Free Devil and the Deep (The Ceruleans: Book 4) by Megan Tayte

do.
    ‘Barnabas, my teacher, came from Kikorangi. He helped me
understand what to do. He watched me as I worked, advised me. And then, when
the emergency services arrived, he stood with me on the roadside until they’d
taken each of them away, and he talked me through all the feelings I was
wrestling with. I was so angry, so angry, that I couldn’t heal them all.
To leave Cara and Luke orphans – it was horrific. And Cara’s legs – why not
heal them? I felt so guilty, and so helpless, and so damn furious with God or
whatever it is that controls life and death, that shows us who to save and who
to leave. If I hadn’t had Barnabas there that night and in the weeks that
followed, I don’t know what I would have done.’
    ‘Oh, Jude.’
    I slid over and threw my arms around him and tried to hug
all the compassion I felt right into him. He let me hold him for a little
while, then he leaned away and I pulled myself together and shifted back along
the bench.
    ‘Thank you for telling me that,’ I said. ‘It can’t have been
easy. I wish you would tell Cara and Luke.’
    ‘No,’ said Jude sharply.
    ‘But –’
    ‘No, Scarlett. And this isn’t the time for that conversation
in any case. The point I was making is that healing the seriously injured and
the dying is not something you can do alone.’
    ‘I see that. I don’t suppose there’s any chance…’
    He shook his head. ‘Evangeline isn’t going to let you work
alongside us. I’m sorry, but you chose to go it alone.’
    I sighed. ‘Thought not. Still, it was worth a try.’
    ‘You know that if you ever come across someone in real
trouble you can call me, though,’ said Jude. ‘I’ll always be there.’
    ‘Good to know.’
    Jude looked over at the hospital and then back to me. ‘So, I
think you’re clear on the rules now.’
    ‘Just one question.’
    ‘Shoot.’
    ‘Travelling. Are you going to finish teaching me that?’
    ‘What do you mean? You can Travel.’
    ‘Yes, but I can’t do that not-quite-appearing thing that
means you can be invisible.’
    ‘Invisible?’
    ‘Well, not quite invisible – kind of blurry. Must be a
useful skill for healing people unnoticed.’
    ‘Yes, well, that kind of skill isn’t something you need for
low-key healing. And it’s unbelievably draining, so not something I’d teach you
in any case.’
    ‘Dang.’ I stuck my bottom lip out. ‘Cara will be most
disappointed.’
    Jude snorted.
    ‘What about the Travelling with people in tow thing? Can you
teach me that?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Well, what if I came across someone trapped, in mortal
danger? Then I could just whisk them away.’
    ‘No need. You’d just call me.’
    ‘Right. Well. That’s that then.’
    ‘Yep,’ said Jude cheerily.
    I sighed. Was it so terrible that I wanted to maximise the
benefits of being a Cerulean? My gift had come at a cost: I could no longer be
close to the people I loved. So I figured in return I was entitled to some
compensatory perks.
    I’d had this idea to surprise Luke with a romantic break
away somewhere. Maybe St Ives, a popular port on the north coast of Cornwall.
I’d have preferred jet-setting off to some exotic destination – maybe Italy or
Spain; Luke longed to travel and I loved to. But supposedly we Ceruleans
couldn’t venture beyond the boundaries of Devon and Cornwall. I say supposedly,
because this was one of those Cerulean ‘facts’ that I found rather strange.
Like the ‘fact’ that women couldn’t Travel, which turned out to be a lie put
about by the Cerulean leader Evangeline to keep women nicely contained on the
island.
    ‘Evangeline,’ I said. I was having a light-bulb moment.
    Jude tensed beside me. ‘What about her?’
    ‘You asked for advice, you said. “ We think this”, “ you’ll do that”... her words. This, all this, it’s coming from her.’
    ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It was Evangeline’s idea that you limit
your healing. But don’t let your feelings towards her put you off.