Chapter Six
TYNE DIDN’T HAVE TO ask to know that Meyer had dozens of questions.
He would have them, too, if he was in Meyer’s place.
Fortunately for him—or maybe unfortunately because he wished he didn’t remember any of this—he had his memories.
He remembered the hallway in which he and Peyton had been caught making out when they were fifteen.
He remembered the garden bench where Peyton had first told him that he loved him.
He swallowed as he finally reached the ingredients room.
Meyer was behind him, thankfully silent, but Tyne couldn’t ignore his presence.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to.
He didn’t want to talk to his mother, and he wanted to talk to Amber even less, but part of him was glad that he wouldn’t be facing them alone.
If Meyer had still been Peyton, he would’ve been on their side, but he wasn’t.
The only person within the clan that he knew was Tyne, which meant that he wouldn’t stray far from him. Tyne wouldn’t lose him a second time.
Or at least, he hoped he wouldn’t.
The person in charge of the ingredients wasn’t someone Tyne remembered.
The woman already knew why Tyne was there, and like he’d expected, she had a packet ready for him.
She handed it over, and Tyne briefly wondered if he and Meyer could make a run for it.
He was tempted to try, but his mother knew him too well, even after all these years.
He’d just taken the packet when someone cleared her throat.
“Hello, Tyne,”
one of Tyne’s childhood friends said.
Anna’s gaze slid to Meyer, but she didn’t say anything to him.
She had to know that he didn’t have Peyton’s memories.
Either that or she still hadn’t forgiven Peyton for what he’d done.
Tyne hadn’t been completely alone when Peyton left him. He’d had some support, but the people here had to follow his mother’s lead. No matter how much they wanted to stand up for Tyne, they never had a choice.
“Anna,”
Tyne said.
“Your mother sent me so I could show you to your bedrooms for tonight.”
Tyne almost told her it wouldn’t be necessary, but it was. He couldn’t escape his mother.
“We’ll follow you.”
Had Tyne’s mother sent one of his friends so he’d be more comfortable, or was this a coincidence? Maybe Anna had volunteered.
Tyne had no doubt that the entire clan knew that Meyer was back by now.
They had to be curious, especially after what had happened with Mark.
There was also the distinct possibility that Amber was yapping at whoever would listen to her that Tyne had kept her shield from her or something like that.
There was a reason Tyne hadn’t returned after Peyton had vanished.
He hadn’t wanted anything to do with this.
He still didn’t.
Tyne liked Anna, but he wasn’t in the mood to talk or explain himself.
He followed her down the hallways, silent and relieved that she seemed to get the hint.
She didn’t ask questions.
She didn’t even ask him if he was okay.
She just walked until they reached the area of the house where the bedrooms were.
Tyne remembered.
He wasn’t surprised that they were led to two of the guest bedrooms.
His room had no doubt been assigned to someone else as soon as he’d left.
“The rooms are connecting,”
Anna explained.
“In case you need that. Your mother told me to let you know that she’ll expect you at her apartment for dinner in an hour.”
Tyne grunted. Anna took it as his answer, smiled at him, and turned to leave. Tyne didn’t wait for her to vanish down the hallway. He pushed open the door closest to him and walked in.
He was relieved when Meyer didn’t follow. He needed a moment alone.
It wasn’t nearly long enough.
By the time he was done showering and putting on the clothes that his mother had someone leave on the bed, it was time for him to pick up Meyer and go.
Tyne’s brain was screaming at him to stay in the room and hide, but his mother would come and drag him to her apartment if he tried that.
She was used to being obeyed.
Tyne knocked on Meyer’s door, relieved when he didn’t have to wait for more than a few minutes.
Meyer had showered, too, and Tyne swallowed at the sight of his still-damp hair.
He wanted to reach over and touch it the way he had after Meyer’s leg had been broken, but he didn’t dare.
Even now that Meyer knew everything, Tyne wasn’t sure he could allow him close. How could he trust Meyer not to leave him again?
“Ready?” he asked.
“I don’t feel like I’ll ever be ready to face your mother. She’s intimidating.”
Tyne snorted.
“You’ll be fine. She always liked you.”
In fact, she’d liked Peyton more than she’d ever liked Tyne. Tyne had given up on trying to get her to like him a long time ago, and he wasn’t going to start again anytime soon.
“Any tips?”
Meyer asked as they started walking.
“Not really. Nothing I can tell you will help us deal with this. The best thing we can do is stay quiet, eat as quickly as possible, and come back to our rooms.”
“Why do you think she wants to see us?”
“Because she can. Because she has the power to force us to stay.”
Meyer was silent for a moment before he nodded.
“I don’t think I like your mother.”
Tyne pressed his lips together so he wouldn’t laugh.
“I don’t think I like my mother, either.”
But unfortunately for both of them, the only way out of this was to have dinner with her.
It was only one evening.
Tomorrow morning, they’d be out of here, and if Tyne had any say, he’d never be back.
