The Steele Wolf (The Iron Butterfly) Read Online Free Page A

leaned down to look at Bearen’s wounds. “It’s pierced a lung, Thalia.” He looked at me gravely. “There’s nothing we can do now but pray that his spirit finds peace.”
    “No! I just got him back,” I glared angrily. “I won’t let him die.” Reaching forward, I gritted my teeth and pulled out the arrow that was piercing his lung.
    “THALIA! What are you doing? You are just killing him faster!”
    Placing my hands over the wound, I tried to open my senses and follow the instructions Healer Prentiss had given to the students when they healed my leg. I could see the hole in his lung and the blood flowing in, filling it up. I reached deep inside myself for the power to heal it and found none. What?
    “NO, NO, NO, NO!” I chanted.
    FARAWAY! HELP! I mentally called. I felt a rush of power, his, and I sent it towards the hole, siphoning the blood out and at the same time encouraging his lungs to keep breathing. Faraway was giving me his strength. I focused the energy into the surrounding tissues and encouraged them to reknit and grow. A grunt and cough erupted from my father, as sweat beaded off his forehead. He gritted his teeth in pain.
    “I’m so sorry, Father,” I tried to reassure him. The tissue was healing, but very slowly. I didn’t think my father had that much time, and I felt myself begin to panic when another wave of power washed over me and I felt a cold nose press into my shoulder. Without looking I knew it was the wolf. I was drained from vision searching and my arrow stunt from earlier and I was using all of Faraway’s strength to do the healing, so I took what the wolf was willing to give, pulling that power into the healing process. The lung reknit itself faster and I was able to quickly heal any other damage.   Before moving on to the second arrow, I released his lungs and watched him breathe on his own for a minute or so.
    Odin’s eyes had gone wide and his face turned grey when he saw what I was doing. My hands trembling in exhaustion, I reached for the second arrow, but he stopped me.
    “Thalia, I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it for myself. I will do it.” His strong hands pulled out the arrow from Bearen’s shoulder, who grunted in pain. Desperately wishing that I had Joss’s abilities, I did what I could to heal the shoulder wound, albeit slower this time.
    When I was done, and my father was breathing on his own and seemed fine except for the pain. I leaned down and rested my head on his large chest and cried.
    I cried for what I had almost lost, realizing that my heart remembered my father even if my mind didn’t. My tears made my father’s vest damp with their wetness, and the smell of dried blood tickled my nose, but neither one of us moved. I knew he was well because I could, in this position, listen to the beating of his heart and I prayed a prayer of protection over him. When I felt a light touch on my head, I almost moved, but the touch began to stroke the back of my hair and I sighed in relief, as my father tried to comfort me as I comforted him.

Chapter 3

 
    We stayed the night. My skin crawled as I tried to help with the cleanup. Odin and Fenri kept shooing me away and telling me to watch over Bearen, who was on the mend but just tired and sore. After all, the healing process was painful. I wasn’t talented at taking away pain, and I myself felt drained and sluggish. So after numerous requests, I collapsed on the ground and stared at the bonfire that lit up the night sky.
    The smell of the dead burning made me want to retch, so I pulled a spare piece of cloth and tied it around my face.   Odin had counted thirteen bodies, and saw the tracks of at least two that had escaped back into the forest.
    “Well, Thalia, my girl,” he had said to me earlier. “It didn’t look good for us. Fifteen to six were not good odds.”
    “Seven.   Fifteen to seven,” I countered, raising my eyebrow at him, daring him to dispute me.
    “Aye, girl,” he