Chapter 63 #2
As the sun rose, exhaustion was my constant companion, and even I was starting to slow, weariness winning. Right as I was about to cry uncle, it happened.
Every opponent on the field began to just… retreat into the woods.
I hadn’t been paying attention the night before because we were trying to get Fiona off the field and then get back to Brielle. But tonight, it was impossible to miss.
What the fuck?
They ran and flew and wove through our numbers, racing away into the woods.
Thankfully, our orders were to defend the castle, as it was our most defensible position, and that kept us near the ley lines so Kane and Brielle could keep control of the stone.
I was too tired to give chase, so I leaned heavily against Valens’s side instead. “Why are they running?”
He shrugged. “They left at sunrise yesterday too. Whatever orders they’re operating under, they must include a strategic retreat.”
“So, what, they’re just going to keep attacking us every single night, fighting through the night and leaving to regroup every morning?”
“Maybe, or maybe that’s what they want us to expect.
Whatever they’re planning, Kane and Gael are on top of it.
They’ve got guards and cameras and Goddess knows what else monitoring the perimeter and the forests twenty-four seven.
It’s not going to pick up magical movement outside the area, obviously, but it’s as good a warning as we’re going to get before an attack. Which means we should go sleep.”
I lifted my glitter-coated arm, the formerly bright sparkles now slicked with blood and gore, not just from my enemies. “Maybe shower, then sleep. And then we need to see Bence.”
“Definitely shower. And Bence,” he added, a haunted expression cutting through the weariness he also wore. “What am I going to say to him?”
“That you love him, and that he’s got us.”
“Henrik’s body, I should—”
I put my hands on his cheeks, forcing him to focus on me before he could wander off. “Someone will bring him in, and in the morning, we’ll make arrangements for their burials. Tonight, we can’t help him. We can only help Bence.”
He nodded, sheathed his broadsword, and swept me off my too-tired-to-protest feet.
We showered first so we wouldn’t scare the little guy with the gore we wore like second skin. My knees felt like jelly as we walked down the long staircase to the bunker.
But my own needs slipped away as we rounded the last corner into the bunker itself, and an arrow of a little boy hit us both in the knees, full-body sobs as he clung to our legs.
Leigh was a few paces behind, huffing and puffing. “I’m so sorry. He’s been with me every minute, since… you know. But he’s inconsolable, understandably.”
Valens scooped up Bence, pressing the little boy’s face to his shoulder as he hugged him, whispering words of comfort as I hugged Leigh.
“Thank you for looking out for him. I don’t know what we would have done without you.”
When I pulled back, her eyes were as misty as my own. “That’s what family’s for. The maidens brought Nugget with them from the enclave. I was thinking, if you were okay with it, I’d bring him down from our room so Bence could have a buddy?”
“That’s a great idea. I think anything we can do for him right now, we should.”
After that, we took Bence upstairs for dinner, bath, and bed. He fell asleep right in the middle of our bed, clutching a wolf plushie Savvy had retrieved for him from his grandparents’ room, along with his things.
I stared down at his innocent, sleeping face, more emotions than I could name swirling around in my chest like a hurricane. He was ours now. To protect and love and care for, ready or not. But when I looked up at Valens, I knew we were as ready as we could be.
We crawled into bed on either side of our adopted son, and we all three slept.
The strange battle-and-retreat pattern continued for ten days.
Each day, the ODL came in the night, with some variation of attackers augmenting their numbers.
Each day, we rebuffed their advances, taking a small number of losses each time, but never as many as they did.
Most importantly, we kept them away from the castle, where our weaker pack mates were sheltered.
Over the course of those days, our own allies began to arrive and augment our numbers.
To my surprise, the goblins were the very first to arrive.
I gaped as their delegation rode through the front gates on steam-powered war machines.
“What in the ever-loving fuck is that?” Valens asked, mouth agape as he stared up at the rickety-looking thing that rattled past us. It was at stark odds with the front of the castle, so pristinely built even after being burned.
“You said a bad word,” Bence said from between us, where he held his wolfie in one hand and my hand with the other.
