Chapter 17 Wren
Wren
Wren was sick of being interrupted.
It felt like days of torture when all Wren wanted was to be left alone with his Teddy.
Seeing the way Teddy plastered himself to the wall, shoulders tightening like he was bracing himself for an imaginary impact shifted his focus from annoyance to worry though.
There was only a single person Teddy acted like this with.
“How did he know where we would be?” Wren asked.
Teddy avoided his gaze. “He always knows.”
Wren grabbed his chin and made their eyes meet again. “Does he track you? Is he stalking you?” Teddy tried to smile. It was all for show though, Wren could tell. “Please tell me.”
“I haven’t checked in. He finds me when he thinks I’m straying from the path.”
“What path?”
“Whatever one he has in his head. Perfect cursebreaker? I have no idea, Wren. I’ve never known what he wants from me.”
“I’m waiting, Damir,” was called out into the space between them.
“He hates being ignored,” Teddy whispered. “And I’ve been ignoring him lately.”
Wren wanted to scoff at the idea of being on Kellan’s leash.
Of course they didn’t check in. Wren had never had any real intention of doing so.
But looking at Teddy’s face, he realized Teddy didn’t agree that they had any choice in the matter.
To him, Kellan was the walls around him and the chains that bound him. To him, Kellan was inescapable.
Teddy clutched his head in his hands. “Look, I’ll handle him. I’ve been doing it for years. Just stay here.”
As Wren watched him screw up all his courage to protect him even though he was clearly terrified, Wren set his jaw and broke out of his hold, storming around the corner.
It was Teddy’s turn to be protected.
“Wren!”
Teddy tried to grab him, but Wren had always been faster. He was a shark that had already scented blood in the water as he sprinted toward his target.
Kellan was leaning against the hood of his car, arms and legs crossed, his tailored suit and black trench coat looking out of place in the surroundings.
It made the rage worse. The way Kellan acted so casual while terrorizing the person he loved.
“Such an entrance,” Kellan said after he spotted him.
“Says the hood ornament calling condescendingly into the distance.”
“Well that was hardly my choice. If you had both kept your end of our bargain then I wouldn’t have needed to track you down.”
“And how did you do that, exactly?”
Kellan smiled, eyes moving behind him as Teddy raced to join them. “I think that’s between myself and Damir.”
“Leave him alone. I’m warning you now,” Wren said.
“A threat?” He smirked, eyes sparkling. “How dreadfully amusing.”
“I mean it, you pretentious asshole. You can pretend you’re all high and mighty and we work for you, but at the end of the day you’re a faceless, useless cog in a machine that only works because of people like us.
You’d be nothing if we didn’t exist. I remember the other instructors didn’t even like you.
” He pulled a sympathetic pout. “How sad that they’d rather pass up a fellow caster and think better of a cursebreaker like Teddy.
I think you’ve forgotten that you came to him begging for information, not the other way around. ”
Wren was surprised at the way Kellan’s face changed, losing all traces of affability and settling into lines of malice and rage. Wren actually took a step back on instinct, having the sudden realization that he was dealing with a much deadlier beast than he’d anticipated.
A hand shot out and grabbed Wren’s wrist before he could pull it back, the fingers squeezing tightly as Kellan loomed over him. “I don’t appreciate being spoken to that way. It’s very rude.”
Wren tried to tug his wrist back to no avail.
“You may be the engine in the machine, but engines need control and order so they don’t run wild. You were born to be the custodian of the world, Wujia. Bred to clean up our messes. We give you purpose. We give you family. And we can take it away whenever we want to.”
Wren flamed with the words meant to humiliate him and make him feel lesser. The righteous anger threatened to consume him even as the sneaking, inbuilt humiliation tried to slither in and take hold.
Kellan seemed to watch it grow with glee, watering the roots of it.
“So you should remember your place and not get into the dangerous territory of thinking too highly of yourself. It’s not good for your continued health and well-being, or that of those around you.”
Wren swallowed hard. “Are you threatening me now?”
“A simple warning. At the end of this case you’re going to go back to Slatehollow and never contact him again.” Kellan spoke slowly and carefully.
“Sure,” Wren said.
Kellan smirked, letting go of him abruptly as his personality seemed to flip back like it had never changed at all.
“And once I’m back home I’m gonna have a nice long chat with my brother-in-law.
He just so happens to be Gwen’s long-lost nephew, who she’s quite fond of,” Wren said.
“I’ll tell him all about how dedicated you are.
