didn’t know anymore? At least the idea could explain why Ryon was being kind to—
Chilling cold bit into Kira’s ankle, and she squeaked and jumped away. Ryon pulled his hand back and held it up in a show of innocence. Frost on the edges of his glove gleamed silver in the moonlight.
“It’ll reduce the swelling,” Ryon said, “so we can put the brace on.”
Kira’s pulse pounded as she leaned away from him. She’d heard of ice being used to help certain injuries, but a visit to the ice house was a luxury her family hadn’t been able to afford in years.
She tried to suppress the sudden heat in her face. “Don’t touch me.”
“Sorry.” Ryon scooted away and removed his glove. He handed it to her. “Just hold it on there and give it back to me when it melts so I can make it cold again.”
Kira cautiously took the glove and slipped it on. The contours were too large for her hand, but not as hulking as her father’s gloves in the workshop. Cool leather pressed into her tender ankle.
Ryon’s olive skin seemed redder than before as he peered into the fire. Maybe he was starting to tire, just as she was.
Kira gritted her teeth against the glove’s cold embrace. “You can make things cold too?”
“Phoera isn’t just the control of fire or invisibility like outsiders think.” Ryon tugged his pack closer, dragging it across the dry dirt. “It’s the element of energy. It can increase or decrease the temperature in an object, or move the flows of energy around something to make it invisible.”
Kira didn’t understand how manipulating energy could make something invisible, but she didn’t want to ask and seem uneducated. “Oh.”
The silence was so thick that a pop from the fire startled her. The glove warmed against her leg, and she handed it to Ryon. “Thank you.”
He stopped digging in his pack to glance up at the glove. Seconds later, the shimmering crystals of frost returned. “Sure.”
Kira replaced the glove on her ankle while marveling at his ability. Hot summer days on the ranch would be far less excruciating with magic like that. And putting out the barn fire would be a simple matter.
Fortifications raised themselves again around her heart. It didn’t matter whether Ryon was genuine or not, or whether his stories were true or not. He’d still burned down their barn and quite possibly doomed Tekkyn, their mother, and their entire herd.
She held the glove tighter to her ankle, letting the cool inside soothe the burn on her palm. He’s the enemy regardless.
“Is your mother ill?”
Kira blinked out of her thoughts and glanced over at Ryon. “What?”
“You said she might die because of me.” He pulled a bundle of herbs from his pack. “Just trying to figure out how that accusation makes sense.”
Kira recognized the herbs from her grandmother’s garden. They were the same selection she’d picked to treat his shoulder. He must have stolen them too.
No, she told herself. We picked them for him. That’s one thing that shouldn’t count as stealing, at least.
“We don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Kira said quietly. “The doctors say there’s nothing more we can do. She just keeps getting weaker.” She moved the glove to the other side of her ankle, trying to coax the last bits of cold out from its fingertips. “I was just about to buy her some new medicine, but now we’ll need anything of trading value to try and keep the cattle alive through the winter.” She took the glove off and handed it out again. “Hay is very expensive, and obviously our own grass isn’t growing in the drought.”
“Mmm,” Ryon grunted. “Sorry to hear that.” He glanced at the glove again, and the frost re-formed. “What kind of medicine? My cousin grows lots of different herbs.”
Kira bit her lip against the fresh cold. “I don’t know. I was going to ask the tribal herbalist in Navarro what might work.”
Ryon selected a delicate leaf and bruised it with his thumb, smearing green flecks into his fingers. “Swelling going down yet?”
“I think so.” Kira squinted at the leaf. Was that bone-knit? Surely he didn’t mean to use it for her ankle instead of the hole in his shoulder.
Ryon knelt in front of her, holding the herb and ribbon he’d cut from his cloak. He looked up at her as if asking for permission.
Kira averted her gaze. His eyes smoldered like the sun, glinting brightly in the darkness, and yet they seemed to conceal