“Now it’s a very simple concept,” Vaelyn said. “You bend at the waist.” The king raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

All Victoria saw was a burst of light, then the peasant toppled forward in pain.

The father’s arms instinctively released the boy and went to cover his own stomach where the bolt of lightning had hit him. The boy did not run.

Victoria covered her mouth, shocked as the small form collapsed beside his father. She shook her head as it seemed to play out slowly in her vision. The horror and anguish forming within the father’s eyes took too long to display as he slowly reached out to his son. Too slowly.

Kalianne gasped behind her — it also seemed slower than it should have been, delayed in the timing. Longer. Drawn out.

And through it all, a voice entered her mind, one at normal speed. “You can help him…” She didn’t know where it came from, or even if it was real. Souls spoke to her all the time, but this sounded different. This felt stronger.

The princess hardly knew what happened next. One moment she didn’t want to be there. She knew Vaelyn’s temper. His reactions. She knew the moment he spoke that he would do something atrocious. But, as the boy’s body fell, she only cared about being on time to catch him.

So that’s what she did.

Ignoring her brother’s earlier silent command, Victoria fled from her chair. It took only a second for her to reach the boy’s side. He hadn’t completed his fall yet, though by all rights he should have. Victoria knelt beside him, putting her arms out to seize his head before it hit the ground. The moment she touched him, everything began again as if time finally figured out how to catch up.

“Elson!” the father cried out in pure agony.

Victoria ignored everything around her as she stared at the small child in her hands. His soul still clung to the body, though the form did not move nor breathe. What do I do?!

Call them … The voice came again. They work through you.

They? Victoria asked. They, who? The souls?

She felt her body shaking as she glanced up at the father. He had stopped reaching for his son and displayed both fear and confusion. Fear directed at her. She didn’t know how to handle that, either.

When she looked beyond him, though, she saw what she expected to see. The mother’s spirit hovered near—a soul with a connection to both the man and the boy.

Victoria reached her hand up and called it closer. Can you?

It nodded.

Will you? Through me, somehow?

The soul touched her outstretched hand, causing Victoria to gasp. A sudden chill ran through her body as the spirit coursed through her. Down her limb first, then across her chest. When it traveled next, through the arm that held the boy, she guided it where it needed to go. The energy wrapped itself around him as tightly as any mother would hug their child.

The young soul, which had begun detaching from the body, nestled back against the flesh once more. The boy’s heart fluttered, then jumped, beating strong beneath her touch. When the child sucked in a breath of air, it startled her.

She stared in utter shock at the mother’s soul as it exited the boy’s body. The mother, much dimmer than she started, smiled in contentment, then turned expectantly to her.

“I…” Victoria said. “You can…? We can…?”

The soul healed the boy. Restarted his heart. Undid the lightning strike! She had never seen that happen before. Victoria barely realized that the father had taken the child from her and cradled him tightly within his arms.

She stared at her hands. No one in her twenty-two years of life had ever told her she could heal with her Keeper powers.

Did they not know? Could that have saved our father?

Victoria’s heart soared with elation at the very idea that some good could come from what the world thought to be only evil. Feeling an overwhelming excitement bubbling within, she called to her brother, “Vaelyn!”

Assuming the king to still be near the ornate chair, Victoria quickly stood. She whirled around and opened her mouth to explain what had happened. “I—”

Vaelyn’s knuckles slammed into her cheekbone with such force that her speech halted, and her whirling continued until she hit the ground. The dull sound echoed both through the mostly empty room and in her head as she gripped the cold, hard tile beneath her.

Victoria pushed herself into a sitting position and raised a hand to her face. Her fingers pulled away with blood on them. Tears welled in her eyes. Did he just hit me?