How…on top of the team here you are. I’m sure he’ll happily relay that to his auntie at their weekly lunches. ”
“Watch your mouth,” Kellan said, shoving Wren’s shoulder.
Wren stumbled back and bumped into Teddy’s chest who crashed into him from behind, breathless. Wren could feel his heart racing under his chest as he tried to get in front of him.
“Damir. How nice of you to join us,” Kellan said.
“Don’t touch him.”
Kellan put a hand to his own chest. “You act as if I’m a monster. I was just trading a few words with dear Wren. Catching up on old times.”
Teddy looked at Wren, trying to read on his face what had happened.
Wren shook his head minutely, trying to assuage his worries. They couldn’t show weakness.
Teddy pressed his lips flat before turning back to Kellan. “What are you doing here?”
“He asks me,” Kellan mocked. “What were you doing here with another cursebreaker in a dark alley on the wrong side of town? You know how assumptions could be made.”
Teddy couldn’t hide the humiliated flush on his neck, and Wren seethed. How dare he make Teddy feel like it was wrong, stripping away all his previous happiness so cruelly.
“We were working the case,” Teddy said, sounding like a robot.
“Were you? Because I haven’t heard a thing. In fact, I heard secondhand that your team nearly got arrested, of all things.”
“There was no point bothering you with nonevents.”
“Are you leading me to believe that this place is also a nonevent?” He waved a hand around.
“It’s a lead. We didn’t know if it would go anywhere.”
“And did it?”
Wren saw Teddy struggling to respond without giving any actual information, so he did the only thing he thought would work.
He channeled his inner Hart and looked Kellan dead in the eye.
“I suggest filing a proper request for case surveillance with Nexus,” he said.
“As of right now, this is an active investigation under the jurisdiction of a licensed cursebreaker team with no complaints about their conduct that would warrant sharing information. Your involvement is completely unfounded and could be reported.”
“You little—”
Blu flew over in that moment to land on Wren’s shoulder and Kellan’s eyes snapped to him, filled with rage and barely concealed embarrassment. All of the hatred he couldn’t publicly unload on Wren was now trained on Blu, and Wren was getting ready to just scratch his eyes out.
“Curious how a bird with a life expectancy of around six years has lasted so long by your side.”
Fighting the urge to take Blu and put him in his pocket away from that hateful gaze, Wren kept his demeanor as neutral as he could muster. “Because it’s obviously not the same bird. I just like them.”
“Oh, of course. How could I be so dim?” Kellan spat. “I’m sure it bears no resemblance to the particular cursed wren that went missing from my class over a decade ago.”
“You had a bird?” Wren asked, ignoring his pounding heart. “I don’t remember. I slept a lot in your classes.”
Kellan stretched his lips into a perversion of a smile at his flippant response, reaching forward.
“Cursed birds of such quality are hard to come by. Frail little things often give out under the pressure, as you know. And this one. Cursed with a parrot’s characteristics, life expectancy, and vocalizations. Very rare indeed. I was quite put out when my prized possession went missing.”
“Maybe it flew away,” Wren said, stepping back so he couldn’t come close to touching Blu. “Did you make sure to lock the cage?”
Kellan lowered his hand, amused still. “Locks don’t stop delinquents, unfortunately.”
“Unfortunately.”
Kellan’s gaze moved over Blu once more. “A beautiful specimen.”
Wren flexed his jaw. “I believe we are done for the day. I will eagerly await that formal request.”
With that he turned his back on Kellan, hackles raised and every inch of him aware of just how dangerous that was. But he was sending a message. Proving a point. Whatever hold this man had on him, on those he loved, ended right now. Wren would see to it by whatever means he had to.
He could hear Kellan grumbling and Teddy responding quietly before he followed after Wren, steps slow and heavy.
He piled into the car, checking on the animals already situated in the back before putting his seat belt on and waiting for Teddy to join him.
He watched as Teddy slammed the door shut and sat in the driver’s seat, back straight and knuckles white on the steering wheel.
Wren wanted to reach out and reassure him so badly. He wanted to smash whatever hold Kellan had over him into tiny pieces until there was nothing left. He wanted to scream with how much he just wanted to make the world beautiful for Teddy to live in because he deserved it.
“Teddy…” he whispered but Teddy shook his head slowly and squeezed his eyes shut.
“Just…give me a moment,” he said. His voice was low, but it didn’t sound angry. It sounded…terrified. Cornered.
“I—”
“Little bird… Please.”