Chapter 22
Barrett’s Forest, Realm of Eldridge
Moving across the clearing, Connor headed toward the small grove of velentha trees that bordered one side of their camp site. The trees were peaceful, sparkling with nectar in the glow of the moonlight.
Ducking into the center of the cluster hid him, dimming the sounds of the camp almost completely. The precious sound of laughter occasionally reached through the barrier of trees. Bursts of playful joy as the children exhibited the pre-sleep energy of youth.
The closer they got to home, to impending confrontations, the tenser he got.
His stomach churning. His muscles constantly tense.
His mind and magic on high alert. Breathing deeply brought the sweet scent of lentha into his lungs.
That scent and the serenity of the beautiful Eldrin trees blanketed his nerves for a few moments.
A wisp of movement heralded Cass’s presence, his connection to the shadows giving her up to his magic senses. He groaned audibly to let her know she was invading his moment of peaceful solitude as she slipped into the shadow realm to join him.
“Go away, Cass.”
Cass chuckled unapologetically. “Nice to know you’re not intimidated by me anymore. I must be losing my edge.”
“You’re not as scary as you think you are.”
Truthfully, for all that she was his sister’s best friend, he’d always been quite intimidated by her. Weeks of journeying together had cured him of that. Mostly.
Besides the fact that she was more open and relaxed than he’d ever seen her, he was especially impressed by her respectful handling of Marin, the teen they’d rescued who had suffered extensive mental and physical abuse. Not all warriors had what it took to work with the rescued youth.
“Uh-huh,” she drawled. “Tell that to all the nervous citizens at home.”
“Does it bother you that your reputation precedes you?” he asked curiously.
Cass made a derisive sound. “Makes me unfit company you mean?”
Connor winced but didn’t deny it. “Your words, but yes.”
Most people were wary at best around the Wolflumen, appreciating the protection they offered yet not wanting such deadly individuals living beside them.
A tendril of tension eased out of Cass and rippled through the shadows. “Most of the time, no, not really. It becomes ignorable. On rare occasions, though… it bothers me more than you can imagine.”
“You shouldn’t have to get used to being ostracized. It’s wrong.”
“It is.” Cass quirked her mouth in a half smile. “But to change that, we’d have to integrate into society. That would eliminate our effectiveness. We need to exist totally apart to do what we do.”
“Not fitting cleanly into either world must be a challenge.”
“It is. And it will be even more of a challenge now that I have Marin as a soul-daughter. She’s too gentle to be accepted by the Wolflumen, and I can’t walk away to live a normal life.”
“Too gentle, really?”
Marin was a survivor and a fighter, from what he’d seen.
“Yes. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll train her to fight, regardless.
I made that promise to her. But she’s too kind and gentle to become a wolf.
She’s fierce and angry right now, but she doesn’t have the heart of a killer.
And after all she’s been through, it would do her more harm to be cut out of society, away from Celina, Rodric, and the others.
I may be the one she shadows, but severing those relationships would be just as harmful to her.
She needs more light in her life, not more darkness. ”
“She’s asleep now?” he asked.
“At least for a few hours,” Cass confirmed. “Which is why I came to find you, though you distracted me for a few minutes.”
Connor raised his eyebrow at her, wondering what she wanted to discuss unheard.
“When you chased down that lieutenant at the fortress, Daya was connected to the hawks and to Veda. Nothing condemning was said, but Veda’s reactions were interesting. Takes a while to learn to mind speak without verbalizing, and I believe that was probably her first experience.”
Zevat. He could he deny what she’d witnessed third hand but chose not to argue the revelation. “Did anyone else notice?”
“No. I had Sev keep the other children’s attention elsewhere.”
Connor breathed out a sigh of relief. He’d been worrying about Celina’s response to knowing he’d let Devryn go. She’d come around to his reasoning eventually, but it would not be an easy conversation.
“You didn’t say anything.”
“No, I did not. I’m sure the reason for your decision was to save lives. But if you think Celina will react strongly, it won’t compare to Rodric’s response. She, at least, understands military protocol.”
“I’d rather they not find out at all. Or at least until they’re home and completely safe. Not sure I can claim it was a military decision when I don’t plan on telling them either.”
“I couldn't care less what you tell the military. What I’m more immediately concerned about are the repercussions of freeing him. Are we safe? Do we need to take extra measures when we get home? With or without them knowing? I don’t like surprises, Connor.
It’s one reason why I watch everything that goes on so closely. ”
“Figured you just liked having one up on us all the time.” Connor joked with her like he would one of his teammates in a stressful situation.
“Well… I’ll admit that’s an added benefit,” Cass admitted with a smirk. “But mostly I prefer to know what’s coming at me. Like a potentially violent, escaped mercenary for instance.”
He shook his head, lips twitching. An offer of help and protection was not what he had expected when she’d initiated this line of conversation.
What did he need? He considered her questions seriously.
There wouldn’t be any blowback from Devryn.
But from the traitor? It was possible. It would be foolish to attack the Blackwood family directly, being who they were in Calderre.
But the refugee children? His remaining teammates?
There was danger, certainly. He would need to be very careful how he handled the situation.
“Not from him, but from others at home, possibly.”
“If you need my help, ask. Don’t do anything crazy on your own in the name of vengeance.”
“Wouldn’t that be your style for handling a traitor?” he asked bluntly.
“Depending on the situation, yes. But you’re not me. You have a lot more to lose, Connor.”
Just then, the shadows parted like mist to his magic sight, and one such thing barreled into the circle of velentha trees. He stepped out of the shadow to intercept Opal as she raced toward him.
The little girl stumbled and gave a squeak of surprise when he and Cass both appeared suddenly but recovered quickly.
