Chapter 14
“Liv and I are going to rescue Esvie and make sure this Lord Thrait knows he will never get his hands on Atta.”
Decelia grinned at Rise as if she couldn’t be prouder, and a small part of him…liked it. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
For far too long, Rise had survived on his own as an outcast. Only vague memories of his mother before they were taken gave him some semblance of family connections.
Now, he didn’t quite know if he could adjust. But he would have to.
He couldn’t make Atta suffer for his selfishness.
Reluctantly, Rise had to accept that he needed people now more than ever.
Not only had Decelia made him feel like he might actually belong somewhere, that he had, indeed, once had a home and could again, but Liv had given him reason to believe that the beliefs he’d held so tightly to, the motivation for his revenge, might not be as clearcut as he had once thought.
Even now, as he looked at her softened features, he could see the real human behind the warrior she’d become. He remembered the girl who had, at times, given him a place to hide away from the tortures of the palace.
A sudden flash of memory hit him. For two blessed days, she’d hidden him in her closet, feeding him small bits of food wrapped in napkins.
He had been brutally beaten and had slipped in and out of consciousness, but she had given him her pillows and blankets from her bed.
He might have imagined it, but he felt sure she had snuggled next to him, humming softly as she ran her short fingernails over the few inches of unmarred skin.
When he’d still had them, he’d wrapped her in his wings.
A feeling of warmth filled his chest as he stared at her speaking with Decelia about what they would need to take with them on the journey until she finally turned her attention toward him and met his gaze with a small smile.
“Is that alright with you, Rise?”
He cleared his throat and asked, “Could you repeat the question?”
“We’ll leave in the morning?”
“Of course. The sooner the better.”
She’d cared for him. Yet, after Grawl took his wings, he hadn’t seen her ever again. He’d assumed the worst, that she no longer wanted to help him because he couldn’t protect her with his wings any more. Such a childish way of thinking!
Yet, it had driven him toward this moment, toward the vengeance that inched ever closer.
Would he be able to sacrifice Liv to achieve it?
More and more, he was beginning to doubt he could.
Decelia interrupted his dark thoughts when she said, “Then, we need to get started with the preparations. Come, meet your people first, and they will share anything you ask for.”
As Rise walked through the small tent city, filled with many, large canvas domiciles that looked like they could hold multiple families, which all poured out, talking and whispering as he walked by.
“Maybe you should try to smile a little. I think you’re scaring them.”
Liv was likely right, but Rise only scowled deeper.
He didn’t like this at all. Once, when he was still a young man, free from Grawl’s grasp and on his own, Rise had seen a creature being led through the streets of a small village, being pulled by a rope, and people pointed and stared because it only had three legs, and it hobbled as it walked.
With his scarred body, Rise felt very much like that three-legged animal in that moment.
Yet, as he looked behind him, he watched as Decelia spoke to each of the groupings of people.
Within minutes, they turned back into their tents and returned with weapons, food, and other supplies that he and Liv would need for the journey.
They didn’t ask questions. They simply handed the items with a nod of their heads.
Rise had never seen such unquestioned generosity. It twisted his gut with frustration and guilt. He’d struggled his entire life, but all that time, his people existed, and he’d never known it. He’d never known to look for them.
Because they’d hidden themselves away.
Instead of fighting, they’d decided it was better to hide away in a pocket dimension, abandoning him to whatever fate had in store. Why hadn’t they at least tried to come for him?
“Are you okay, Rise?”
When he met her gaze, Liv’s eyes were full of a compassion he remembered. It made him feel…cared for. Something he hadn’t felt in such a length of time that it took him by surprise. And he had a sudden need to reassure her, to make sure she didn’t think of him as weak.
He clenched his fists tighter. “Fine! I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“But…seeing all of this…meeting the people you were meant to rule…seeing the safety you could have had…” She waited a few heartbeats before she asked, “How are you feeling about all of this?”
How was he feeling? His first reaction was to shake off the idea that he would think about his feelings at all. He was a warrior. One who had survived alone, with vengeance driving him, for years without once thinking about how he felt about it all. Why would he start now?
Yet, the way she reached out and stroked his forearm gave him pause.
Her touch sent warmth throughout his body and straight to his midsection.
He didn’t believe for a second that she had meant anything overtly sexual with the light stroking of his skin, but it was putting all kinds of dangerous thoughts in his head.
He was picturing her hands smoothing over other parts of him, touching his skin, stirring sensations he knew better than to give into.
It was better to focus on the “feelings” she wanted to discuss.
“It’s strange. I don’t really feel anything. As much as they are my people, I don’t belong here. I’m not sure I ever would.”
He looked around at the people still spilling out of the tents in front of them. No one waved. No one called out in greeting. They simply stared in awe at what Rise could only imagine looked like a demon incarnate in their midst.
He knew what his image conveyed, and it was far from kingly. His visage was more of that of the usurper who came in the night to steal the kingdom away.
“Yet, they all look at you like you’re the one who could save them.”
For what felt like minutes, Rise stared at Liv before glancing back at all the faces watching him with the kind of longing one has when watching clouds passing after weeks without rain. Liv was right. They expected him to save Umbraland.
They didn’t expect him to salvage the wreck that Grawl had created because they wanted revenge. That was what had driven him this far.
They wanted to live, to be free of the tyranny of the land. They wanted a hero to save them.
But Rise wasn’t a hero. He kidnapped and killed and destroyed. He was more villain than hero.
“Well, that’s too bad. I’m nobody’s savior. I am fighting for one purpose, and one purpose only. I want to kill Grawl to make him pay for all he has done to me and my mother. Anyone who doesn’t understand that is setting themselves up for great disappointment.”