Chapter 47
Chapter
Forty-Seven
In the glare of the morning sun through our rooms windows, I packed all of what I’d brought and within five minutes had made my way to the grand foyer, where I waited with Azain for the rest of our group.
He was ready to go, armor on and an overstuffed rucksack on his back.
The quiet that swarmed us was almost painful, but I didn’t have the guts to break it.
He did.
“I’m sorry about my sister.” Azain ran a hand through his dark hair. “She can be a real bitch, for lack of a better word.”
“No. That’s the perfect word,” I countered with no hesitation and certainly no regret.
His thin lips broke into a cheesy grin. “I love her, but yeah. It is the perfect word.”
Azain just made his way onto my I like you, list.
“Speak of the serpent,” I muttered as Samara approached, her braid of black hair swaying over her shoulder as she strutted straight for us.
“I’m ready to ride,” she chimed, licking her cherry lips. “I want a mare, though. Last time I took a stallion out, he wouldn’t stop trying to buck me off.”
“Stallion must have sensed something,” Sawyer quipped when he joined us, the comment pulling a snort from my chest.
My attention snagged on Sebastian, who lingered halfway through the staircase, a look of utter bewilderment on his face.
He skipped down the rest of the steps and stopped directly in front of Samara. “What are you doing here?” he inquired, the assertiveness in his voice unwavering.
She batted her brown eyes, an arched brow flicking upward. “Um. You need soldiers. Do you not?”
“Yeah. We need soldiers. Not women who are rude to my girlfriend,” he shot back with a click of his tongue.
Samara’s head tilted as she grabbed a chunk of her hair and twirled it around her finger. “Sebby—”
“Don’t fucking call me that.”
“Sebastian…I am coming. I want to be with my brother,” she argued, her eyes spinning towards Azain briefly.
Sebastian stomped his boot into the marble. “No, you aren’t.”
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t” she challenged, rising to the tips of her toes, though her height still had nothing on him.
“I’ll give you three,” he scoffed. “Reason number one—you simply aren't needed. Reason number two—you were a raging bitch to my girlfriend. Reason number three—I don’t want you to come.”
Azain snorted.
With that, Sebastian turned towards the exit, striding away from his ex.
“What’s so special about her?” Samara demanded a response from Sebastian while pointing at me. “Aside from the disfigured gemstone placement and tacky tattoos.”
Sebastian's entire face was etched with stunned anger as he spun back to face her. He stomped towards her and took her wrist in his hand, lowering her finger. “What’s so special about her? She is everything that we are not. She is the only one out of all of us to be considered worthy of such a gift. Of such power. I don’t know why you seem to think you have the right to be so fucking rude, but the woman you are disrespecting is the reason you will make it out of this alive.
If she lets you, that is. So if I were you, I would learn to keep my mouth shut, unless it’s to say something along the lines of, Thanks for saving my life, Maeve.
How can I ever repay you?” His hand turned white as he gripped hers harder. “Understood?”
Samara almost looked as though she would challenge him, but she retreated, nodding just once in confirmation.
With that, we left Samara dumbfounded in the grand foyer, and just to be polite, I waved my fingers at her in an oh-so-sweet goodbye.
We stepped outside after Azain. The scent of fall lingered in the air as we began towards the stables.
“Thanks for waiting for me,” Sebastian mumbled into my ear when he took his stance by my side, matching my pace.
“You looked so peaceful sleeping, and I didn’t want to scare you by waking you up.”
“Ah. I see.” He took my rucksack off my shoulder, pulling it over his own. “You're mad.”
My boots left imprints in the grassy field we walked through, which I directed my attention to instead of at him. “I’m not mad. I completely understand where you were coming from.”
“Oh. Okay. Great.” Sebastian sounded taken aback.
“It’s just that—”
“There it is.”
I side-eyed him. “Did you know that you can be a real jerk when you are scared, or pissed off, or whatever you were last night?”
Taking a turn down a dirt path, the pristine, crimson stables came into view, the whinnying of horses flying into my ears.
“I’m pretty self-aware, yes.”
“Oh. Okay. Great,” I quoted him.
He chuckled, the sparkle of his teeth threatening to bring me to my knees. He swiped my hand from my side, pulling me to the back of the group. “I’m sorry. I may have overreacted.”
