Chapter 46 - Cammon
Cammon
XLVI
The next morning, we packed up for the last time.
Everything for the last time.
I pulled our pack over my shoulders. “It should take us about half a day to reach the harbour.”
“That’s not too bad.” Glory struggled to meet my eye, and I did my best to give her turbulent emotions some privacy. She scuffed out the lingering embers in our makeshift firepit and cleared her throat. “I realized we might have an issue with the bond. Aside from…”
Aside from the fact that neither of us would be able to act on the cravings the connection created, being an ocean and a continent apart. If I left. Would she want me to stay?
A swirl of deep fear oozed off her, and it only took me a moment to figure out the source.
“No one will know,” I assured her. “I would never give you away.”
She raised her gaze, and I was startled by the wateriness of her stare. “I believe you. I trust you, Cammon. It’s more… If the cravings get bad enough, you’re going to have to hide it. Just like I will.”
I reached for her hand and gave it a tight squeeze. “And I will. Whatever discomfort I have to suffer, it will never come back to you.”
She nodded and squeezed back, then let me go and started out of the ruin and towards the path.
“It’ll be strange getting back to civilization,” she said, her cheer forced. “How do you cope with the shift from being in the middle of nowhere for so long to returning to the city with all its bustling action?”
I grimaced. “I avoid the bustling action as much as I can. Why do you think I spend so much time on the road or made my estate so large, looming, and away from the city centre? I hide, Buttons. Turns out I’m not so different from you, as shocking as it is for either of us to believe.”
The truth only hit me now. Although our public personas and motivations for keeping to ourselves were different, we had yet another thing in common.
“I suppose we’re both lucky, then. With all these new secrets to hide, we won’t have to change much about how we live to do it.”
There was a faint bitterness to her words that I both understood and regretted.
I didn’t want Glory bitter. I wanted her happy.
Radiant. The way she’d looked when we’d found that first clue and she’d realized all her years of research hadn’t been wasted.
How she should have looked when we’d found the amulet itself if we hadn’t had all these other issues and questions and feelings to deal with.
It should have been a triumph, not this bittersweet victory.
“New secrets?” I asked, hooking on to that particular comment. “What new secrets are you keeping, I wonder?”
I was aiming for coy but missed the mark, veering more into concerned and curious. Maybe a little nosy with a hint of hope.
At the longing that stirred between us, those hopes rose, but she shrugged off whatever her real answer was. “The location of the vampire fury, for one. No one can know about that part of our trip.”
“The fury. Of course.”
She turned her face away to hide her expression, and I made up my mind right there.
I wasn’t returning to Karhasan. Not permanently anyway.
I would go, I would clear my name, and then I would come back.
After ten years of tolerating this country, I would make Golthwaine my home, and Glory wouldn’t have to worry about either of us suffering the effects of the bond alone.
We would deal with it together, however it made sense, even if she had to sneak to me or me to her.
Our time together could be yet another secret, however much I would hate keeping her hidden.
I would learn what gave her pleasure, what made her smile.
I’d share stories of my adventures and show her the treasures I found.
I’d protect her, encourage her, and we would spend the rest of our lives indulging in each other.
If she wanted to. If she wanted me.
I opened my mouth to say the words, to swear myself to her, along with anything else she wanted, when my eye fell on shadows moving in from the direction of the ruin.
We stood on the top of yet another hill, and I couldn’t help but thank the Fates this time that we were.
The vantage point allowed me to spot the mutts well before they reached us—not that the rapidly closing distance would save us.
My heart jumped into my throat at the sheer number of them.
More than we’d faced before the mountain.
At least three times that number. Hundreds of them. How had my siblings rallied them?
I bared my teeth, passed the pack and my shirt to Glory, and stretched out my wings.
“Mother of gods,” she whispered as stared out at them, hugging the pack against her chest. “There are so many. We’ll never be able to fight them all.”
I glanced over my shoulder towards the harbour. It was still so far. Too far. We wouldn’t make it on foot.
But she was right. We’d barely survived the first fight.
Even with Glory able to tap into her full vampiric strength, no longer needing to hide from me, we’d be at too great a disadvantage.
We would both fall, Brynna would die, and Soldara would declare war on Golthwaine.
One of us needed to get out, and the choice was as clear to me as the fear in Glory’s beautiful hazel eyes.
“Leave the bag,” I said, and without giving her time to prepare, I scooped her up and launched us off the hill.
Glory let the pack drop and threw her arms around my neck.
The wind caught my wings, and I flew us over the trees, above the rock wall that divided the woods from the harbour.
I landed on top of the wall and laid eyes on the waiting ship.
Evaniel’s flag waved from the top mast, urging us towards it.
I could fly us the last stretch and we’d have reached our goal.
But the mutts would be on us before we were ready to sail. They’d tear the ship and everyone on board apart. Even if half the crew were mages, we weren’t enough to face this onslaught.
Unless their target wasn’t on the ship and stood to face them instead.
Resolve, resignation, and regret warred in my heart, but I didn’t waver.
With a flap of my wings, I inched towards the edge of the wall. “Go down the steps, cross the beach, and board that ship.”
I couldn’t afford to get any closer. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to tear myself away from her, and I couldn’t go with her.
Glory’s eyes widened as my intentions registered, and she grabbed my arm. “You can’t go back and fight them on your own.”
“They’ve seen us, Buttons. If we both go, they’ll attack before we can get far enough, and with that many of them, they’ll win.” I cupped her face. “You have the amulet, and you need to get it to Evaniel. That’s what matters now. That’s all that matters.”
Anger flared in her eyes. My restraint broke, and I silenced her with a kiss, sending every ounce of my feelings into the press of our lips.
I coiled my fingers through her hair, inhaled her scent, tasted her lips.
I sealed the memory of her in my mind, savouring these few heartbeats as I would a last meal.
Then I shoved her towards the stairs and, without giving her a chance to argue with me, flexed my wings and launched into the sky.
My name rang in my ears as she called after me, and I rolled the flavour of her fear over my palate.
My horns burst from my scalp, my tail snaked out of my lower back, my skin thickened, my nails lengthened.
I’d never felt stronger, fuelled by her terror—not because she was afraid, but because she was afraid for me.
Whatever happened next, I would hold on to that.
Thinking only of her, I veered towards the trees and charged the army of mutts.