Free Cursed by Ice by Jacquelyn Frank

of whatever it was inside her that had just done what it had done. Garreth didn’t blame her. He would be lying if he said he didn’t feel some trepidation himself. And he could see the same concern in his brother’s eyes.
    But all that concern washed away when Sarielle suddenly fell into a dead faint.

CHAPTER
SIX
    When Sarielle awoke, it was with a softly indrawn gasp. She was in her room and daylight was streaming through the windows. She immediately looked around, searching for her sisters, and for a moment she thought she had dreamed it all.
    And yet … there was no shackle on her leg. She could feel her ankle was free of the cuff that she had worn so very often in her turnings as the wrena. Ever since the bennesah and Vinqua had seen her come back from the Asdar Mountains, bearing the mark of the wrena on her body, they had known how valuable she was and had immediately chained her and kept her sisters hidden from view. She touched the mark now, a brand on the back of her shoulder, kept out of sight by her clothing.
    If not for the twins, she would never have come back. She would have stayed in Koro’s nest with him, let him care for her as she had cared for him. They would have needed only each other and no one else.
    But she had gone back for Jona and Isaelle, knowing they had no one else. They were the reason she had ventured out into the mountains, to make their lives better.
    She sat up and her body screamed with pain. Hershoulder was better, but she was weaker overall and she had never known such consuming agony. Koro was suffering and dying. She could feel it down to their connected souls. She had to do something. Not just to save her own life but to save his. He had only tried to help her. Had only done what she had asked of him. What her master had asked of her. Poor Koro.
    “I’ve been waiting for you to awaken.”
    She gasped and looked to the left. Garreth was standing against the wall, his arms folded over his broad chest, his green eyes intent upon her. He was wearing black breeches, the material so tight against his skin that she could see every muscle. If not for his tunic, she was certain she would have seen far more than his muscles through that gloving material. His tunic was green with lighter green and gold woven throughout and it made his eyes jump out at her. His black hair was damp and curled at the ends, as if he had just come from a bath.
    “My sisters?” she asked immediately.
    “Sleeping quite soundly, I assure you.”
    “Why are they not here with me?” she demanded to know.
    “Because you are unwell and I did not think you wanted them to see you like this,” he said, his tone hard. “Stop expecting the worst of me. It grows tiresome.”
    She realized then what he had done for her. What he had said he would do for her and had done for her. She would feel better once her sisters were by her side and within her control, but still. He had rescued them from the bennesah for her.
    And now he was expecting something in return.
    “He is dying,” she said softly.
    “I know. I can see it in your pallor. Time is short.”
    “Yes. But I do not know if I can make the journey to him.”
    “The Asdar Mountains are not all that far away.”
    “But deep within. In the craggy rocks. There are caves there where the wyverns make their nests.”
    “Wyverns? Plural? Just how many are there?”
    “I don’t know. A few. Ten at least … last time I was there, anyway. But they don’t procreate easily, so it is probably the same.”
    “Why don’t they procreate easily?” he asked, genuinely curious.
    “They are loners by nature, so mating is not an imperative to them. And raising young is very hard for them to do overall.”
    “You know much about this?”
    “I know what Koro knows. Just as he knows I am a slave.”
    “
Was
a slave,” he corrected her.
    “Was a slave,” she echoed. But clearly she still did not believe it. She was still looking for the ulterior motive to his