“Con!” Opal ran at him, expecting him to catch her mid-jump.
He did, laughing and tossing her higher before settling her on his hip. She felt heavier, thank the stars. She was getting faster and stronger as the days wore on, though he still had trouble getting her to eat enough.
“What is it, little mite?” he asked.
“The horses are good, except Dahlia had a stone in her back hoof, but I got it out.” Opal reported on her assigned daily magic practice—checking in magically with the horses.
“And Rogue’s knee hurts, so I told Celina so that she and Rodric could use their healing magic to help him feel better.
Zora is kind of cranky tonight and said that boss mares don’t need to be tethered. But they’re all ready for bed.”
“Very good. Thank you for remembering to do that,” he said seriously.
Opal giggled, wrinkling her nose as she grinned at him. “And no little mites besides me.”
“You’re all they need.” Connor chuckled and tickled her lightly. “How about you? Are you ready for bed yet?”
“Mmm, no, not yet. Will you come tell us a story? Sev said his voice is tired because we made him tell three last night, so it’s your turn.”
“Is that so?”
She nodded decisively, a hopeful look on her face. They’d been taking turns storytelling, and Sev was the favorite because he knew all the myths and legends. Not just from Eldridge, but from all over the world. His surprising talent for storytelling had proven incredibly helpful with the children.
“I’m pretty sure it’s Celina’s turn,” he said.
His sister tended to tell tales that specifically detailed Calderran culture and history, her way of preparing them to enter a new society. They were much less fun than Sev’s stories, though Connor would never admit such a thing.
“She won’t mind if you take her turn.” Opal’s eyes were big and bright as she smiled up at him sweetly. “Please, Con?”
“Oh, alright.” He heard Cass snicker quietly when he caved in.
“Yes!” Opal hugged his neck before bouncing to be put down.
“I’ll be there soon, okay?”
“Okay!”
He was happy to see that her energy was returning to a normal, healthy level as she raced back to camp.
Tapping into a specific part of his magic, he used the shadows Opal crossed through to track her movement until she got safely back to their fire.
Cass was shaking her head at him when he looked up, but she was smiling softly.
“I know. I can’t help it,” he admitted.
Opal had stolen Rogue’s heart the moment they first met in the middle of a battleground when his team had first found and freed her. She’d stolen his too.
“Don’t change, Connor. She needs you exactly the way you are.” Cass’s face returned to its serious expression. “Remember that.”
“I will,” he promised.
Her words brought him full circle to the reason he’d needed a moment of solitude in the first place.
They were fast approaching home. He needed to see his surviving teammates and figure out how to effectively handle the traitor.
Leadership narrowed significantly at the command level.
The decision of whom to trust weighed heavily on him.
It wasn’t just his life at stake. Especially when the person he would usually turn to first was implicated.
Alison. His soul-guardian. He still couldn’t fathom how she was involved.
If his instincts were right, the attack on his team had been intended to take them all out.
With his memories returning and Devryn’s intel, he knew without a doubt that that was what the viper medallion meant.
He remembered grabbing it off the man who had initially followed him away from the battle.
How could Alison possibly be involved in something like that? Even on the peripheral. Or worse, at the helm. She’d hugged him when he left, knowing full well he was unlikely to survive the mission.
Connor shoved the dark tendrils of thought down so that he could focus and cleared his throat of the buildup of emotion that threatened to choke him.
“If you’re willing, I’d appreciate your help,” he told Cass. “There are very few people I trust right now. There may be a traitor at the command level of the lightning teams. I need help, but the only person outside my team I’m willing to bring in right now is Commander Galen.”
Of the same command level as Alison, Morgan Galen commanded the lightning team division whose primary focus was foreign rescues.
The commander was formidable and had a sore spot about children being abused.
He ran ops with every new team created—under his command or not—to ensure they had absorbed the right parts of their training to his liking.
Most importantly, Morgan had believed Celina’s insistence that he wasn’t dead and helped direct her and Cass to find him.
“Morgan is a good choice,” Cass agreed.
There was no way they could make it all the way home to Ravensmere Keep without being noticed, so he’d been debating various options with little success. It was time for someone else’s opinion.
“My priority is talking to him and my team. If we stop at the refugee center like Celina wants, and they’re not there, I’ll be swept away immediately by other military personnel on site. There’s treachery in our ranks. I can’t let that happen.”
He had a number of things to hide, but he didn’t want them to suspect any of them.
The less they suspected he knew, the better.
In fact, he planned to let them think his memory had come back less fully than it had to further the guise that he was who he’d always been—a solid, rule-following warrior.
One who was in no way aware that they’d been attacked by viper mercenaries.
“We could delay a day or two on this side of the border. Get a message to Morgan to be at the center. Or we could pick a strategic location they would think twice about storming, even if they catch wind of our return somehow. Get Morgan to meet us there.”
“Where would you pick?” he asked.
“Althea’s estate, Rosewood.” Cass named Celina’s mentor, whose estate was a large, rural holding within two days ride of the border.
“It’s close and away from major towns. We can manage to get there unseen.
Althea is the head of the Healers Guild, a member of the Royal Advisory Council, and a champion of the refugee program.
They won’t risk her wrath by invading her home. Especially with the children present.”
Her logic was sound. Althea’s adopted son, Sam, had also reproduced the map that his team had used in order to help Celina narrow down where to start searching for him, so he was already aware of what was going on.
Most of all, he really didn’t want the children to witness him being cornered and questioned, possibly hauled away, as was bound to happen if their first stop in Calderre was a military outpost.
They were dealing with at least one traitor. There was also the fact that his family had been lied to about his death in the field. Too much was being driven behind the scenes for his comfort. They needed to control as much as they could about his return.
Connor nodded to Cass. “Rosewood, then.”