As the door shut behind her, Sophie looked at her sister. Olivia shrugged. What could they do but comply with what might be Kat’s last request? It’s so like her, Sophie thought, listening to the determined sounding humming coming from behind the door as Kat got dressed. Not to complain or waste time crying. She’s so much braver than I could ever be. It was one of the reasons she loved Kat—why she and Liv both loved her. But to see her friend’s courage tested in such an extreme way was almost beyond what Sophie could stand.
Liv must have seen the look on her face because she squeezed Sophie’s hand. “I know,” she whispered. “It’s hard.”
“It’s awful,” Sophie whispered back. “Poor Kat.”
“She doesn’t want us to pity her.” Liv sniffed and straightened her shoulders. “So we won’t. We’re going to make this the best time she ever had—however long we have to do it.”
“You’re right.” Sophie blotted her own eyes and tried to be brave. After all, how could they deny their friend’s request to have a little fun before she died? But please, God, don’t really let her die. Don’t take Kat away from us, she prayed fervently. Let Deep find the solution, let him bring back hope that everything is going to be okay.
Then Kat came out of her room, dressed and smiling and Sophie forced herself to smile back. Everything was going to be all right because it had to be. Losing Kat was unthinkable so she wasn’t going to think about it.
Not yet. Not until she had to.
Chapter Thirty-eight
“I am sorry, Warrior, but I can do nothing for you.” Mother L’rin stood wreathed in the pink and gold and green plants of the Healing Garden, looking almost like one of them herself. She had agreed to see him on short notice which was good since Deep hadn’t intended to wait for anyone. He’d folded space and gotten back to his home planet in record time—less than an hour from when he’d left the Mother ship. And now it seemed his entire trip had all been in vain.
“Please.” He struggled to keep his voice even. “Please, Mother L’rin, I’ll do anything. Anything. Look…” He tore off his shirt, baring his back for her. “Use the whip. Lash me until my skin peals from my body—I don’t care. Only please heal her.”
She spread her wrinkled hands. “I have already told you—I cannot.”
Deep wanted to tear his hair in frustration. “Please don’t punish Kat for my arrogance. I know I have been disrespectful and rude and foolish…”
“You have been all those things.” Mother L’rin nodded gravely. “But worse than anything else, you have blasphemed against the Goddess. It was she who put you and your brother together with the lady Kat. It was her will you broke when you cut the bond she had forged between the three of you.”
“Then I’ll go to the sacred grove,” Deep began pacing wildly. “I’ll get on my knees and I’ll pray for forgiveness.”
“You may do that if you wish and I am certain that the Goddess will forgive you—she is merciful in all things,” the old healer said quietly. “However, that does not mean she will heal your lady. Some things cannot be undone, Deep.”
“But there has to be a way. There has to.” He fell to his knees before her. “Please, Mother L’rin—you healed her before. I know you can heal her again. I am begging you.”
“I did not heal her,” she corrected him gently. “You did. You and Lock. By forging the soul bond with her in the first place.”
“And then we cut it.” Deep slumped back on his heels. “Or I should say, I cut it. Or insisted on having it cut.”
“That you did.” Mother L’rin nodded. “There is nothing you can do for soul poisoning but dilute the poison. If you and Lock both were still bonded to the Lady Kat, you might have been able to save her by completing the bond and each taking a little of the taint into yourselves.”
Deep felt like an iron fist was gripping his heart. “So…we might have saved her if I had not cut the bond between us?”
“It is not certain but you would have had a chance. Now, I fear…there is none. No chance.”
“No chance,” Deep echoed. “Gods, what a fool I am! In trying to save her I have damned her instead. Oh, Kat…” Rage and frustration rose within him along with a grief too terrible to be born. He had condemned the woman he loved to die. Then he had a new fear. “But Lock still is bonded to her. Does…does that mean they both will die?”