Chapter Thirty-Six
Wyatt
I take in the sight of our guys when the smoke clears, minimal casualties, and a lot of wounded. I’d say we got off lucky considering how outnumbered we were. If it weren’t for the fire girl, we would be dead. Many of us owe her our lives.
I catch a glimpse of her as she turns, black hair blowing away from her face, and she turns her back to me. But it can’t be her, she can’t be here.
“Andi?” I shout over everyone.
A few heads look at me and follow my gaze to the black-haired girl standing at the other side of the fire.
Confused, she turns her face towards me, and my heart jumps into my throat.
She scans the group, wondering where the voice came from, pulling her hair to the side to stop it lashing in front of her face.
Her eyebrows knit together, that’s when I remember the scarf covering my face.
I yank it off, throwing it to the ground, and take a step towards her.
“Forgotten me already, princess?” I say, unable to stop the stupidly large grin on my face. Andi’s eyes light up, and a smile beams across her face. She runs, slamming into me, wrapping her arms and legs around me. She sobs heavily into my shoulder.
I grip her tightly, making sure she is not a dream. I didn’t think I would see her again.
I refuse to let go until she does. If this is a dream, I’d like to hold on to it for just a little while longer.
My heart lodges in my chest—she doesn’t know her family is missing.
That I failed. Once she finds out the truth, this feeling right here will be gone for good.
I should have been searching for them instead of playing rebel.
Andi pulls back a little, scrunching up her nose, wiping away her tears. “You stink so bad,” she says.
Dropping her to the ground, I pretend to sniff under my arm, I lock eyes with her, and say, “Nah, I think that’s you.” Andi punches my shoulder and loops her arm in mine, resting her head on me.
Out from the smoke, I see Myles limp towards us, with a bandaged leg, he smiles, holding his hand out to me. “It’s good to see you, Wyatt.” I shake his hand with Andi clinging to me firmly, unwilling to let me go again.
Two girls follow Myles to Andi, elves like Arel. Both with blonde hair and golden eyes, but one has a severe burn down the side of her face. She hangs back behind Myles, using him as a shield.
“Do we get introductions or what?” Kaleb asks, stepping forward, wrapping his arm around my neck. “This your girl?”
Andi turns her head upwards to look at me, raising an eyebrow. I push him away. “Not my girl, I already told you. This is Andi, my sister,” I say, pulling her in for a hug. “Andi, this is… well, everyone, you don’t need to remember their names.”
The guy’s yell in uproar.
“It’s nice to meet you. I think,” Andi quietly says, she looks at me. “How are you here?”
I rub the back of my neck, exhaling loudly. “That’s a long story.” I look to Ronan for instruction. His gaze is on Andi, with an expression I’ve never seen on his face before, “Ronan.”
His eyes flick to mine, his cheeks flush with a slight rosy tinge, clearing his throat.
Oh, I’m going to love winding him up.
Ronan clears his throat again, turning away to pick up some weapons from the ground. He says, “Let’s head back home, we’ve lost too many. Gather everything up and we’ll head out.”
Andi squeezes my arm before letting go. She walks over to Myles and the two elves, talking to one of them, the other still hides behind Myles. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone this shy before.
I walk over to Ronan, his eyes glued to Andi walking away, and I throw an arm around his shoulders. “Distractions will get you killed.” I slap him on the back and follow Andi.
The walk back to Nu’cov feels short, and Andi and I tell each other what the other has missed.
She tells me about being hunted by guards since she left, staying in Cyvail, learning about her mother, and surviving being bitten by a Hundican.
A beast I’m surprised she hasn’t heard of, where I know it from the books I read as a child.
I tell her about being escorted away from Vendyl, then being attacked by these guys, the Unbound.
Deliberately leaving out the part about her mum and sister being kidnapped, once I tell her, she will hate me.
So, I skip it. Telling her how the Unbound took me in, the trials, and my cousin Iza.
This is the one she is most shocked about and angry.
I have to calm her down, explaining how Iza never knew what Nik did to me or what he would do, that I forgave her, and she should too. Andi huffs, and I can’t help but laugh.
Exhausted, we all stumble in the ivy-covered cave door. Caelan waits for us outside his hut.
I whisper to Andi, “Caelan is the boss here, he decides if you stay or not.” She looks at me with fear in her eyes. “Don’t worry. He’s not as scary as he looks.”
Caelan looks over us all. “Good to see you back, and in one piece, or mostly.” He notes the poorly wrapped bandages. His eyes linger on Andi before scanning over the others. “You’ve brought back some guests? Well, let’s not leave you out in the cold, come inside.”
Myles, Andi, and the two elves head through the door with members of the Unbound, leaving Caelan, Ronan, and me.
“Andrina?” Caelan smirks.
I nod. “That’s Andi.”
Ronan steps forward. “She saved us out there, I know I would be dead if she hadn’t… intervened when she did, a lot of us would be.”
Caelan rubs his beard, his eyes focus on the door.
“She’s okay. I haven’t told her about her family yet. I don’t know how to. What am I supposed to say?”
Caelan closes his eyes, nodding. “We’ll figure it out.” He grips my shoulder and turns away from us into the hut.
Ronan watches me. He opens his mouth to say something, but I interrupt him, “You seemed quite distracted out there? Something caught your attention?”
Ronan smirks and shrugs, heading through the door following Caelan.
I walk into the chief’s hut, food spread out on the table like usual, everyone helping themselves.
Andi sits on a chair beside Caelan in a quiet conversation, her eyes find me, and she gives me a small smile.
Once everyone settles, Caelan clears his throat.
“Alright. Before we start, I know you’re all eager to hear about Aron. He’s fine, he’ll be out of action for a while, but he will be okay.” He looks at Izaac, who tries to hide the tears in his eyes.
