Page 51 of A Darkness So Sweet
He held it up for Maia to see and then asked, “Can you convince this to do more than it normally would? I can use her body to absorb it, but I need more than what I have.”
She frowned, staring at the small bit of yarrow before holding out her hands. He dropped the leaves into her hand and then watched as she cupped it. Holding her closed hands to her mouth, she whispered to the plant.
He thought he could hear her asking for its help. Begging it to give them a chance to save more people, even though it was tired and had long been resting.
But when she opened her palms, the leaves in her hands were significantly larger. There was more than enough for this one troll, and perhaps even two more.
Relief spread through his chest. He set to work with the now generous amount of yarrow, placing the leaf against the woman’s leg. When Maia’s hand came down on his, he could feel her magic intertwining with his own. Now, it felt like he could speak to both the plant and the body. Use them both together to convince the healing properties of the plants to be stronger while convincing the body to use it faster.
When they were done, the leg was healed as though it had been weeks since the injury. And his magic hadn’t been used up to the point of him shaking yet again.
“Thank you,” the troll woman said, placing her hand over theirs. “Now go, healer. There are many more trolls for you to see.”
He stood with his troll wife and marveled at her strength. She lifted him to his feet with what seemed like little effort and then tugged him forward. “Come on. There’s a lot more of them.”
“You will continue to heal them with me?” he asked, stunned.
“Of course I will.”
He tugged her to a halt, needing this answer above all others. “Why?”
“Because they need help.” Her brows had furrowed, but then her features softened. She reached for his hand and brought his bloody fingers to her lips. Gently, she pressed a kiss to his worn knuckles. “I’m so sorry that all you have seen of my kind is anger and hate. Not all of us rejoice in the pain of your people, Ragnar, and I know nothing I say will take those memories away. But I am here. I will help for as long as I’m able.”
Together, they headed out into the city to heal who they could and to help those who needed help. And for a few moments, he allowed hope to bloom in his chest. Perhaps his troll wife wouldn’t be such a burden after all.
ChapterTwenty-One
MAIA
Gunnar had to drag Maia home before Ragnar was finished. She didn’t want to leave him there by himself, suffering by overusing his magic. His hands were shaking with effort, his posture had curved in on himself, and his usually lovely lavender shade had turned into a strange pale color.
Maia hadn’t known anyone could use magic like he did. Humans rarely ever used their power, if they even had it to begin with.
But watching him was magic in itself. She could see the trolls’ bones rearranging themselves underneath his touch. All it took was a single grimace from Ragnar and the entire wound he touched would close. The power that he had inside of him… she couldn’t imagine how deep it went.
“Has he always done that?” she asked as Gunnar opened the door for her to go inside.
“Done what?”
“Stretched himself too thin for others?” Maia looked up into the broad green face of Ragnar’s brother, searching for something in those features that was familiar. But Gunnar was just as different to her as all the other trolls were.
He flashed her a sad smile. “That’s part of who we are. We stretch ourselves thin for everyone here. Those who can, do. Those who can’t appreciate the help that is given. Trolls are all a family here, no matter who came from who.”
“That seems... idyllic.”
“It’s not all fun and games. Trolls argue. Some of them leave the mountain entirely. Bad blood spreads and festers.” A troubled expression twisted his lips and furrowed his brows. He looked at the door, but then sighed. “Ragnar lost his oldest friend that way. It’s not all good here, but it is mostly good. We love our home and the people around us until they don’t wish to be loved any longer.”
Her heart broke for them. These were good people who had been handed nothing but suffering, and they deserved more than this. She stepped further into the room. The wisps lit up, casting blue light on all the rubble that surrounded them.
There was so much to repair. The ceiling had cracked in multiple places, raining down shards of stones all throughout the parlor. She’d been seated right underneath it, laughing about something Rota had said when she’d first heard it. The crack had felt like it came from deep within her bones.
She’d lunged off the couch at the same time Rota had reached for her. With their combined effort, she’d just barely gotten out of the way. Standing here now, her heart raced with the same fear. She’d almost died.
But thoughts like that didn’t help. So she pressed a hand to her chest, rubbed the ache there, and surveyed the room. There were three large pieces that she wouldn’t be able to move herself. One of those had destroyed the comfortable couch near the fire.
She sighed and shook her head. “So much to fix. It feels like trying to move a mountain.”
Then she heard what she said and immediately looked over at Gunnar. They stared at each other for a few moments before he burst into laughter. The dust covered troll laughed until tears tracked down his cheeks, and then he finally blew out a long breath to get ahold of himself. “It is, in fact, a mountain to move. But we’ve seen worse.”
