Chapter Three
TYNE WAS STILL THINKING about Meyer and Peyton a few days later when he really should’ve been focused on Carlyle and how to find him.
Carlyle was wounded.
He might be able to heal himself, but from what Tyne remembered, he’d never been the best at healing spells.
He certainly was no Penley, which meant the mages stood a good chance of killing him if they could find him.
But instead of thinking about how to find Carlyle, Tyne had been obsessing over Meyer.
He knew that the two of them needed to be in harmony if they wanted a chance to defeat Carlyle.
It was going to be tough anyway, but it would be near impossible if they were still wary and didn’t trust each other.
That meant that Tyne needed to let go of his resentment, but he wasn’t quite sure how to do that.
The most obvious way would be to talk to Meyer.
Tyne was dreading that.
He’d never wanted to tell anyone what Peyton had done to him.
When he’d agreed to move in with the mages, he hadn’t thought they would ever find their dragons.
They hadn’t even known if the dragons were dead or alive.
They’d been gone when they’d woken up after the fight with Carlyle, and all their attempts to find them had failed.
Tyne had been sure they were dead, and he hadn’t wanted to be alone.
He couldn’t go back home after what had happened, so he’d stayed. He was glad he had, even now that the dragons were back. He was happy for the other mages.
He couldn’t be happy for himself.
He couldn’t allow himself to fall for Meyer like he’d fallen for Peyton.
Of course, there was no way for him to know if he would.
Like everyone—especially Penley—had pointed out, Meyer wasn’t Peyton.
Maybe Tyne would hate him once he gave him a chance and talked to him.
He snorted.
He doubted that would happen.
He glanced at his desk.
He’d never been one of the mages who sat behind a desk all day and worked on their magic.
He felt much better doing so in the courtyard, but he couldn’t spend the entire day outside.
Jarvis wouldn’t like that and would send him back inside to rest, so instead of waiting for Jarvis to complain, Tyne had been reading up on location spells.
They weren’t his specialty, but he didn’t think it mattered when they still needed to find Carlyle.
He’d gotten nowhere.
He couldn’t understand some of the magic, but even the magic he could understand felt complicated to him.
When he tried the spells, he had to work way too hard for no results.
It was like his magic didn’t like that kind of spell, which wasn’t a surprise, but it was frustrating.
His phone vibrated on the desk.
He snatched it up, relieved to have a distraction.
He was especially happy when he saw that it was Jarvis because, as their unofficial leader, he was bound to have something interesting for Tyne to do.
Tyne opened the text.
He wasn’t surprised to see that Jarvis was asking him to come to his office.
He probably wanted to talk about Carlyle or what their next step would be.
As far as Tyne knew, Emory hadn’t found Carlyle yet, but he would eventually.
He might be spending most of his time grumbling that it would be easier if he could visit people, but Jarvis had put his foot down.
Emory had to use the phone and the Internet.
He wasn’t leaving the castle until Carlyle was taken care of.
Tyne smiled as he reread the text.
He finally had something to do.
He abandoned the book he’d been reading on his desk and hurried out of his office.
The castle was almost completely silent, and the offices he walked past were all closed.
He had no doubt that the other mages were working hard on ways to defend themselves and the people they loved and on even more ways to defeat Carlyle.
Tyne was pretty sure that unless a dragon beat him to it, he’d give Carlyle the final blow.
His magic was offensive, and he wouldn’t risk any of the other mages getting so close to Carlyle.
They had too much to live for.
He didn’t.
Jarvis’s office was just down the hallway.
Tyne paused in front of the door and knocked before opening it and peeking in.
Jarvis was behind his desk, a collection of jars and containers in front of him.
He didn’t look up when he waved at Tyne to come in.
Tyne realized he had his phone in his hand, so instead of asking what was going on, he sat in front of Jarvis’s desk and waited.
Jarvis typed a message, sending it off before putting his phone down.
“I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything.”
Tyne wasn’t kidding. He needed something to do, and waiting for Carlyle to pop up wasn’t what he had in mind.
Jarvis grimaced.
“I’m not sure you’ll feel the same way when you find out what the favor is.”
“I’m not kidding. I’m willing to do anything you need me to do.”
Jarvis stared for a moment before nodding.
“All right. I need you and Meyer to go to your old clan. They offered to give us some ingredients we desperately need.”
For a second, Tyne struggled to make sense of the words.
He’d heard them, but Jarvis had never sent him to his old clan before.
Even though Tyne had never told him what happened, he’d known something had because Tyne had never gone home.
Even when his mother had tried contacting him, he’d refused to talk to her.
And now, Jarvis was sending him there.
“Send someone else,”
Tyne said.
“It’s your clan. You know they’ll make it easier if you go, and the clan leader asked especially for you to go.”
Tyne snorted.
“It won’t be easier.”
But if Tyne’s mother had asked Jarvis to send him, Tyne knew he wouldn’t get out of there in one piece.
His mother would never hurt him physically, but emotionally and mentally? She’d destroyed him once in the past.
She could do so again, especially if Meyer was there, too.
“I know you don’t feel comfortable telling me or anyone else what happened, but this is important.
These ingredients might be the only way for us to beat Carlyle and protect the castle.
You know we need them.”
Tyne did.
He’d done as much as he could when he’d restored the protective spells on the castle a few days ago, but his magic couldn’t do everything on his own.
They needed cornerstones and ingredients to anchor it, and Jarvis had been talking about expanding the protective spells so that part of the lake was covered, too.
