Chapter 53
Chapter
Fifty-Three
SEBASTIAN
When I found her, I would fucking kill her for being so reckless. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Out of sheer relief that she was okay, I’d kiss her like I’d never kissed her before. But right now, I was livid.
Regardless of my anger, her recklessness was one of the things I loved most about Maeve.
She was stubborn, yet impulsive. She was brilliant, yet still so innocent.
There was so much in this world that she hadn't been exposed to yet, and that untainted part of her helped me cling to the part of me that had been overexposed to this cruel, grim universe.
“We’ve been riding for nearly twenty hours. How have we not caught up to them?” Kade grumbled.
“Who knows what time they left.” I slowed my steed just enough to make out Kohen’s voice better.
“What’s the strategy for when we arrive?” he countered.
From where I led the pack, I looked over my shoulder at him. “No strategy. I’ll do whatever I have to do to get them out of there in one piece.” I would kill every single civilian and burn every single building to the ground if I had to.
“Don’t let your feelings get in the way, Hawthorne,” Kade snapped. “We can't just go in there and wing it. That's how we end up dead.”
“Don’t let your lack of feelings piss me off, Lyrise,” I snarled in response. “I will not hesitate to have you turned into a Hykah if you get in my way.”
Kade scowled, his golden irises narrowed onto where my fists clenched the reins of my horse. “I’m just saying. We all want to make sure they are okay, but if we barge into Draemor and just start killing people, chances are we're all screwed and we’ll blow their cover.”
“I couldn't give two shits about anyone else. If they get in my way, they are as good as dead.” And I meant every word of that. I would destroy everyone in this goddamn world if it meant keeping her safe.
Kohen, who had been quiet as a dead mouse for most of the ride, chimed in. “I need to find Pia,” he murmured, a strong tether of desperation in his voice.
“We will, man. Don’t worry,” I answered.
“No. Like, we really need to find her.” His teeth chattered through his words.
“We will.” I looked over my shoulder at him. “Everything okay?”
“Kind of. Yes. No. Not really. Fuck,” Kohen sputtered.
I pulled back on my reins, halting my horse. The others followed. My eyes locked with Kohen’s, his sporting a haze of fear.
“What’s going on?” I raised a brow.
“I can’t believe she would do this.” Kohen dragged a hand down his face.
“Uh? Really? I can,” Kade pointed out. “Aside from Maeve, Pia is next in line when it comes to impulsivity.”
“Kohen. What’s wrong?” I asked, my voice stern and unwavering.
He looked down at his hands. “She’s pregnant,” he announced through a harsh breath.
Kade answered before I could. “What the fuck? Don’t you guys use that…that herb or whatever the fuck it is to prevent that?”
Kohen shrugged. “We do. But it doesn’t have one hundred percent effectiveness.”
My stomach lurched, thinking back onto my preferred place to finish when Maeve and I—
Last time we had sex I came inside her. But she had just finished her period. So we should be good. Nothing to worry about there, Seb. Maybe shoot up a prayer to Caius, just in case. I don’t know how all that shit works though. Was it still possible? Fuck. Maybe I’d need to choose a new place to—
“It’s like ninety-nine point nine percent effective,” Kade replied in shock, or maybe borderline disgust. I wasn’t sure.
“Yeah, if you take it every day,” Kohen spat back. “Does it really matter how it happened?”
Oh thank the gods. Maeve takes it every day. That I am sure of.
“Wow.” Kade's golden irises bulged as he processed. “Sharpe is gonna be a father. How sweet.”
I cleared my throat, snapping myself out of my own head. “Don’t worry, Kohen. We’ll find her. We will make it top priority.”
Kohen nodded, though his stress did not vanish from his face. “Do we think they’re gonna try and destroy the Hykahs first, or kill Beaumont?”
“Beaumont, no doubt. Kill him, then no more Hykahs can be created. Unless he’s taught someone else how to make them,” Kade pointed out. “If he found a new enchanter, then I guess we’d have to kill them, too.”
“She’s going after Bitchmont. I know it,” I said flatly.
“She’s going to take care of the root of the problem first, then she’ll likely go after those creatures.
” If there was one thing I knew about Maeve, it was that she very carefully thought this through.
She was the goddamn queen of overthinking, and I was confident that she had a solid plan.
I was also confident that I knew her well enough to predict that plan.
“Can we stop wasting time and pick up the damn pace here?”
“When I get my hands on Pia, I swear to the gods I’m going to kiss her and then pick a fight about this.” Kohen ran a hand through his hair, darkened by the shadows of the leaves that overhung us.
Aside from gathering more information on Kohen’s impending fatherhood, we rode in silence for an additional two hours before a clearing came into view up ahead. And hidden away in that clearing, was my favorite person in the entire universe, fast asleep leaning back against a tree trunk.
“Reckless woman,” I muttered to myself through a breath. Gripping my reins tightly, I kicked my heel into the side of my horse, demanding more speed out of the animal.