Kingdom of Ash

He nearly staggered back at the festering
wound, the black veins running up from it.
Leaking its poison into her. What Kaltain’s
wound had no doubt looked like, and why the
scar remained, even in death.
But he sheathed Damaris and took her arm
in his hands.
Ice. Her skin was like ice. “Lie down,” he
told her.
She shook, but obeyed. Bracing herself. For
him.
Kaltain. Oh gods, Kaltain. What she’d
endured—
Dorian freed the knife at his side—the one
Sorrel had gifted him—and angled it over her
arm. Kaltain had done the same to free it,
Manon had said.
But Dorian sent a flicker of his healing
magic to her arm. To numb and soothe. She
thrashed, but he held firm. Let his magic flare