“You think?” I scoffed, trying to yank my arm free.
“Maeve, I’m trying to apologize.” He breathed firmly, loosening his grip on my wrist but letting his thumb linger over mine. “When shit happens that brings even more risk to your life,” he lowered his voice, “it scares me.”
“Being scared and angry don’t need to coexist.”
“I know. That’s something I’m trying to work on.”
Chewing my bottom lip, I gave in. “I’m sorry, too. We should have been more careful about what we said in a public place. Lesson learned. And since we're being honest, I’m scared of me, too.”
“Love,” Sebastian’s voice softened, the way he said the single word strumming something deep within me. “I am not scared of you. Not in the slightest. I’m scared of losing you.”
“You won’t lose me.” My cheeks rounded out with my ever growing grin. “I love you,” I professed, my mouth mere millimeters from his own.
“I love you, too,” he vowed, then pressed his soft lips to mine. He beamed when he pulled away, his cheek twitching up in a blush. “Look at us. Communicating and stuff.”
I chortled and turned on my heel, determined to try and catch up with the others, but he stopped me once more, granting me another gentle kiss before allowing the resumption of our walk.
Hay stuck to my boots when I entered the barn, the smell of manure snaking through my nose. I made right for Honey, rubbing my palm over her nose in greeting.
“Let’s go,” Kade announced, clasping his hands together in a firm clap. “I miss my own bed.”
“Same,” Sebastian murmured into the crook of my neck. “Our bed.”
Goosebumps pricked my skin, my desire dangerously close to making itself known from his slight touch.
Damning me even further, he lifted me off my feet, placing me gently on the saddle.
He followed after me, taking his place in the front, then securing one of my wrists in his and placing it on his thigh, a mere inch away from his painfully obvious erection.
I can’t wait to get back to Lumosia.
We took off without much of a warning, Azain at the head of our group and Kade beside him.
The soldiers were to leave in batches. After us would follow ten more sets of soldiers, each a day behind the first. Sebastian had left firm directions on how to get to Lumosia, though not without swearing death upon anyone who dared to use the information against us.
The ride was just about as painful as I’d expected.
Day one was not too dreadful, but by day two, my ass felt like it was permanently stuck to Honey’s saddle.
As a group in whole, we had hardly talked—remaining mostly quiet and keeping our ears peeled for the sound of trouble.
By day two and a half, I had nearly lost my damn mind.
“Are we almost back?” I complained, my sagging body slumped against Sebastian’s back. “I feel like it didn’t take this long on the way here. I’m bored.”
“We are almost back, actually. And boredom is a good thing on a ride like this,” he countered, reaching a calloused hand behind him, stroking my forearm.
“Eh. At this point, I’d almost enjoy seeing a Hykah.”
A gasp emitted from behind me. “Maeve Willawood, you did not just say that?” Sawyer’s fake, in shock, voice rang through my ears. He and Sebastian had not said a word to each other the entire ride, making the journey extra boring without their typical banter.
Sitting upright, my shoulders, red and raw from the days of relentless sun, shrugged. “I need some action. Or at least a damn conversation. We’ve made it this far, I don’t think a little chit-chat would do us any harm.”
“Maybe we should discuss the plan for when the rest of our troops arrive.” Azain pulled on his reins, slowing his stallion to a speed that matched ours. “We all know that there isn’t time to waste. The more prepared we are, the better.”
“If you want to be prepared, then we should start from the beginning of this shit storm,” Kade added as he slowed and appeared by Honey’s side. “You don’t even know half of what we’ve been through in the past two months.”
“Two months?” I scoffed in disbelief. “Try a year.”
“You’re an anomaly,” he countered. “You’re basically walking, breathing bad luck.”
“Ouch.” I clutched my chest, but gifted Kade a smirk in response to his own.
“Alright. Let’s hold up here. Take a breather while you guys fill me in.” Ripping his reins to the right, Azain pulled off the dirt path, stopping about a quarter of a mile away in a clearing surrounded by a small river and boundless greenery.
Following my dismount, my legs wobbled upon landing. Sebastian steadied me with a firm hand on my hip. “Do you want the long, drawn out, boring story, or the quick, tell me what I need to know and get to the damn point of the story?” he asked Azain.
Azain hesitated, to which Sawyer took the opportunity to decide for him. “Let’s get to the point. Please. The quicker we get out of these woods, the better.”
