Blood of Innocents (Book Two of the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence) Read Online Free Page A

things had changed in a few short months.
    The sun dipped over the horizon, another day of running and fear over. That’s all they had been doing since escaping Anasoma: running, looking over their shoulders, pushing themselves to a punishing pace in order to get as much distance between them and the city as possible. Caldan reasoned, with Bells missing and Keys dead, along with the six soldiers he’d killed, someone wouldn’t be far behind. Disgust at what he’d had to do, and what he was becoming, filled him.
    He scrubbed his fingers over his itchy scalp then massaged his stiff neck. His head ached again, as it had at the end of every day.
    “Stressed? Too much weighing on you?” Elpidia asked. “Now you know how I feel.”
    Caldan blew out a heavy breath and rubbed his eyes. This wasn’t the first time she had tried to make him feel guilty. But her needling was one problem he could at least take care of easily, despite his original misgivings. “Let’s get this over with, then.”
    “What?”
    “Get whatever vials and needles you need.”
    “Oh!” Elpidia’s eyes widened, and she stood. “Thank you! I…” She wrung her hands, tearing up. “I just need a chance, some hope.”
    He nodded at her. “If it helps, then it’s the least I can do.” And it would be one less problem weighing on him if he could stop Elpidia skulking around and eyeing him with hunger.
    She hurried off and rummaged through her possessions at the camp, returning with two small vials, a scrap of cloth, and a large hollow needle. She squatted and motioned for him to pull up his sleeve, which he did, revealing raw red skin on his left forearm and wrist. His crafted wristband was with his possessions back at the camp. Damaged during the fight with Bells and Keys, he wasn’t sure its structure retained enough strength to survive being used. Until they stopped running and he had enough time to conduct some tests, it couldn’t be relied on. It was yet another issue plaguing him. And he still hadn’t had time to examine the crafted items they took from Bells, either.
    Elpidia tutted at the sight of his wrist. “Still not healed yet. It’s taking longer than I thought, but it was a bad burn. I’ve healed crafting injuries before, but most sorcerers know when their crafting s are going to fail and take precautions.”
    “I wasn’t exactly in a position to do much about it. I was lucky to survive, as it was.”
    “How is your other wound, where Miranda… where she…” Elpidia faltered.
    Caldan touched a hand to his side, where a bandage lay underneath his shirt. “It’s healing. Better than the burn, for some reason.”
    “I can take the stitches out later, if you like. That’s if… I assume I will need to soon.”
    “Probably. Tomorrow, then, in the morning.”
    Elpidia wiped the needle with a colorless liquid from one of the vials; the other was empty. “I can give you a little more ointment for it, but I don’t have many supplies.” She located a vein close to his elbow and placed the tip of the needle against his skin. “Where is the closest city from here?”
    “According to Bees, about—ouch! You could have warned me.”
    “Don’t be a baby.”
    Caldan grunted and watched as drops of his blood splashed into the empty vial. Soon it was full, and Elpidia drew out her needle. She applied pressure to his puncture wound with her thumb. She filled the remaining space with a clear liquid then stoppered the vial, clutching it tightly in her other hand.
    “I take it that’s all you need?” There was something disturbing about Elpidia’s eagerness for his blood to experiment with.
    “Should be, though I might need more. Depends on what I find. Out here… I can’t do much. We need to get to a big town or a city. There, I can—”
    “We need to look after Miranda first. And I’m not going to wait around while you experiment. There are other more important things I need to do.”
    “Not to me. Perhaps I haven’t