Chapter 17
Callum
The ride back to the castle is silent. After Elia blurted out those pivotal words, she insisted we hurry back.
Whatever notion she thought of must be serious as she wants to tell Ginna and Hanson, too, all at once.
I’m only slightly bothered that she doesn’t want to tell me first, but I brush that off as jealousy.
Of course Ginna and Hanson should be involved; I only want Elia to myself after the day we shared together.
Speaking of earlier, today was one of the best days I’ve had.
There was no judgment from Elia when I told her about Rafe, quelling a strong fear I had.
Keeping Rafe and I’s relationship a secret back then was hard for the both of us.
We were so in love that I wanted to shout it from every tower.
Anytime someone flirted with him, which I begrudgingly admit was often, I wanted to claim him publicly, to show whose bed he would be in that night.
But we had to keep it a secret for a multitude of reasons, the main being that a lot of people weren’t comfortable with our sexuality, especially the King.
Ginna and Hanson never had an issue with us, and now that I know Elia doesn’t either, it makes it easier to envelop her into our family. To picture a future with her.
Seeing Elia unravel today under my mouth and fingers was a vision that is still lingering in my head.
Embarrassingly, it’s been so long for me that I almost came from listening to her moans, from tasting her.
She tasted of sunshine. Having her in front of me on this ride home is also not helping.
I know she’s trying to leave space between us, but there’s no doubt she’s feeling my erection pressing against her.
I’m a teenager all over again, giddy and with an insatiable lust.
When we reach the palace, Elia slides off Gallant before I can help her dismount.
“Come on!” She’s bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.
I hurry to find a servant to have them fetch Ginna and Hanson, and pass Gallant to the waiting stableboy.
“Alright, they’ll meet us up in the library.”
Elia squeals and grabs my hand as we head to the library.
Her energy is contagious, but I try not to hope too much.
There’s been many cases where I thought we had a strong lead, where I would’ve sworn our hunt would be over soon.
But they all fell through, and I don’t want to be disappointed now either, especially with Elia involved.
We make a quick stop in Elia’s room to drop off her lavender bundles, so when we make it to the library at last, Ginna and Hanson are already waiting for us.
They jump to their feet when they see us.
“What’s going on?” Ginna asks. “Where’s the fire?”
I settle into a seat. “No idea. Elia called this meeting. She claims she knows how to find the Stone.”
Three pairs of eyes land on Elia.
“Remember what you thought my name was when you picked me up at the camp?” Her eyes flicker between Ginna and me.
“Clover,” I answer. “Because that’s what they called you there.”
“And why was that?” Elia prompts me.
“Because you had found the most relics. Which is why we came to ask for your help.”
She shuffles on her feet. “Yes and no. Yes, I found the most relics, but now you know it’s because I could sense them and knew right away if I had found something.
Which I also thought was luck because I assumed everyone felt the same.
But,” she waves a hand through the air. “That’s besides the point.
They called me Clover specifically because the very first relic I found when I was fifteen was a clover ring. ”
Elia’s voice is rising with each word now. “It was beautiful, and me being new to the camp, I was naive and put it on my finger right away. I found four more relics before one of the guards noticed. When the guard tried to take a swing at me –”
“When he tried what?!” I exclaim, my hands falling off the armrests of the chair. I must have heard that wrong.
Elia turns to me, exasperated. “It was normal – you’re getting off topic.”
I try to open my mouth again, but she glares at me and I raise my hands in surrender.
But she’d better believe that I’m going to revisit that topic at a later point.
I already knew that the one guard, Soren, hit her, and he’s already been taken care of by my other Hunters.
If I find that anyone else in those camps so much as looked at Elia wrong, I will have no hesitation to burn the entire camp to the ground and mix ashes with the sand.
“Anyways, as I was saying,” she continues, shoots me a dirty look.
I smirk back, enjoying the feistiness in her.
“When the guard took a swing at me, he completely missed, fell off-balance, and knocked himself out cold. Another one of the people working near me told me I must have been the luckiest person alive to miss his swing!”
She stares expectantly at all of us. “Don’t you see?
That ring provided the wearer with an exorbitant amount of luck!
If we have the ring, we could have the luck we need to find the Stone.
