Chapter 13 #3
“I thought they killed you! Nuria, we were coming to avenge your death,” she says, in a whisper as she grabs my hands and lowers them from her face.
Avenge my death? I choke on a laugh. She looks over my shoulder to see Embrys yanking the arrow out of his shoulder and winces at his grunt of pain, ignoring my outburst. Her waggling, raised eyebrow is question enough for me to roll my eyes and shake my head.
“Do not move another inch,” another familiar voice calls out from one of the hooded figures as they approach with another arrow pointed at Embrys.
“Ollie?” Embrys says, squinting in the dark and tilting his head to one side to try and see under the hood. The figure motions for the other two to go to Embrys with a nod of the head, which causes the hood to fall back, revealing the unruly red curls of Oleander.
“How did you locate us?” Oleander does not even deign to look at me and just keeps her very lethal looking stare set on her brother.
“Um… hello, hi,” I say, waving a hand in her face while still holding Marissa’s hand with my other one.
“What the heck Oleander? You traitor! You left me for dead and stole my sister. You made a promise! How were you even capable of breaking it?” I say, stepping into her space.
She slowly peels her eyes away from Embrys and meets mine.
I feel my face burning with rage and accidentally squeeze Marissa’s hand really hard in my anger.
“Ouch!” Marissa pulls away and steps up beside Oleander.
Wait a second, I look between her and Oleander.“You’re working together? She literally knocked you out and kidnapped you Mar!” I seethe.
Oleander cocks an eyebrow. “First of all, I said, and I quote, I promise not to rescue her without you. Honestly, one would think you would have learned by now that semantics matter in this realm. I did not rescue her without you. You just unfortunately got left behind once the rescuing was done,” Oleander says and I go to smack her but she catches my hand mid-air and holds on tight, pulling me closer.
Her eyes soften slightly but she does not relent in her grip.
“Look, I am really sorry but the place was swarming with vargs and you were about to give away my location. I got her out of there, and to safety. The knock on the head was just a security measure so she wouldn’t alert them to our whereabouts.
I did not exactly have time to explain who I was now did I?
And it is your fault for not telling me who you really were.
If you were honest from the start I would have still helped you to free your sister,” Oleander says, still holding my wrist. I can feel her heat running up my arm from where our skin meets.
I yank it away and cross my arms, denying the thrill her touch just gave me.
Seriously Nuria, you’re into siblings? Get it together.
“Well… shit,” is all I can say as a reply because her logic is annoyingly sound and her touch has me all flustered.
I can hear Embrys struggling behind me and look back to see him trying to fight the other two rebels but clearly losing since he can barely move his right arm. I try to ignore that issue for now and turn back to Oleander and my sister.
“I wasn’t even sure who or what I was in the first place all right?
I only knew that my birth mother was fae and I had just found that out not even twenty-four hours before meeting you.
You never told me why you wanted Marissa so how could I have trusted you with the truth?
And why is she still bloody here? Did you have no decency to just return her home? ” I say, finding my words again.
“I didn’t want to go. Nuria you were either dead or imprisoned and you came all the way to a different flipping realm to rescue me!
I had to stay and fight for you. No way I could let you upstage me, right?
” Marissa chimes in, giving me a wink. Her cockiness that usually infuriates me is a comfort, making me smile instead.
I’m so happy you’re ok, I think as I look her in the eye and her jaw drops.
“I heard that. You were right, she is an Etherealist!” she says, turning to Oleander with wide eyes.
“How do you know what that is? And how do you know what I am?” I ask Marissa, then Oleander.
“I’ve been with the rebels for over a month Nuri, I know everything,” Marissa says, flipping her hair over her shoulder and rolling her eyes. Same old Mar.
Oleander cuts in, “look we can stand here and chat all night but I would rather not wait and see if his furry minions show up to back him up.” She tilts her head to a now subdued Embrys.
“So if you would kindly follow us, I will tell you what you want to know in a more secure location,” she says, waving the other two over who now have a shackled, blindfolded Embrys held between them.
Now that’s a nice sight. I raise an eyebrow and bite my lip.
Oleander catches my eye and I clear my throat and look away, as if I was not just checking out her brother.
“Fine, let’s go.” I nod, giving one more glance back to where Embrys and I had fought. I notice a patch of white flowers that I swear were not there before, but Marissa links her arm through mine, giving me a little tug to follow Oleander before I can inspect them more closely.