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actually done what I was told to do in order to get better and keep my legs as healthy as they can be.”
    Shit. “So this isn’t a social call?”
    “Jaenelle asked me to come and look at Rainier. Provide a second opinion as a Healer.”
    Daemon stiffened. “ Jaenelle asked for a second opinion?”
    “Tells you something is wrong, doesn’t it?” Karla sipped her coffee. “Doesn’t matter what Jewels she wears; Jaenelle is the most brilliant Healer in the entire Realm. If she can’t heal something, it can’t be healed. I’m testimony to what she can do. I shouldn’t have survived that brew of poisons I was given when my uncle Hobart tried to regain control of Glacia. And having survived, I shouldn’t be as healthy as I am.”
    “Do you . . .” Daemon swallowed some coffee to wet a suddenly dry throat. “Do you sometimes wish she’d let you die? You wouldn’t be walking with a cane, wouldn’t have weak legs, if you’d made the transition to demon-dead.”
    “That’s your cock talking,” Karla said.
    “It is n—” He stopped. Thought. “Rainier.”
    “Yes. Rainier.”
    He set his cup down on the table in front of the sofa. “He won’t come all the way back, will he?”
    “No, his leg will never be what it was. It will never support him the way it did before that Eyrien war blade cut through all that muscle and half the bone. If he’d gone down and stayed down, any of us—Gabrielle, me, Jaenelle—could have healed him and brought him almost all the way back. Maybe so close to all the way back he could do whatever he wanted to on that leg as long as he gave it some care. But he slapped shields around his leg and kept fighting.”
    “He did what he had to do.”
    “I know. But that leg will never be the same because of it, and he knows that.”
    “Does he?”
    “Yes, he does. He’s fighting it, Daemon. I don’t know what he’s doing or why, but I can see the results. Jaenelle has had to rebuild that bone and muscle so many times, there is almost nothing left to work with. Something is riding him, and riding him hard, but if he doesn’t stop damaging that leg, he really will be crippled.”
    “He’s not a fool,” Daemon said.
    “No,” Karla said quietly. “He’s scared. That’s worse.”
    “Anything I can do?”
    She shook her head. “No, there’s nothing you can do. And there is nothing I can do that Jaenelle hasn’t done.”
    “Maybe having a leg so damaged there is no possible way to dance is easier for him than a leg that is almost whole but not whole enough.”
    “Maybe, but I wouldn’t have thought Rainier was that much of an ass.” Karla selected a pastry. “Is he still going for this extra training with Lucivar?”
    “He’s going. And he’s already been told if he doesn’t show up on his own, Lucivar will hunt him down and drag him all the way to Ebon Rih.”
    “Well, then. I’m sure things will get sorted out—one way or another.”
    Since he could imagine how things would get sorted out if Rainier started a pissing contest with Lucivar, he changed the subject. “How is Della? Is she excited about Winsol?”
    Karla laughed. “She’s more excited that I’ve agreed to let her start learning basic healing.”
    Daemon took a nutcake. “Training doesn’t usually start so early, does it? She’s still a girl.” A girl who had lost her mother when her entire village had been slaughtered by Eyriens working for Dorothea and Hekatah SaDiablo. A girl who had been rescued by Arcerian cats and spent months with them, living wild, before being adopted by Karla.
    “She’s not a natural Healer—wasn’t born to that caste—but she has good instincts and a keen interest. She wants to specialize in healing kindred.”
    He tried to keep a straight face—and couldn’t. “Does she practice her bedside manner on KaeAskavi?”
    “Every chance she gets. Which is another reason I’m here today. If you want to know about kindred, you ask Jaenelle. Of course, Della and