Free The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5) by D.K. Holmberg Page A

might never come to pass. And neither you nor anyone else, not even the alchemists, can really know what that something might be.“
    They left Sjahl Street, the wide road that ran along the Barth, and turned onto a side street. As they did, Rsiran knew where Jessa led him.
    “She’s not going to want to see us at this time of night,” Rsiran said.
    Jessa paused and glanced back at him. “What are you talking about? Remember the first time you met her? That was much later than this.”
    “But I needed healing.”
    “I’m not sure that you don’t right now,” she said.
    Rsiran shook his head and said nothing more until they reached Della’s door. The Healer lived in a tidy house on the edge of Lower Town. Rsiran had Slid to her home—or been pulled as Della influenced his Sliding—often enough, but hadn’t been to visit since learning the connection between them.
    Before they could knock, the door swung open and Della stood in the doorway with her hair in a neat bun and a striped shawl wrapped around her shoulders. The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes had smoothed over the last few weeks, not as deep or as pronounced as they had been, but then she hadn’t been asked to Heal and save anyone in a few weeks. The last person she’d Healed had been Jessa, after the attack by the Forgotten, when Inna had nearly killed her.
    “You brought him,” Della said.
    Jessa nodded. “I told you that I would.”
    Rsiran glanced over to her. “Why do you want to see me, Della?”
    She waved them inside and started to stir three mugs of mint tea while they settled into chairs around the hearth. Every time he’d come to Della’s when he first met her had been because either he or someone he cared about was injured. Tonight, he saw her home through different eyes. There was a certain hominess to Della’s place. Even the familiar scent of the mint tea soothed him.
    Della came around her counter walking with less of a limp than he’d seen in a while. She handed them the mugs of tea and then stood with her back to the fire. “Yes, I asked Jessa to bring you to me. It has been too long since your last visit, Rsiran, and I know that the last time you were here, you learned things that you still haven’t dealt with.” She raised a hand to silence him before he could even say anything. “Don’t pretend that you have adjusted to what you’ve learned. I think I’ve come to know you well enough that I can read when you’re struggling.”
    Rsiran held the bracelets up to Della. He’d seen what happened when someone tried to Read him while he wore them.
    “I said read, not Read. I don’t need to use any ability to know how you have been struggling. You’re hiding from the guild when you should be embracing them. You should be leaning on those who can help. And you haven’t come to me, when I know that you want to.”
    “Because you’ll tell me the answers I need?”
    Della shook her head. “There are answers I can provide, but there are some you must find on your own.”
    Rsiran took a sip of the tea. It was hot, but not too hot, and tingled on his tongue. He savored the flavor, welcoming the warmth and the way that it instantly began to soothe him, much as it always had. He took another sip and tension began to leave his shoulders, tension that he hadn’t even really been aware that he’d been carrying.
    “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” he asked Della, unable to mask the hurt in his voice. Della had always been fair to him and had provided answers and guidance when so often he had none. So for her to keep from him the fact that she was related to him, knowing that he had suffered so much with his family, had hurt him more than he had been able to put into words.
    “Would it have mattered?”
    “You let me kill Evaelyn. She was my family. ”
    Della leaned forward, close enough that he could smell the mint on her breath mixed with a bitter scent. “You’re wrong there, Rsiran. She was my family once, but