Chapter Henry
Henry
It had been quite some time since Henry had so much trouble controlling his emotions.
Something in the situation triggered a lot of memories from his past and he’d not been able to shake the feeling of impending doom.
The air had tried to reassure him, but he couldn’t quite manage to quell his fear.
Instead, he’d turned it into action. Saeward had agreed to come back with them, so they needed to get him packed and his cabin secured.
Andvari and Draco helped hang the storm shutters on the windows while Saeward packed his few belongings into a single trunk.
Eduard’s eye had twitched at the state of the clothes Saeward wore.
Henry found himself standing in the doorway to Saeward’s bedroom for the fifth time in as many minutes. He couldn’t stop going to look, to check and make sure he was still there, still whole and breathing.
Eduard waved him over, but Henry shook his head. He was better served by being outside right now. The wind had whispered to him that another boat was approaching. Based on the time, Henry suspected it was the yacht Augustus had sent for them, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
Once Saeward was ready, he walked with the newest guardian out to the beach. They both breathed in the salty air and watched the water as it shimmered in the late afternoon sun.
“We need to figure out what to do with the boat,” Henry murmured. “Can’t just leave it there. And we need to—”
“We can set it adrift,” Saeward said.
“What?” His voice must have been sharp because Saeward took a step back and lowered his head.
“I’m sorry.”
Henry sighed. “Look, Ward… do you mind if I call you Ward? Sawyer seems set on calling you that and I kinda like it.”
Saeward looked confused for a moment then gave him the smallest smile.
“I like it, too.”
“Okay, then. Ward it is. So here’s the thing, I know you’re new here and all, but you gotta quit apologizing for everything.
We’re a team, okay? All of us are here for one reason.
To keep Sawyer safe. And yeah, we love him too and each other, and that’s an awesome bonus.
Like, the best bonus you can imagine, but it doesn’t change that we were chosen to protect him first. And you’re part of that. Understand?”
“I— I don’t understand,” Ward confessed. “Sawyer wasn’t able to explain it to me. He saw my mark and said it meant I was his but that was all.”
“Whoa,” Henry said. “You don’t know about the prophecy?”
Ward shook his head, looking as confused as ever.
“Well, that explains a few things.” Henry gave him the brief history of what they’d learned so far and then he showed Ward the mark he had on his wrist. It made the other guardian gasp. He held Henry’s hand in his like he was fragile, and then traced the marks carefully with his fingers.
“Mine does not look like this,” Ward said. He held out his arm, placing it alongside Henry’s.
“Nope. They’re all different. And not everyone’s is on their wrist. But we all have one that appears and it marks us as a guardian.”
Ward seemed even more stunned. “I thought he was confused.”
“Nope. If he saw your mark, he knew what it meant. And I bet it made him feel a lot better, didn’t it?”
Ward nodded. “He was very frightened, but he said he knew I would keep him safe.”
“Yep. And you did. I mean, it’s kinda weird, but I was drawn to him right away, you know?
At first, I thought I was just missing my brothers.
I have three of them, plus two sisters, and they’re pains in my ass sometimes, but I love them and I was used to having them around.
But now I think… yeah, part of me knew he was it for me. ”
“When I first saw him,” Ward said quietly, his words nearly lost on the ocean breeze, “he was so hurt. I was shifted and he looked at me and knew. He begged for help and I… helped. I should have turned and ran, remained alone. It’s safer for me that way.
I never would have even approached another human. But I approached him.”
Henry reached over and laid his hand gently on Ward’s arm. “It’s going to be okay. I know you don’t know me so that promise doesn’t mean much, but I can tell you that we’ll look out for you. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”
“Hope is a dangerous thing,” Ward said.
“I know.” And he did. He knew what it was like to pin your life on something you didn’t know you could trust. He’d risked his baby brother’s life on such a chance, but in return, he’d gotten a family and a pack. Hope could be dangerous, but it could be so much more if you let it.
Ward stared at him a long moment, looked deep into his eyes, and seemed to realize that Henry did know exactly what he meant. He nodded quickly and shut his eyes, before turning back and looking out toward the ocean again. “The boat approaches.”
“Okay.”
“I will check it for danger.”
Ward stripped off his tattered clothes and walked into the water.
Henry about swallowed his tongue. Then he almost choked on it when he realized Ward had shifted back into the horse they’d seen earlier.
