Ashlynn had no concerns about the members of her coven keeping the secret, but she made sure to make eye contact with everyone else in the courtyard, from the quiet carriage drivers to trusted retainers like Kurtz and Emmie, extracting a pledge from each of them before she turned back to face Sir Tommin, drawing a deep breath to steady herself before she issued her judgment.
The act of healing him had already put a considerable strain on her heart, and more than once, she'd struggled to keep the gentle energy flowing from the branches of her ethereal willow tree from turning violent.
She remembered how hard it had been to breathe beneath the damp, sodden soil that Tommin and Broll had shoveled atop her as she lay in the shallow grave and the temptation to transform a healing branch into a strangling noose hovered constantly in the back of her mind as she healed the man who had nearly sealed her fate.
