Chapter 29 #2
I shook my head and unclenched my jaw. No, this is not what was upsetting, so why was I having such a strong reaction right now?
“It might be because we’re further away from this city,” Wylen suggested, as though he read my mind.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The land north of the Mortarbone Cliffs is…different,” he finally said. “More connected to the energy of Susperia.”
“You sound crazy,” I teased him. “Are you saying there’s magic in Kilderoy?”
Wylen shrugged. “Not like Ashtabulah, but there is something more…pure. Raw. An energy I didn’t feel south of the cliffs except when we met the Ancient One.”
The three of us shivered at the memory and sipped our wine in silence for a few moments.
The train rocked slightly from side to side as we sped through the stone passageway.
From what I’d read today, the Old Mission Tunnel was more than fifty miles long, and once through, we’d be well into southern Kilderoy.
A tingle of shivers rushed across my skin as I dissected Wylen’s words.
“Wait, so you’re saying that I might be having a physical reaction to being out of the city?
” Even as I asked, I knew this is what he meant.
I could feel it. In my bones. Something…
some kind of energy was calling to me. I turned to Tris before Wylen could answer, “Do you feel it, too?”
“Not yet,” he said, but there was a lilt of doubt mixed into his response. “Maybe the energy or magic or whatever won’t call to me.”
“Trolls can be very powerful,” Wylen said. “But that magic seems to deplete exponentially when siring offspring with the humans.”
I gave Wylen an exasperated look. “Really? Couldn’t keep that one to yourself?”
He managed to look appropriately ashamed while he downed the rest of the wine in his glass.
“It’s fine, Sosie,” Tris said, squeezing me tighter. “Really,” he added when I raised my brows. Tris tilted his head up to see the tunnel flying by above us. “Trolls are better fighters.”
I chuckled as Wylen opened his mouth to reply and then thought better of it. In a weird way, this bantering between them had become a comfortable occurrence. It soothed my soul to know that we could tease each other like this and still manage to accomplish our mission to bring back Gil.
A sudden pang of sadness punched me in the gut when I thought about how Wylen wouldn’t be making the return trip with us.
He’d become an important person in my life in just a few short days.
I would even wager that Tris might miss him a little bit…
or at least miss the banter. I glanced across the booth at the fae and found him watching me.
With a small smile, I acknowledged that I would miss the arrogant ass.
He bowed his head ever so slightly and then turned to watch the stone passageway rushing past the window. I swallowed the lump in my throat and squeezed my eyes shut, willing the tears to stay away.
“You know what?” I started. “I’m going to go back to the room and get ready for dinner.”
“You good?” Tris asked as I nudged him in the ribs to let me out of the booth.
“Yeah. Just need a few minutes of girl time,” I joked. “You know, hair and makeup and such.”
Both men stared at me with pinched brows as though they were looking at a stranger.
“What?” I asked once I was standing again.
“You don’t care about your hair or makeup,” Wylen said, which earned a huff from Tris.
“Thanks, Wylen,” I grumbled.
“I mean no offense.”
I shivered again as tingling spread down my arms like cobwebs. It was getting stronger. Was this what it would be like in Ashtabulah but only a thousand times stronger? I shook the feeling out of my arms and looked at the two of them. “I just need a few minutes. Meet you in the dining car?”
Wylen nodded, still studying my face way too intently. Tris said, “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah,” I smiled down at him. “Promise.”
I turned and walked out of the bar car, now filled with the elite of New Rothwick, who were the only ones in the city who could afford this trip.
I brushed past fur coats and the scent of exotic perfumes, suddenly feeling like the biggest imposter of them all.
I didn’t belong here. Not on this train.
Not in Kilderoy. And definitely not in Ashtabulah.
I was just little ol’ me who, up until a few days ago, thought she knew the world she lived in and actually liked it.
But everything was different now. The pressure of succeeding in bringing Gil home pressed against my chest. Like a boulder sitting above my heart, it crushed me.
The weight of the promise I’d made now sucking me into a violent sea of doubt.
I couldn’t fail. I couldn’t let all of the people who loved Gil down. I was suffocating. I was?—
A pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. “Sosie?” Tris said. “Breathe.”
I looked up into his eyes, a thousand emotions flitting through them, and let the tears fall freely. “I thought we said no more lies,” he teased.
“I didn’t lie.”
“You aren’t all right.” He used his thumbs to brush the tears off my cheeks. “What can I do?”
I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my head into his chest. A few passengers huffed their annoyance that we were somewhat blocking the exit from the bar car, but I didn’t care.
As soon as I listened to Tris’s heart beating beneath my ear, I felt my own relax.
“I’m glad you came with me,” I finally whispered.
He kissed the top of my head and held me tight. “Me, too.”
“I’m scared. And afraid I might fail,” I admitted.
Tris chuckled beneath me. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but Wylen won’t let anything happen to you. I’m glad he’ll be there. And I know the two of you will find Gil.”
“I’ll be sure to tell him that,” I joked.
“Don’t you dare.”
With a smile, I pushed away from Tris and looked up at him. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
“Now, let’s go get ready for dinner. I really do want to freshen up. We don’t exactly fit in with the rest of the passengers,” I muttered.
But Tris’s forever optimism didn’t falter. “We can just let them think we’re the wealthy tech innovators who refuse to dress all stuffy and shit.”
I laughed as we made our way back to our room. “That sounds like a great plan.”