full potential.”
Meg sucked in a surprised breath. Thought for a moment as if she would argue and then looked back at Serenity. “Like when you showed me how to block hunter pheromones, and now I can do it myself?”
“You always had the ability, as you have many others, but there is a block in your mind that keeps you from even trying.” Serenity shrugged. “At least that’s what it seems like to me. I don’t know why you’re convinced your power is insignificant, but that belief is the only thing keeping you from your full potential.”
“So it’s not as the high lord assumes,” Jas asked. “That you can increase powers?”
Serenity scoffed. “Of course not. I can see damage to a person’s powerbase. Usually a mental block or sometimes caused by physical or mental trauma as a child. Those I can heal enough that they come back into their own abilities. But increasing a person’s power is not among my talents.” Which was the truth, though she could restore depleted power but only to a person’s own limits. Not something she was going to explain here and now. She looked from Meg to Jas, then Flinn who had joined them in the medbay. “Why is Meg in enough danger that you felt the need to sneak her out of the room just now?”
Jas and Flinn shared a grim look.
“We have heard,” Flinn said looking like the very idea made him sick. “That the councilman has a type.” He looked at Meg. “And you don’t need to see souls to see that healer Meg shines with all the good things an evil man would find irresistible.”
Serenity grimaced when Jas spoke, practically vibrating with his anger. “Well, I don’t think we need to worry about Meg, at least for now, he has set his sights on the high healer, and from the way he looked at her, I don’t think anyone else will distract him from her.”
Flinn practically growled. “And when the high lord kills him?”
Jas looked even more grim, if that were possible. “Let us hope the rumors are spread by his enemies and not based in fact,” Jas said. “Because if he tries that with any of our women,” His eyes flash to Meg briefly, then away. “Mal will not be the only one guilty of treason and the death of a Councilman.”
He flinched and grimaced making Serenity wonder if he needed to be healed, but a moment later his eyes cleared of pain and he looked briefly blank before his face resumed his usual austere cast.
Serenity blew out a breath distracted by the lingering fear that had ignited in her stomach at the first brief touch of the councilman’s power. She tried to assure herself that she was safe among the phoenix guard, and even, if she were to admit it, Mal. He was a danger to her heart, and her good sense, but he would never allow harm to come to her.
But then, what did she really know about the man. She thought about what she had seen in his head when she healed him and remembered something she had forgotten until now. Out of curiosity she sent a probe of her healing power over Jas.
He stiffened and looked around at the invasion, but while his senses told him something was off, he could not truly feel her working. She was genuinely surprised when his narrowed eyes found her and stalled there.
She pulled out of his head as softly as she could and watched his shoulders lose their tension. She had an answer to her question anyway. The same thing that was in Mal’s head was also in his hunters. She had healed many people over the years and had never seen such a construct. She turned to Meg. “Can you do a healing search for damage in Jas’s head? I detected a shadow when I healed him the first time, and while I ignored it then I have since seen the same thing in Mal Ryn. I would like to know if you see it too.”
Meg looked from her to Jas in something akin to horror, but she moved fast to take his hand. For someone who was originally so scared of the hunters, she didn’t even ask his permission before she was sending healing energy through the man. The clear worry on her face was quickly replaced by concentration. For his part Jas didn’t seem to mind her touch at all.
He raised a brow at Serenity. She