Vessel: Bonded Earth Book One by Samantha Jo

Author:Samantha Jo [Jo, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samantha Jo
Published: 2024-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

May 1, 622

Rosalind

“We will find them, Ros,” Freddie said, marking a tidy x on the small map that was quickly becoming a tattered mess. Being opened, closed, and marked several times a day will do that.

“What if we don’t?” she asked around the thumbnail she had pinched between her front teeth. “What if Stokely finds them first. How could I let this happen!”

“For the hundredth time…” he said, “this is not your fault. You did not turn that man into a monster.”

“No, but I let him shove me out of her life.”

He sighed, letting the argument go, and for that, she was thankful. There was only one path to absolution for her, and it was not through Freddie. She had spent every night on the road replaying the past eight years. Every night, remembering how hard she had fought for Calen in the beginning. And recalling, with a disturbing amount of shame, how their communication had dwindled toward the end. How, even though Calen was alive and vivid in her heart, she convinced herself that her business in the capital was more important than anything else. Not only was she responsible for the wellbeing of the Archmother, but she had also spearheaded an effort to pull Vessels from all Orders together and work for positive changes for that would make their lives safer and more productive. There were, of course, benefits to being an important person in Whitehall. Life had been luxurious, soft, and full of every kind of joy for her. It was somehow only occurring to her, truly occurring to her, that Calen was living a very different life all the while.

The worst of the nightly torture, though, came in the form of fantasies. What if she had fought harder? What if she had somehow helped Calen leave that partnership and find a life closer to Whitehall? What could they have created together, with all those days? How many precious moments could they have shared?

“You are going to chew it down to a nub,” Freddie said, interrupting her reverie. She pulled her thumb from her mouth and examined it.

“Why don’t they teach you healing at Black Rock?” she asked.

He looked at her as if she had chewed her thumb down to a nub. “You know that’s not how it works, Ros.”

“In practice, they don’t teach it. But hypothetically, it could work. You could learn to use your mana that way.”

“Yes, but if I’m busy using my mana to heal your nub, who’s watching your back on this little jaunt we find ourselves on?”

“Good point. You can heal me, and I’ll borrow some of Augustus’ guards when we see him tomorrow. I really hope he can sense Nox more accurately. I worry that we are making too much noise, riding from one place to the next, asking after them.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“No,” she conceded, looking out the window at the swiftly passing landscape. They had been on the road for the better part of five days, checking the typical inns they frequented when on the road with the Archfamily.

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