The forest was too vast to do anything about it, but all of them remembered when Carlyle had set it on fire and had almost destroyed it.
That wound was still fresh.
“Maybe if you tell me what happened, we can find a way around it,”
Jarvis suggested.
Tyne was already shaking his head. “I’ll go.”
He didn’t have a choice.
“I’m really sorry about this. I can only guess how painful this is for you, but I really feel we don’t have a choice. I contacted the clan leader. I didn’t realize she would latch onto your name the way she did.”
“It’s fine,”
Tyne reassured Jarvis.
“Really. I’ll do it.”
Tyne wanted to suggest taking another dragon, maybe Emory, but he’d never flown with anyone other than Peyton. Maybe flying with Meyer wouldn’t be the same, but Tyne couldn’t leave him behind, no matter how much he wanted to. They were still mage and shield, and that meant that Meyer’s job was to protect him.
Even though Peyton hadn’t wanted to do so anymore.
MEYER HAD HIS FEET kicked up on the coffee table when Tyne barged into the living room, startling him.
He was playing video games with Bennett, who jumped almost as high as him.
Neither of them had heard Tyne, which was strange considering how hard he was stomping his feet.
It was obvious that something had happened, but Tyne probably wouldn’t tell Meyer what it was even if Meyer asked. It was easier to keep his mouth shut and wait for Tyne to say or do something.
“Meyer, I need you to come with me,”
Tyne said.
He looked like he’d rather die than go anywhere with Meyer, which made Meyer curious.
He and Bennett exchanged a glance. Bennett had paused the game when Tyne had come in, and Meyer slowly put down the controller and turned toward his mage.
Was Tyne his mage? Technically, he was because they shared the bond between mage and dragon.
Meyer could feel it, and it was just the way Bennett described the bond he shared with Penley.
That meant that Meyer and Tyne had sealed the bond in the past. They’d been together.
They were so far from being together now that it made Meyer want to laugh—or cry.
“What’s going on?”
he asked when Tyne stared at him, clearly expecting him to obey just because he’d asked.
“Jarvis is sending us on a mission.”
That got Meyer’s attention. He’d never been sent on a mission, and he’d definitely never been asked to work with Tyne. He wasn’t sure what Jarvis was thinking, but if it was happening, it had to be important.
“He wants us specifically?”
Meyer asked as he got up from the couch.
Tyne didn’t look happy about that, but he nodded.
“He does. When can you be ready to leave?”
Meyer wasn’t surprised that they had to go right away. Time was of the essence with Carlyle still out there. He might be wounded, but that didn’t make him any less dangerous.
“Right away.”
Tyne nodded.
“I’ll be waiting for you in the courtyard.”
He turned and walked out of the living room, leaving Meyer standing there.
He and Bennett looked at each other again, and while Meyer wanted nothing more than to sit back down with his friend and talk about what the fuck had just happened, he didn’t have the time.
He rushed to the kitchen to grab a snack, stuffing it into his mouth as he headed to the closest bathroom.
He was pretty sure he would have to shift, which meant he couldn’t bring much.
He did grab one of the pouches that would go around his neck when he shifted from the entrance when he walked through, though.
He wasn’t going anywhere without his phone in case he needed to contact the other mages.
He had no idea where they were going.
Although he trusted Tyne to help protect him if anything happened, he wanted to be sure he could reach out if they needed more help.
Just as he’d said, Tyne was waiting in the courtyard.
His expression was tight, and he had his arms crossed over his chest in an uncompromising position.
He looked angry, but thankfully, that anger didn’t seem to be directed at Meyer.
It was a nice change.
“I can shift whenever you’re ready,”
Meyer said as he adjusted the strap of the pouch around his neck.
“Now is good. The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll be back.”
It felt like they’d taken several steps backward.
Meyer couldn’t say that Tyne had suddenly become his biggest fan after what had happened with Carlyle, but he’d definitely softened towards him.
It almost looked like he cared about Meyer then, but all of that was gone now.
Tyne was back to being the Tyne who clearly couldn’t get rid of Meyer fast enough.
It hurt, but it also made Meyer wonder what the hell Jarvis wanted them to do. It had to be big to make Tyne change like this again.
“Where are we going?”
he asked as he stretched his shoulders.
“Why do you care?”
Tyne snapped.
His tone took Meyer back.
“Well, I need to know what direction I need to fly, at the very least. I’d tell you to take over that part of the trip, but you don’t have wings.”
Tyne looked like he wanted to strangle Meyer, but Meyer didn’t care.
He had enough of apologizing for something he didn’t remember doing.
He especially had enough of Tyne treating him like he’d broken his heart and had killed his dog.
Meyer had done none of those things.
The thought made him frown.
He hadn’t done any of that, but maybe Peyton had.
He doubted that he could have killed a dog when he was Peyton, but breaking Tyne’s heart? That was technically a possibility, even though it was hard to imagine.
Meyer had watched the other dragons with their mages.
He couldn’t even think about any of them breaking their mages’ hearts.
Unfortunately, that didn’t mean Peyton hadn’t done exactly that.
“I see we’re back to square one,”
he muttered as he thought about what all of this meant.
“What are you talking about?”
Tyne asked, still sounding harsh.
Meyer shook his head.
“Nothing. Just tell me where to go,”
he said before quickly shifting.
He was done talking to Tyne when he was like this. Hell, if Tyne wasn’t careful, Meyer would be done talking to him, period.