“Snakes?” Kade asked Sawyer in a slightly mocking tone.
“Snakes?” Azain repeated, perplexed.
“Snakes,” I confirmed while Sawyer shuddered.
Azain sucked his lips in and slowly nodded. “Alright?”
While I stretched my legs, Sebastian dropped to the dirt, pulling a leathered knee up to his chest. “It started last year when Maeve was gifted. Beaumont tried for months to get my father to hand her over to Draemor. Kept offering a peace treaty. We didn’t take it. Obviously.”
“Why was a peace treaty even needed?” Azain asked, genuine confusion plastered on his face.
“He wanted unclaimed territory that we wanted to leave untouched,” Sawyer answered, giving him the dumbed-down reasoning.
“When we kept denying his offers, he began taking action. Attacking our largest city and,” Sebastian paused, allowing his eyes to graze mine apologetically, “along with some villages.”
My heart seized as blood burned my veins.
I spoke up, needing to take over so I didn’t lose my composure.
“He had people in our kingdom gathering knowledge on me. People who were supposedly working for Caelestis, but instead ended up being treacherous assholes.” I left out the part about my near death experience.
I didn’t need to give Azain any reasons to doubt me.
“Shortly after Draemor attacked our villages, they came for the castle. In all honesty, it wasn’t much of a fight.
And as I’m sure you’ve heard, Caelestis is basically gone now.
At least the parts closest to the castle grounds. ”
Kade jumped in and pointed between Sebastian, Sawyer, and me. “When they arrived at Lumosia, we went to Draemor almost right away. The plan was to kill Beaumont and get on with things, but like all of our so well thought out plans, we failed.”
“It was during one of our trips there that I was held captive in their dungeons. When he broke me out was when we first encountered the Hykah.” Sebastian gestured at Kade.
Sawyer finished, catching Azain up to date while conveniently leaving out the parts involving my new form of magic, but choosing to disclose the type of magic Venay had performed to find the journal.
“Dark magic?” Azain rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’ve heard of it, but have never known of anyone who could do it.”
“It’s got to be a part of how Beaumont is creating the Hykahs,” I chimed in. “He harvests the victims jewels, planting them into one body. But he needs an enchanter to remove their souls, so I’d imagine there’s some dark shit going on there.”
Azain’s tanned skin paled, and he looked like he was questioning what the fuck he’d gotten himself into.
“Beaumont has over half of the empire under his control now. Sure, most of that land is inhabitable, but it’s still his. Mealioria is likely next on the list,” Kade added.
“And what exactly does this have to do with her?” Azain gestured a gloved finger at me.
“He wants to turn me into one of them and use me to help gain control of the rest of the empire,” I answered nonchalantly, having gotten used to the disturbing truth of the matter.
Azain cleared his throat. “We should get back on the road soon. But I say that once all of our soldiers arrive at Lumosia, we have a quick debrief, let them settle in for a night, then make our attack on Draemor. Get this over with.”
“Sounds good to me. How are we going to execute this?” I added. “Are we going to try stealth, or go full force the moment we arrive?”
“Depends on the goal,” Azain countered. “What's more important to you? Destroying the Hykahs or Beaumont?”
“Bitchmont,” Sebastian and Sawyer answered as one.
“Then stealth,” Kade determined. “The answer is usually stealth if you want to make sure you survive.”
We went over the specifics when we remounted our horses, devising a plan that we felt was foolproof, although we knew better than to truly believe so.
When we arrived in Lumosia in about half a day's time, Archer did the honors of showing our guests to their rooms, while the rest of us found our own.
I showered and changed into comfortable clothing, then took a seat in the armchair, hugging my knees to my chest and trying to fight my exhaustion while I waited for Sebastian.
Yawn after yawn found me, and I only realized how badly I’d failed at keeping my eyes open when my body was lifted off the cushion and carried to the mattress.
He gently placed me down on the bed, pulling the covers up and laying by my side. Only half awake, I could hardly make out his touch when he brushed the hair out of my face. My lips parted to speak, but he held a finger to them.
“Shh. Sleep while you can,” he whispered, pulling me into his arms, the comfort of his familiar touch setting my entire being at peace.
Deep sleep found me as soon as his lips left my forehead.