I can’t even imagine the worry he has dealt with—unbearable.
Caelan waits for everyone to quieten down. One elf sits at Andi’s side while the shy one sits beside Myles, slunk into her seat, probably wishing she could just vanish.
Caelan turns to Andi. “I’ll let this lot introduce themselves.” He gestures to the crowd.
There’s a lull in folk stepping forward, I nod to Arel to be the first; if he goes, the rest will follow. He steps forward, glancing back at me before bowing before Andi.
“My name is Arel, it’s nice to meet you, we’ve heard almost nothing from our little cub here.” He smirks back at me, and Andi lifts her eyes to mine, mouthing ‘little cub.’
I grit my teeth; there’s no chance of me living that down now.
One by one, they follow suit. “I’m Kaleb,” he says. His face is stern, but Andi smirks at him.
“I hope your nose is healing well?” Andi stifles her laugh.
“You have some punch on you.” By the gasps in the room, ‘that’s how you got it’, ‘you liar,’ he wasn’t entirely truthful when he said the guards gave it.
Next is Izaac, he can’t even look her in the eye. I laugh under my breath, remembering it was Kaleb and Izaac out looking for Ronan’s pendant.
Iza steps forward. “I heard Wyatt tell you about me, I’m his cousin, and I do feel guilty about what happened. Thank you and your family for looking after him when I couldn’t.” Andi’s gaze drifts to me, and I offer her a one-sided smile.
Andi then nods to Iza. “It’s nice to meet you, Iza. I’ll catch you up on all the embarrassing things little cub has done over the years.” Iza grins like a feral cat, and Andi’s eyes flick to me and laughs, while the others poke my arm, saying, ‘you’re in trouble now.’
Ronan is the last one to introduce himself, remembering when folk were doing the same to me, he barely said two words and hid in the shadows.
He gazes at me, cocks his eyebrow, and steps forward.
Kneeling before Andi, taking her by surprise, he lifts her hand and kisses it.
Myles stiffens in his chair but doesn’t do anything to object. Arel and Kaleb hold me back.
“My name is Ronan. It’s a pleasure to meet you.
I wanted to say thank you for saving my life out there.
I owe you. Anything you need.” Andi stares at him, her lips parted like she is trying to think of what to say, her hand slipping out of his as he stands and backs away from her.
I glare at him with my arms folded tightly over my chest, watching him as he steps back to the rest of us, his eyes never leaving Andi.
I expected a fight from Myles. Maybe he was hurt in the battle, or maybe he knows Andi’s heart, that she could never fall for such flirtations. Caelan rises from his chair, reaching for the pitcher and goblets, pouring each of the guests a drink.
“Now that formal introductions are out of the way… from our end, why don’t you tell us a little about yourselves. How did you come to find us?”
Andi takes a large drink from her goblet, and she looks at her companions. “Well. I don’t know where to begin. I’m not sure what Wyatt has told you all.” She gestures to me for some help.
I lean forward and shake my head, “Um… Caelan knows most of it.” I shrug apologetically, and Andi nods, taking another sip.
“Okay. Well, as most of you saw, I have magic from my family, the Taniths. That magic has been hidden for most of my life. I only just learned everything recently, and as soon as I did, I was hunted and beaten.” Andi shudders, her hand touches the faded pink scar on her neck.
Her screams vividly ring through my head, playing on repeat.
A sound I hope I never have to live through again.
She sneaks a glance at Myles, who studies his feet.
“Myles and I ran from Vendyl, as more and more guards appeared, we had to, there was no choice. We recuperated in Cyvail for a while, earning some coin to keep us going. That’s where we met Kali, but…
guards found me, somehow. Kali took us to her sister Lura’s, but on the way, we were attacked by some Hundican, and I was bitten.
” Audible gasps and mutters fill the room.
Caelan bangs his goblet on the arm of his chair for silence.
Andi nods in thanks. “I was out for weeks, but Lura healed me. I’m so thankful for her.
” Lura gives a little smile but ducks her head down.
“We remained in her house for a while, hidden beneath her wards, but guards were swarming the place. We knew it wouldn’t be long before they found us, and we’d be defenceless.
Lura said she had a friend from a village in the mountains, that’s where we were headed when we came across some of your men.
” Andi gives a small smile to Kaleb and Izaac. “You guys know the rest.”
Andi downs the rest of her goblet and slumps back in the chair, immediately plucking at her fingers. Her eyes are surrounded by dark circles, must have been a while since she had a decent sleep.
Caelan thinks for a minute. “Who is this friend?” He directs his questions to Lura this time. She lifts her sleeve up to her mouth, her hand shaking.
“Seema. She told me to come here if there was ever any trouble.” Her voice comes out as barely a whisper.
Caelan nods, glancing at his ring, twiddling it round.
“Seema was right about that.” He stands up, setting his goblet on the table.
“I know Your Highness is probably in need of some sleep.” Andi goes to protest, her face reddening at the term, but Caelan continues, “But I think it’s important to have you all checked out first.”
He looks at Lura. “Seema will heal any cuts or scrapes you have.”
I walk over to Andi, helping her up out of the chair, and follow Myles and the elf females out of the hut, glaring at Ronan’s fixed stare on Andi. Andi sneaks a peek at him too, her cheeks flush. I nudge her to shift her attention.
I walk Andi and the rest to Seema’s hut, glancing over my shoulder. Ronan follows us with his eyes. I whisper to Andi, “He’s dangerous, you should ignore him.”
She looks back over her shoulder. “He doesn’t look that bad, besides, I have Myles, remember.”
Seema opens the door to her hut and steps out, smiling at Lura, wrapping her in a warm embrace. She pulls away, taking Lura and Myles by the hand, squealing, “Congratulations. I haven’t seen a mating bond in so long.”