Bloodleaf (Bloodleaf 1)

“I know what you’re doing,” Onal said, “and it will not work! Stop now, child, they are watching!”

I looked up and found a hundred pairs of eyes on me and my upheld hand, dripping blood. But I didn’t have time to care; Simon’s eyes were going glassy and rolling into his skull. His rattling breaths were slowing.

Onal was right; it wouldn’t work. I could feel it—?the magic was resisting. Blood magic wasn’t used for healing; that’s what Simon had said.

I pulled out the glass capsule I’d hidden in the folds of my gown—?wine stains commingling now with blood—?and broke the seal.

“Where did you get that?” Onal gasped. “Aurelia, no—?”

But I had already poured the contents—?water, petal, and all—?down Simon’s throat.

“What have you done?” she whispered.

7

“Will he live?”

“Yes,” Onal said, pacing in front of the settee Simon had been transferred to in my mother’s study. “He’ll live.”

“Please don’t be angry,” I said, though I knew I deserved every drop of her wrath.

“Angry? Angry doesn’t begin to cover what I’m feeling at this moment, you stupid, stupid girl.”

“I saved his life, did I not?”

“You broke into my rooms! You stole something most precious—?”

My mother had put Conrad to bed in the adjoining chamber and now sat anxiously by the fireplace. “That petal was meant for you, Aurelia,” she said. “We were going to send it with you. And now it’s just . . . gone.”

I struggled to find words. “I’m sorry. Can’t we just buy another? I know they’re rare, but Onal got hold of them somehow . . .” I trailed off. The idea that we could waltz into the marketplace and purchase a bloodleaf petal was so absurd, it was laughable.

I’d made a mistake. A terrible mistake.

“Sorry?” Onal shrilled. “I acquired my bloodleaf petals when my sister was stolen away from our house during the night and we found her murdered the next day in the forest. I lost my sister but harvested bloodleaf flower. Who would you be willing to sacrifice to gain another?”

I directed all my anger at myself toward Onal instead, to avoid having to fully accept my own idiocy. “But you wasted one yourself, did you not? You knew that bloodleaf petals don’t work on someone who’s already dead, and yet when my father—?”

“You fool. How dare you compare us? I took care of your father from infancy. I loved him like he was my own child, my own heart. It was useless for me to even try to bring him back. He’d been dead for days when they brought him to us. But I did try. I had to. Because I loved him. And I will never get that petal back, but I don’t care. But you . . . you steal my last petal and immediately waste it! How long have you known this man? Less than a day!”

“That arrow was meant for me! I couldn’t let him die. And if he, as an emissary from Achleva, were to die in our court, it could have been blamed on us. It could have meant war . . .”

“War may have come—?it was a possibility. But what you have done has made the danger to you a certainty,” Mother said gravely. “We’re all in danger now.”

Kellan entered, wiping sweat from his brow. “The halls are quiet for the moment, but the Tribunal magistrates have already begun to gather. I suggest we get Aurelia away, before word about the banquet spreads further.” He put his hand on the pommel of his sword. “Maybe my family can take her in, just for a little while?”

“And what will your family do when the Tribunal arrives on their doorstep, bloodthirsty mob in tow?” Onal had always been imposing, but now she was like a prowling, angry cat. “As they will, undoubtedly, now that there is an entire hall full of witnesses to Aurelia’s witchcraft.” To me she said, ?

?Mark my words: they will come for you, they will kill you, and they will kill anyone who tries to stand in their way.”

“This isn’t how it was supposed to happen,” Mother said. “This isn’t how it was supposed to be.” Her eyes were glistening. “We never finished the ritual, and the bloodleaf petal is gone. I can’t just send you away with no protection, no assurance of your safety.”

From the settee, Simon’s voice came in a bare whisper. “We can finish it.”

“You’re awake,” I said, amazed. “It really worked.”

He groaned as he pulled himself to a sitting position. Looking down at his bloodstained clothes, he said, “How was this accomplished? The last thing I remember—?”

“You took an arrow to the chest. And when Aurelia’s blood spell didn’t work, she used a bloodleaf flower petal on you,” Onal said in a cool, clipped tone.