“Sorry, buddy.” Valens winced, giving me a regretful look. We’d both been working on cleaning up our language for the little guy, but it had only been a few days, and sometimes we slipped.
“Do you see that? What do you think it is?” I asked, trying to distract Bence.
He just shrugged, staring up at it with as much confusion as we felt. This… catapult—it had to be some sort of catapult, by the looks of it—seemed to be held together with little more than bubble gum and hope.
Yet roll on by it did, with a neon-green-haired goblin riding proudly atop it, one hand on his hip, one knee on a board, as if it were the prow of a pirate ship and he the proud captain.
“If I live to be a million years old, I doubt I’ll ever see anything weirder,” Valens mumbled, watching in awe as the goblins roll-clunked past us in a raucous stream.
“Oh, that’s Grand Inventor Rivetsky. He probably built that,” Olivia exclaimed, waving up at him with genuine enthusiasm.
“He apparently flew to the closest goblin clan and used local resources to build those. It’s impressive how much he got done in such a short time frame.
They’ve been rolling this way under a magical glamor for days. ”
I knew she had spent quite a bit of time with some of the goblins, but I’d been doing a lot of guarding at the time, and not a lot of bonding. Though now she said it, the green-haired fellow looked pretty familiar. “Are these the Canadian goblins?”
“Yes, they insisted on being at the head of the goblin procession, which caused quite a stir with the local clan, but apparently, they won the argument. Brielle asked me to be here to greet them, since we worked so closely together while regrowing their gardens.” A little green bullet darted out of the procession, arrowing toward Olivia with scary precision.
Instinctively, I stepped in front of her, despite the fact that it was no longer my job.
For my troubles, I took a goblin toddler to the knees.
“Ouch! Why did you do that?” The little girl glared up at me, rubbing her sore forehead.
“Umm, I’m sorry, I—”
Olivia skirted around me and scooped the tiny girl up. “Button! It’s so good to see you again. Where is your mom, though? There are too many people around here for you to be running around alone.”
“I’m not alone, I’m with you.” The little sprite pressed her fingertips to Olivia’s cheek, smiling. “Can you make the flowers grow for me again?”
“Of course. But just this once. I’ve got to save all my energy for healing people. Bence, would you like to come with us?”
All our friends had adopted the little guy right alongside us, and I was infinitely grateful when he nodded, and Olivia scooped him up in her other arm.
The little girl giggled as Olivia carried the two children away, talking about what color flowers they both wanted to see. Lavender to match her hair, obviously. I couldn’t hear what Bence said, if anything. He was so sad, and my heart broke anew every day that I couldn’t fix it all for him.
But I knew as well as anyone that dead parents didn’t come back, no matter how hard you wished.
“Has anyone ever told you that your friends are weird?” Valens asked, craning his neck to watch Olivia and the kids wander up to a nearby bush.
“No, but I have a feeling more of that is in my future.”
“Yeah, your friends are weird.”
“The absolute best kind of weird,” I amended as Bence clapped his hands and grinned up at Oli.
I twined my fingers with Valens and chuckled as Olivia made an unassuming bush turn almost entirely lavender with blooms, making the little girl squeal and clap excitedly.
Then a wave of bright blue blooms followed, presumably Bence’s choice.
“I couldn’t agree more.” There was a pause as we both turned back to the procession, and then he cleared his throat. “I hate to leave you two, but I need to get back to the forge. I’m this close to figuring out a way to remove the collars.”
I spun to face him, curious to hear more.
He’d been spending hours each day when we weren’t fighting working on a tool to remove the control devices.
So far, every time he’d gotten close to removing one from a captive, it had backfired, killing the supe wearing it in a uniquely gruesome fashion tailored to the species wearing it.
He’d considered quitting every time someone died, and I couldn’t blame him.
Valens wanted to save them, not murder them.
But if we couldn’t get the collars off, we couldn’t save any of them.
He hadn’t said much about his progress, but I caught bits of his sorrow and anger through our bond occasionally, even though he was trying to hide it from me.
It was sweet that he didn’t want me to experience their suffering, but I could handle what I had to. I was much more concerned about him pulling away from Bence and me under the stress of everything.
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I believe in you. We believe in you,” I amended.