Chapter 5

Caspian clicked his tongue.

An expression that said he already knew that's what I'd ask.

"She has things to handle. Couldn't step away. But she didn't want to leave you alone, so she sent me."

I thanked him quietly.

He said, "I didn't want to come."

He looked at me once.

"I don't like treating people who don't value their own lives. But the Pack Queen put out a word too. So here I am."

He was fine, actually.

His mouth was just a problem.

I was still thinking that.

Caspian set a small glass vial on the pillow beside me.

"I'll come every day to change your dressing. Take one of these if it hurts. Don't try to be tough."

Well. One decent thing, then.

After Caspian left.

I turned the vial over in my fingers.

Then I said, flat and quiet.

"Seen enough?"

From the part of the room the lamp couldn't reach.

The ghost stepped out.

"You're ruthless, Ivy."

He walked out of the shadow.

Let the moonlight pass straight through him.

He laughed without warmth.

"You think I didn't see what you were doing? You built the whole thing. Nearly got yourself killed. All so you could break the bond with me."

We stared at each other.

His face held everything at once — fury, confusion, and something that wouldn't settle.

"We were bonded for years. You really feel nothing at all?"

I laughed, surprised by it.

"Ivy." I said my own name. "Has always been hollow."

That was no bad thing.

Bamboo bends in wind and doesn't break. Snow can't crush it either.

The emptiness is what keeps it standing.

He stared at me.

His eyes went foggy.

Can a ghost cry?

I wasn't sure.

But I had another thought right after.

He had no body. Nowhere for tears to come from.

Just obsession left over.

So what was he performing?

I thought it, and then I just asked.

"You've been watching this for days. Does it not disgust you?"

After that night, I never saw the ghost again.

I spent half a month recovering.

I was slowly getting my movement back.

Caspian still came every day to change my dressing.

He arrived. He left. He never said more than five sentences.

One day, I started a sixth.

"Caspian. I want to learn healing."

He was packing his kit.

His hand paused. He looked up.

"Oh."

I didn't know what "oh" meant.

I found out the next day.

Caspian came to change my dressing.

He also brought a box of books.

Ancient Healer's Compendium. Moon Herb Lore. Field Wound Treatment. Pack Surgery and Bone Setting. Emergency Protocols for Battle Injuries.

Stacked up, they were taller than I was.

Caspian said flatly, "Read."

I picked one up.

He had annotated it throughout.

I smiled a little.

These texts weren't unfamiliar.

In my past life, locked in the Calloway Manor, I had years with nothing to do.

No one came to visit. No one to talk to.

My only relief was reading.

The Pack library had a shelf of Healer texts.

I read them over and over until I could recite them from memory.

Some sections were dense and confusing.

No one to ask. I just moved past the parts I couldn't get.

But now.

With Caspian's notes.

I understood in hours what I hadn't been able to crack in years.

On the seventh day, Caspian arrived.

I told him with a smile, "I'm done with the books."

Caspian said nothing for a moment.

He picked up the Compendium.

"First principles. Recite."

I started, no hesitation.

I wasn't fast. I had to stop and think sometimes.

But I didn't miss a single word.

Caspian put down that book and picked up another.

"Field wound priority sequence."

I answered easily.

"A healer who treats before damage spreads saves ten. One who waits to see treats only one. First stop the bleeding, then close the wound, then restore the blood. A healer who knows the sequence is worth a hundred warriors in the field—"

I finished. I looked at him.

Caspian looked satisfied.

He took a medical case out of his bag and set it in front of me.

"Read through it. Tell me where the errors are."

He pulled up a chair and sat across from me, reading his own book.

At dusk.

I closed the case and handed it back.

He looked at my notes and smiled very slightly.

"That one was actually disputed. Two days of arguing in the Pack Infirmary. We ended up with a compromise."

He looked at me for a long moment.

"Your approach was better than the compromise."

"Come back tomorrow."

I blinked.

And felt like crying and laughing at the same time.

Ivy Pemberton, all those years in the dark weren't wasted.

Every single step you took still counts.

The Pack Infirmary courtyard became my daily stop.

I learned fast.

Even Caspian was surprised by how quickly I advanced.

In two months, my treatment plans were good enough to be filed as case records.

One afternoon, I was sorting herbs.

The courtyard door was kicked open.

"Enjoying yourself, Ivy?"

Dorian stood in the doorway, looking down at me.

"I've been looking for you for half a month. You were hiding in here."

I stood up, calm.

"I'm studying healing at the Pack Infirmary."

"Healing?"

Dorian laughed.

"You're about to be bonded. Why do you need healing?"

I looked at him oddly.

"The bond is broken. I had it dissolved."

Dorian's expression shifted.