The Bloodstone Prophecy - Book 2 (complete)

Chapter 40 - Catching Up

"There are more dungeons in the back," Yasmin said. "We released everyone who could walk, but there are a few prisoners too injured to leave. Will you come and heal them too?"

"Of course," Kami said.

She stood and followed Yasmin down the corridor where the Shadow Giant had emerged. Liam followed closely behind, his hand lightly supporting the small of her back. She thrilled at his touch, but then she remembered what the Shadow Queen had said, and her excitement fell flat. She moved ahead quickly and entered a cavern. The barred iron doors of several cells were swung open.

Kami tried not to think about what the Shadow Queen had called Yasmin and Liam. Sweethearts. Lovers. She felt hot jealousy blossom in her heart. She wondered if he'd just been flirting with her at the police station, and later when they'd been talking by the fire. Did he really mean all those things he'd said? It wasn't as if they'd really got past the let's date stage. Haji wasn't even sure how Liam felt about her, and he was his best friend.

Maybe Liam and Yasmin had turned to each other for comfort while thrown together in prison. She'd seen the desperate look on Liam's face when the Shadow Queen had threatened Yasmin and Neina. Yasmin was beautiful. She felt sick she had trusted Liam, had trusted in them. It was Vance all over again.

Stop it, Kami scolded her spiraling imagination. Focus. This is stupid. Liam is nothing like Vance.

Pushing the thoughts away, she walked among the injured, rubbing the healing balm into their wounds and giving them words of encouragement. Liam helped as he could, supporting the heads of the weak, pouring water onto parched tongues. The hardest part was looking into the dead faces of those they'd been too late to help. She tried not to think about them, but focus on the ones she could help.

They walked from cell to cell, and as the prisoners were healed, they walked joyfully from the dungeon.

In the final cell, a little girl with lash marks all over her arms and legs moaned in her mother's lap. Kami knelt by her side and checked the girl's forehead with her wrist. She was running a fever. Kami brought the oil to the girl's arm, but she pulled her arm away and flinched.

"It's okay," Kami said softly. "It doesn't even sting."

The girl stared at her with uncomprehending eyes. Yasmin translated the words in a soothing voice, and after a long pause, the girl nodded. She stretched her arm out to Kami with a trusting look in her large, brown eyes. She looked so much like the girl Liam had saved, it was uncanny. Kami gently rubbed the oil into the wounds, praying that this time the oil would work.

As if he could read her mind, Liam spoke.

"Whatever happened to that girl I pulled out of the wax?"

Kami swallowed hard. How could she tell him the truth after everything he went through to save her?

"Haji tried to help her, but he couldn't. I discovered the oil in the scarab too late to save her. I'm so sorry Liam."

Liam jaw clenched, and he looked down at his hands. Kami kept her eyes on the girl, pausing to brush the moisture from her eyes. She finished rubbing the oil into the girl's skin. Taking the girl by the hand, she helped the girl stand up. She was a bit shaky, but she took one step, then another. A radiant smile lit up her face. She seemed to almost glow. In that moment, it was almost as if the girl Liam had tried to save was restored.

The girl's mother broke down into sobs, grasping Kami's hand and speaking rapidly in Arabic. She felt a little strange with the emotional response, but she awkwardly patted the mother's hand and smiled as best she could. Yasmin put her arm around the girl and led her out of the cell, her mother following closely behind.