Free Tara by Jennifer Bene

Eltera purposefully let her power overflow to help Leonidas.
    It was a nice thought.
    “It’s dawn, philos, time to wake up.” His voice vibrated his chest, and she closed her eyes against the coming light. She didn’t want to let go.
    “I don’t want to leave you Leonidas. I don’t want to be without you again.” She felt his arms around her as the tingle of Eltera’s power moved over her.
    “Wake up, Tara.” Leonidas’ voice was a little stronger as he spoke, but she wanted to hold on, she didn’t want to be alone again.
    She didn’t want him to disappear.
    Not again.

     
    A gasp came out of her as she opened her eyes and found herself on the couch with her right arm twisted at an awkward angle above her head, the cuff cutting into her even as the skin beneath it healed with Eltera’s light.
    Leonidas was gone… but Leonidas had been gone long before she slept.
    Without the music the nightmares had come back. A horrible highlight reel of her life just waiting for her to fall asleep to start back up.
    Tara’s skin was glowing brightly as Eltera’s power suffused throughout her skin and the cuts on her foot and arm and wrist tingled as they closed. Golden light, the power of the gods, coursing through her like it always did at dawn.
    So. Fucking. Useless .
    Sitting up to ease the strain on the cuff she took a deep breath as the scent of rain filled the room. Tara wondered if Eltera knew how far she’d fallen. If she knew that the girl she healed was no longer a Faeoihn, but some useless whore. Tara was no more a warrior than she was the king of England.
    Looking up through the gray light from the windows she jumped when she saw the soldier, awake, sitting in a chair across from her. She was afraid for a moment until she saw the shock on his face, his mouth open in an unspoken moment of absolute confusion.
    “Please don’t freak out.” Tara sounded like she was talking to a wild animal. Mortals traditionally hadn’t reacted graciously to someone lighting up like a beacon at random.
    “Wha- Why- How are you glowing?” He stumbled through the question.
    “That’s a very long story, will you uncuff me please?” The memories from her nightmare made her sick and the handcuff was keeping them too close to the surface for her to think straight.
    “What?” His eyes started to focus again as he looked at her.
    “Can you please remove the handcuff?” She glanced at it and fought the rise of panic in her chest.
    The soldier rubbed a hand over his face and took a deep breath before he walked over. Slipping a small key into one side of the handcuff he unlatched it from her wrist, and his eyes stayed glued to the dried blood on her skin. “Your wrist -”
    “- is fine.” Tara finished, pulling the bandage off the arm she had cut the night before. She held it out to him, showing the neatly healed skin under a bloody crust. “Just like my arm.”
    “What the fuck?!” He stepped back from her, a mixture of fear and anger on his face.
    “I thought you should at least vaguely know what you’re getting into, even if you don’t want details.” Crumpling the bloody bandage in her hand she turned so she was sitting normally on the couch. The bloodstains on the robe had dried to a rust color, just like the lingering blood on her skin – she really needed a shower and clean clothes.
    “What are you?!” He spoke louder than he needed to, but she had known he’d panic when this happened. It was why she had made sure she had an injury to show him so he knew what Eltera’s light did.
    “Faeoihn.”
    “What?!” He yelled again, and she fought the urge to wince.
    “Fay-oh-een,” she enunciated slowly. “Look, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you understand that those men that came after us last night aren’t just going to give up.” Tara pushed a hand through her hair and realized she had turned it into a nest of tangles in the night. “What I am is… rare. There are only about a hundred