When I first saw the guard when I had the ring on, my first thought was please don’t hit me.
And he didn’t! He never missed a hit except that day!
If one of us wears the ring and thinks about finding the Stone, we’d be able to find the right clue or direction as to where it is. ”
Silence falls in the room as we absorb Elia’s story. I’m still half-distracted by the guard who never missed a hit.
Hanson is the first to break the silence. “Well, personally, I don’t see the harm in trying the ring. We seem to be at a stalemate with everything else, so having some luck on our side can’t hurt, right?”
Ginna shrugs. “Definitely can’t hurt. I’m in. Nice thinking, Elia.”
Elia positively beams and her eyes land on me for the final vote. “Absolutely, Siren. Can you describe the ring a little more? We probably have hundreds of rings that were turned into relics.”
Rings and necklaces were popular forms of relics as they could easily be carried on a person surreptitiously.
Any relics that are found are first processed by the guards and overseers, then transferred to the palace.
There’s a subgroup of Hunters that test the relics again, record them, and then eventually lock them in the vault.
There’s a good chance the ring Elia is talking about is still there, or if not, there should be a record of who took it out.
Ginna and Hanson take a seat as Elia starts pacing the room, squeezing her eyes shut as she tries to remember.
“It was silver and had a thick band, like a man’s ring.
There might have been a border etched in – maybe black?
The band had a braided design that was interwoven with the clover pattern.
It didn’t look like clovers unless you examined it closely.
Oh – and there was an engraving on the inside.
” She presses a hand to her temple. “What was it? Knotted by chance? Braided by destiny? Tied together by fate? Something along those lines.”
Fuck. Me. A chill passes through my body and I still. In an instant my throat is parched, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. Life couldn’t be this cruel, could it?
“Bound by fate?” I croak.
Elia snaps her fingers. “Yes! That was it.” She frowns. “Wait, how did you know that?”
I lick my lips to respond, but nothing comes out. Life could be that cruel, it turns out.
“Cal? Are you okay” Ginna asks. “You look like you’re going to pass out.”
Elia comes over and grabs both my hands. “Cal, what is it?”
Her presence helps steady me enough to answer. “I know where the ring is.” I take a deep breath. “I gave it to Rafe.”
Quiet gasps echo in the room.
“Well, shit.” Hanson blurts. “That sure complicates things.”
“Nothing has been easy in this hunt,” Ginna grumbles.
“Plan B, then? Or are we on Plan Z?” Hanson jokes.
I pull away from Elia and the group and move to the opposite side of the room to gather my thoughts.
Elia’s plan is solid and is the best lead we’ve had in months, if not years.
I don’t know what the next move would be, if we even have one.
The King’s illness won’t hold out forever, and the longer we find nothing, the sooner his death approaches.
“Callum?” Elia approaches me cautiously, and I swiftly pull her in a tight hug. When we break apart, my decision is solidified.
“We need to find the ring.”
“I’m sorry, I had no idea when I suggested it that –”
“I know,” I cut her off. “It is a good idea. We don’t have another, and I can’t face the King if we have no plan. This is the best idea we’ve had and a chance we have to take.”
“And if we find Rafe? Are you going to be okay?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” I nod to where Ginna and Hanson are still bickering. “Let’s go tell them.”
I take Elia’s hand and walk back to the group. Ginna and Hanson are staring at me nervously, like I’m prone to break down at any minute.
They’re not wrong.
“We’re finding the ring. Finding Rafe.”
Ginna starts to protest. “Do you have a better idea, Gin? We’ve been on this hunt for too long. We need to find it and move on. This is our best option, and we’re taking it.”
“I’m with you, Cal,” Hanson chimes in. “And not to put a damper on this great plan we have going here, but does anyone know where Rafe is, exactly?”
I hadn’t considered that part. I was too blindsided by the fact that Rafe of course had the ring we needed that I hadn’t considered the fact that we had no idea where he even was.
“Ginna, in the letter he wrote you,” I begin, my voice cracking on the last word. “Did he mention where he was?”
Ginna shakes her head. “No, and honestly, I didn’t ask the messenger either. We were all so in shock with everything we never bothered to figure it out, or never cared enough to do so.”
“Why can’t we use your ring?” Elia asks.
“My ring?”