the house on foot and headed for the forest that began less than a mile away. Since the ground was soft from the rain and our boots got stuck in the muddy road, we kept to the fields, tromping through the damp grass and wildflowers. Every now and then, Adriel would stop to pluck a specimen and place it in a satchel she wore across her body.

“Tell me about Talin,” she said after we’d been walking in silence for a while. “Roan said you told him you aren’t lovers, but somehow I don’t believe that’s entirely true.”

“What is it with Galethians and personal questions?” I stepped over a rotted branch as we entered the forest. “My relationship with Talin isn’t any of your concern.”

Adriel cast me a questioning glance. “Apologies. I didn’t realize that was considered personal where you come from.”

“It is,” I huffed. “I haven’t asked you about your relationships, have I?”

“I wouldn’t mind if you did. Although my last lover moved to Leesbrook over a year ago. She wanted to become a blacksmith’s apprentice, and I couldn’t very well move to the city.”

“Oh.” I blinked in surprise.

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me only men and women are allowed to be lovers in Varenia. I know how strict the Ilarean royals can be when it comes to marriage and procreation, but I thought the Varenians were a little more evolved than that.”

“It isn’t that,” I said, shaking my head. Varenian girls were groomed to marry a prince, whose sexual preference was irrelevant as far as the crown was concerned. His duty was to carry on the royal bloodline, and he would have to marry accordingly. But if we weren’t chosen, we could marry freely, as long as our parents and the elders approved the match. “I just assumed you and Roan were lovers.”

Adriel laughed. “My tastes are far more discerning than you give me credit for.”

“And the woman who left?”

“Ana.” She pushed a branch aside and waited for me to pass. “I loved her, but the truth is that most hedge witches live alone. I knew she wouldn’t stay forever.”

I mulled over her words over for a moment. “Do Galethians marry?”

“Some do. It’s more of a formality than anything, though. Are you and Talin going to marry?”

I should have been prepared for the blunt question, but it still caught me off guard. “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I was betrothed to his brother, Ceren. But I never loved him.” I told her the story of how Zadie had been chosen to marry Ceren and I’d gone in her place, elaborating on how Talin had helped me while I was at New Castle.

“It sounds as if he would do anything for you,” Adriel said after I’d finished. “Do you love him?”

I knew that I did, but it felt strange to admit that to someone I barely knew before I had told Talin. I nodded instead. “But his goal is to help his mother overthrow Ceren, and I have to make sure my family is safe. It’s hard to even think about marriage.”

“Is that why you came? To ask the Galethians to help you?”

We had reached a clearing. In the center was a grove of the strangest trees I’d ever seen. Tall and skeletal, without a single leaf on their slender white branches, they looked more like dead coral than trees.

I turned to Adriel. I knew she was close to Roan, and I didn’t want her going to him before we’d had time to come up with a strategy. “Do you think the Galethians would help us if we asked?”

“That all depends on why you think the Galethians should help, I suppose. This is not their fight, Nor.”

From what I knew of Ceren, this would be the entire continent’s fight eventually, but my thoughts had snagged on something else. “What do you mean by their?”

She walked into the clearing, the light streaming down onto her dark hair. She was objectively beautiful by Varenian standards, but it was her lack of self-consciousness that set her apart from any woman I’d met before.