Except… he had a tail. Like, a fish tail.
A merman tail? Except he had the head of a horse. That’s what a hippocamp was. Holy crap.
Henry remembered reading about them in one of the books he and Sawyer had studied but they’d been so obscure and rare that neither of them had considered a hippocamp as an option.
Legend had it that they were Atlantean in origin, and they were the god Poseidon’s guards.
They pulled his chariot a lot in old Greek statues of the god, but Henry knew from living with a couple creatures of myth and legend that a lot of those old statues were based on fantasy and not reality.
Ward shot through the water like a torpedo, aiming straight for the boat. Henry couldn’t take his eyes off his form. It was weird and stunningly beautiful at the same time. Kinda like Eduard with his eagle head and lion body.
It shouldn’t fit, but it somehow did. Henry felt the little bubble of anger and fear that had been inside him since the moment they arrived burst. He giggled and slapped his hand over his mouth to muffle the sound.
“What is it?” Eduard asked, suddenly appearing by Henry’s side.
“He’s a merma-horse.”
Eduard arched his brow then gazed out at the approaching ship.
His eyes changed, becoming the solid black orbs of his eagle and Henry knew he was scanning the boat and making sure it was one of theirs.
Then he turned his head slightly, taking in the silver flash that was Ward heading back their way. Eduard frowned a bit.
“He’s actually a merma-horse,” Eduard said.
Henry snickered, unable to help himself.
They could barely make out the horse head above the water. But then Ward shimmered and dove down and when he next appeared it was about twenty feet from the beach. He was back in his human form except…
“Holy shit. He’s a merman now.”
Ward scowled. “I am not a merman.”
He seemed pretty offended by the term. “Sorry,” Henry said. “I’m kinda new to all this. But… you look like a merman to me.”
The look intensified. “Can a merman do this?”
Ward shimmered again, and he returned to full horse form, prancing his way out of the water before shaking his body and splattering Henry and Eduard with cold droplets before he danced away from them with his head held high.
“Hey!”
“I blame you,” Eduard groused. “You offended our new guardian.”
“Ugh,” Henry said. “But come on!”
“He’s as much royalty as I am. It would be like calling me a mere lion. I am much more than a lion. It is an insult to imply otherwise.”
“So I bruised his ego?”
“Clearly.”
“Okay. I’ll fix it. So I take it the boat’s safe? Cause neither of you are freaking out.”
“No, I recognize several familiar piscines on the boat.”
“Pie whats now?”
“Henry, you really need to study more.”
“Oh, you went there. I’m totally telling Cecil.”
Eduard smirked and glanced back toward the approaching ship. “The piscines are closely connected with the water. Several of their schools work on the island with us and have for centuries.”
“Piscine, like pisces? The sign? It means fish, right?”
“Precisely.”
“Cool. Okay, I’m going to go talk to Ward and then we’ll get this show on the road.”
Eduard snagged Henry’s arm when he started to walk away. “You are amazing,” Eduard said. “I am in awe of your gifts and I thank the goddess every day that she gave me the gift of you.”
Henry couldn’t quite help the tears that formed in his eyes. He stepped back to Eduard and wrapped his arms around Eduard’s waist. “What brought that on?”
“I don’t tell you enough,” Eduard said softly. He ran his hand through Henry’s hair then gently rubbed the back of his neck. “What you did today? I’ve never seen anything like it before. I am so proud of you and honored to be in your life.”
“Thank you,” Henry said. He was humbled by the words and tried not to laugh them off with some awkward joke.
Eduard didn’t hand out praise like candy, so when he gave a compliment, Henry knew he could cherish it as truth.
He pushed up on his toes and kissed Eduard quickly. “I’m going to go apologize to Ward.”
He gave Eduard one more squeeze before pulling away.
He couldn’t help the goofy smile he had plastered across his face as he walked further down the beach.
Ward had remained in his horse form and was running full speed toward Henry.
He stopped a couple dozen feet away and reared up on his hind legs.
“Goddess, you’re big,” Henry sighed. “And look at you. I’ve never actually seen a silver horse before. You shimmer, did you know that? So pretty. Can I touch you?”
Ward huffed, shaking his head even as he danced a few steps closer. He had his head held high, looking anywhere but Henry as he approached. Henry cooed a little, used to soothing the disgruntled animals at his father’s clinic.