Jonas smiled, and there was a strength behind it he’d lacked the past couple of days. A part of Llew wanted to jump up, whoop with triumph and punch the air, but there was still so much to do. She placed a hand on Jonas’s shoulder and said, “We’ll do this every day, if we have to.”

  She returned her attention to Rowan as Elka drew more blood. “We have to fit Jonas with a way for him to have a constant supply of my blood, like Braph’s crystals, but I don’t know how we’ll make them out here.”

  Rowan nodded, watching Elka inject Jonas. His eyes alight with fascination and hardening as he got to thinking on the challenge before them. “Elka and I will come up with something. She knows more about blood and bodies than I do.”

  “Jonas helped Braph build one of his devices, so he knows what went into it and how it connected to Braph’s bloodstream.” Llew held out her arm for Elka to take more blood. “For the crystals …” She glanced out over the farm buildings and fields. There had to be something they could use. “I remember steam, but I think he pressed them. I don’t know how we’ll do that here.”

  “Give us a day or two to explore. We’ll think of something.”

  As soon as Elka withdrew the needle once more, Jonas gripped the crutch, dug the end into the dirt and reached an arm up for assistance to stand. Llew instinctively clutched his hand, and a bolt of energy zipped into her.

  She cursed and released her grip. She hadn’t been healing and replenishing from a tree while she’d been speaking to Rowan.

  Jonas fell back hard, his head hitting dirt and the crutch striking up into the air, narrowly missing Llew, before he dropped it, letting it clatter to the ground beside him as he expelled a frustrated breath.

  “I’m so sorry!” She dropped to her knees. She wanted to clutch his hand, draw him to her, but she was scared to touch him.

  Jonas shook his head dismissively and puffed out another sigh. Fatigued. Llew cursed, ran to a tree, healed, and dashed back to Elka, her inner arm bared. “How many since I last healed? Three? We need to do at least that many again.” Elka nodded and got on with the task, though she held the syringe more awkwardly as her hands seemed to stiffen. She didn’t complain, and was becoming well practiced. She drew Llew’s blood swiftly and administered it to Jonas. Llew returned to her tree to heal and remove any danger she posed to her friends, still cursing herself, and they repeated this dance three more times.

  Llew healed herself once more, pausing momentarily after the final tingle crossed her skin, as Rowan helped Jonas to his foot and passed him the crutch to lean on.

  Llew stood before Jonas and spread her arms, and Jonas lifted his free arm in welcome. She stepped into him, wrapped her arms around him, pressed her nose into the side of his neck and luxuriated as he returned the embrace. One-armed though it may have been, there was strength there, and his eternal warmth. Llew wanted to fall into him, but she held herself up, leaning into him only for his warmth and solidity, his presence.

  Elka shuffled beside them, gathering her supplies back into their bag.

  “You alright?” Rowan asked. Llew glanced at him, but saw he spoke to his sister.

  “Just a bit stiff.”

  Jonas shifted his weight to lean into his crutch. While he didn’t remove his arm from around Llew’s back, she took it to be an end to their embrace, stepped back, and echoed Rowan. “Everything alright?”

  “I have salve.” Elka massaged one palm with the thumb of her other hand.

  Llew managed not to roll her eyes. “You good?” She checked Jonas was balanced with his crutch.

  “Yeah. I— I gotta—” He waved a hand at the far side of the homestead. Oh, right. After receiving so much of Llew’s blood, he would need to pee.

  Llew gripped Elka’s hand. The ghi transfer was minuscule. “It’s that easy,” she said, then pressed her hand to a tree.

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  “It’s so easy to forget that, especially after seeing how much harder it is for him.” Rowan gestured at Jonas’s return. “I mean, it’s great you can do it, huh?”

  Llew nodded and turned to welcome Jonas back. “It’s so good to see you up and about. How do you feel?” She beckoned him into another hug – she’d wanted Merrid’s, but his would more than do – and Jonas leaned in, bringing his arm up around her waist in kind.

  “Yeah, good,” he said. “I’m starvin’. I, uh—” He stood back, keeping his hand on her waist, glanced at the swinging bodies of the farmers.

  Llew followed his gaze. “Merrid would’ve welcomed us in and fed us very well.” Her heart ached at the thought that such warm welcomes would have to be imagined from now on. Oh, to be wrapped in Merrid’s arms again. But she still had Jonas’s. She squeezed his waist, he returned it, and they headed for the homestead together.

  As they climbed up to the porch, Alvaro appeared around the corner. “I need to speak with you.” He focused solely on Llew.

  Llew really didn’t want to talk to Alvaro, especially not alone. She looked to Jonas.

  “Not him. You.” Alvaro set his jaw and moved off the porch, heading for the Ajnais.

  “It won’t hurt to listen,” Jonas said. “I can stand menacingly, if it’ll help.”

  Llew looked him up and down. “I think that charade might be blown.”

  “I’ll send Rowan out.”

  “That … might work.” Llew turned reluctantly to where Alvaro stood in the shade of an Ajnai, while Jonas entered the kitchen. She took a fortifying breath and stepped from the porch.

  “Thank you for coming,” Llew said as she approached him. “Don’t think I don’t appreciate it. You owe me nothing. If either of us owes the other, it’d be me owing you.” She stopped before him.

  “Cassidy wasn’t a favor.”

  “I know— I wasn’t—” She hadn’t been referring to Cassidy at all. She’d meant his accompanying Jonas to rescue her from Braph and now, chaperoning Anya safely.

  “Llew.” Alvaro placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s not fight. We need a united front. You’re not safe in Turhmos. I came with Anya expressly to help get you out of here. Obviously, Jonas isn’t the strongman he was. I get—” He grimaced at whatever thought crossed his mind. “I get that you had feelings for him. But keeping him around will only slow you down. We need to get you home to Brurun. Bring back some seeds, set yourself up in the safety of our borders. You know you’re welcome there. And I can protect you. Help you make a home there.”

  Reeling at his touch and deliberate choice of words, Llew clutched for arguments. “Not against Braph.” Not a good enough argument. Neither could Jonas. Yet.

  “I can come up with a plan for Braph. I’m not stupid. The simple fact is, you’re not safe in Turhmos. Come on, let’s just go.”

  “I’ve got a plan, I—”

  Flustered as she was, Llew was relieved when Rowan stepped from the kitchen and leaned against one of the porch columns, arms crossed, appearing at once both a casual neighbor and an ally.

  “What if you can’t fix him? What if you waste all this time, put your life and the lives of everyone who’s here – for you – at risk for nothing?” Alvaro stepped closer. “Even after everything, I will protect you with my life. Doesn’t that count for something?” He raised a hand like he was going to brush her hair behind her ear. Llew stepped back and Alvaro’s jaw rippled over clenching teeth. “What you think you had with him was never real. He was all high and mighty, and now he’s broken. You needed him, now he needs you. That’s not real. I’m real. And I love you.”

  “Stop.” Llew raised a hand. “Just stop.” She opened her mouth to chastise him, but her eye was drawn to movement by the road. Her initial prepare-to-fight response subsided at the sight of a single figure at the well. She narrowed her eyes as the figure took a deep drink from the small bucket then leaned on the stone edge as they observed their surroundings. Despite the androgynous prisoner garb just like what Llew had been wearing when she escaped Duffirk, that crown of dark, curly hair was unmistakable. Oh no.

  “Who is that?” Alvaro asked.

  Llew’s stomach dropped even as her temper flared hot, as the dark skin tone and general ease within the curvy body consolidated to confirm her suspicion: Karlani.