All Chapters of The Healer and The Beast: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

“Please don’t cry, little one. The fever’s almost gone.”My hands trembled against the child’s burning forehead, silver light threading between my fingers like moonbeams. The magic pulled at something deep in my chest, that familiar ache that came with drawing sickness from another’s body into my own. Worth it, though. Always worth it when I felt the fever break and watched color return to pale cheeks.“There.” I smoothed damp hair from the boy’s face. “Sleep now.”His mother pressed a handful of worn copper coins into my palm, tears streaming down her weathered face. “Bless you, Miss Sena. Bless you.”I closed my fingers around the meager payment, warmth spreading through me that had nothing to do with magic. This cramped room above the bakery, with its shelves of dried herbs and collection of mismatched bottles—this was mine. The first thing I’d ever truly owned.“Bring him back in a week if the cough returns,” I said, helping her bundle the sleeping child in her cloak. “No char

“Mate?” The word tore from my throat like broken glass. “Are you completely insane?”Kael’s grip tightened around my waist as he carried me through the auction house’s twisted corridors, my feet dangling uselessly above the ground. His chest rumbled with what might have been amusement.“Hey, I’d suggest you watch your mouth with me little healer.”“Put me down!” I slammed my fists against his shoulders, the silver shackles chiming with each blow. “You can’t just declare someone your mate! That’s not how it works!”“Isn’t it?” He shouldered through a heavy door into the night air, never breaking stride. “Tell me, what do you feel when I touch you?”Heat. The traitorous warmth that had flooded through me the moment those silver restraints closed around my wrists. I pushed the thought away, focusing instead on my rage.“I feel disgust,” I spat. “Terror. The overwhelming desire to get as far away from you as possible.”“Liar.” His silver eyes found mine in the moonlight. “Your magic recog

“You always hide here, don’t you?” I said, stepping into the ruined throne room.Kael didn’t turn. He stood with his broad features back facing me, bathed in fractured moonlight seeping through a broken stained glass window. Shadows of old portraits loomed behind him, the faces twisted by time, maybe war or maybe regret.“Hide?” His voice was flat and neutral. “I don’t hide.”“Right,” I muttered, stepping further into the ruined throne room. “You just brood with dead people watching.”“I don't. I mourn...”“Over people you murdered due to your breakless anger.”He glanced back, his eyes unreadable. “They were my family.”“Ohh!” That made me pause. My chest tightened, I don't know the reason or if it's the mate bond but I held onto the reason I came here. Sympathy had no place in negotiations.“I’m not here to tiptoe around your pain,” I said. “I’m here because I’m done running.”His brow arched slightly. “You’ve decided, then?”I nodded, crossing my arms. “I’ll help you. But only on m

"Well, well. Look what the wind blew in."I spun around, my hand instinctively moving to my stomach. The voice had come from the shadows near the kitchen entrance, warm and slightly hoarse with age.An elderly woman stepped into the morning light streaming through the tall windows. She was small and compact, with silver hair braided neatly down her back and eyes the color of storm clouds. Her dress was simple but well-maintained, and she moved with the confident efficiency of someone who'd run a household for decades."You must be the healer," she continued, looking me up and down with frank assessment. "Vera Ashwyn. I keep the house around here, or what's left of it.""Sena Thorne." I studied her weathered face, searching for any trace of fear or resentment. "You were here during...""The night everything went to hell?" Vera's mouth quivered upward. "Aye, I was here. Hidden in the root cellar like a coward while my king lost his min

"You look like hell."I glanced up from the ancient text I'd been staring at for the past hour without actually reading. Kael stood in the library doorway, and he wasn't wrong—I probably did look terrible. Sleep had been elusive since the nightmare, and the approaching full moon was doing strange things to my body."Thanks for the observation." I turned back to the book, trying to ignore how his presence made my skin prickle with awareness. "Very helpful.""When's the last time you left this room?""Yesterday. Maybe the day before." The words on the page blurred together as he moved closer. "I'm researching Elena's family background like we discussed.""For sixteen hours straight?"Had it been that long? Time seemed to move differently lately, especially when the mate bond hummed with restless energy that made sitting still impossible."I'm fine.""You're not." He settled into the chair across from me, and the scent of cedar and starlight made my mouth water. "The full moon affects ma