He didn’t ever want to be back.
It was hard not to turn around and run the closer they got to the apartment where he’d grown up.
His parents had never moved out.
It was where the clan leader lived, and Tyne’s mother had led the clan since before he was born.
She was a good leader. She put the clan before anyone and anything, including her own son.
He knocked on the door because this wasn’t his home anymore, and it hadn’t been in a long time.
It swung open almost instantly, and his father appeared.
He smiled at Tyne, but when he reached over, possibly to hug him, Tyne moved around him and walked into the apartment.
His relationship with his father had always been easier than his relationship with his mother, but he was angry.
No one had stood up for him, not even his father.
“You’re here,”
Tyne’s mother said.
“You ordered us to be, so yes, we are,”
Tyne said.
He looked around the apartment. Nothing had changed. It still looked the same as it had when he’d lived there, including the leather couches and the art on the walls.
“I’d think you’d be happy to see your parents for once. How many decades has it been?”
Not enough, Tyne thought, but he didn’t say it. Instead, he plastered a smile on his lips.
“Amber isn’t here?”
“Why would she be?”
“I thought you’d want her and Meyer to have time together.”
Meyer sucked in a breath from where he stood next to Tyne. He inched closer as if afraid that Tyne was about to throw him to the wolves. Tyne would never do that, but maybe Meyer didn’t realize that. He didn’t know Tyne very well.
“What I want is to know what happened,”
Tyne’s mother said as she stepped closer.
She was wearing a black evening dress and was impeccably put together, as always.
Her earrings glinted in the golden light coming from the lamps, and her red lips were curled into a disapproving expression.
She was used to people obeying her, and she expected Tyne to do so, too.
“Why? Does Amber still want Peyton?”
“She wants to know what happened. We all do.”
“You didn’t care this much when you were supposed to stand up for me.”
“What was there to stand for? Peyton had made his decision.”
She said it as if it had been simple, and maybe for her, it had been.
Tyne’s heart had broken all over again when his mother had refused to do anything to help him, though.
He hadn’t come home in decades for a reason, and he was starting to regret saying yes to Jarvis.
MEYER DIDN’T HAVE MOST of his memories, but of the ones he did have, he couldn’t remember ever feeling so uncomfortable.
He stood next to Tyne, looking from him to his mother.
The two of them were about to start fighting, which Meyer should have expected.
Tyne had told him that his mother had taken Amber’s side during the mess with Peyton, and it was clear she didn’t regret it.
Hell, if Meyer had to guess, she’d do it again if she was presented with the same situation again.
On the one hand, he understood.
If Peyton had made his decision, there wasn’t much she would have been able to do.
On the other hand, though, Tyne was her son, but she didn’t seem to have any kind of empathy toward him.
It made Meyer wonder if she had a shield.
She had to.
She was the leader of the clan.
She was a powerful mage, so she’d need a shield to protect her.
Was that shield Tyne’s father?
Meyer glanced at the man.
He stood back, not saying a thing.
Meyer had no idea if he was a dragon, and he wasn’t about to ask or try to sniff him.
In fact, he was planning to keep to himself and only answer questions he was directly asked while sticking by Tyne.
“You didn’t even try talking to him and Amber,”
Tyne accused.
“I did talk to them.”
“You asked them if this was what they wanted. I don’t care what you did as clan leader, but as my mother, why didn’t you ever try to get them to change their minds? Why didn’t you talk to Amber?”
“There was no reason to. Peyton wasn’t going to change his mind. He’d already chosen Amber over you, so why delay the inevitable?”
Tyne shook his head.
“I was never as important to you as the clan. Why did I think this situation would be any different?”
“What did you expect me to do?”
“I just told you,”
Tyne snapped.
“I expected support from my mother. Even if Peyton had ended up with Amber, anyway, I thought you’d be on my side.”
“I’m on the side of the clan.”
“That’s what I said. The clan is always going to come first.”
Tyne’s mother sniffed.
“It looks like you got what you wanted, anyway. Peyton is back with you. Do you know how distraught Amber is? She wanted to be here tonight, but I knew it was going to end in tears and screaming.”
“I don’t care about Amber.”
“She’s your cousin.”
“She’s the woman who took my shield from me. She wasn’t even sorry. In fact, she was pretty smug about it the last time we talked.”
“She was in love. She didn’t want to risk losing Peyton.”
“Peyton had made his decision, so why was she afraid?”
“He went with you to face Carlyle, and look how that ended.”
She glanced at Meyer, who wished he could be anywhere but there. He’d even choose to be in one of Carlyle’s cells if he could.
“We defeated Carlyle,”
Tyne said.
“You didn’t defeat him. He’s back.”
“He is, and I will kill him this time.”
Tyne’s mother looked at Meyer.
“You don’t have to be his shield. You decided that you didn’t want to be anymore. No one will force you.”
Tyne stared at Meyer for a second before turning his attention back to his mother.
“I’m not keeping him away from anything or anyone.”
Tyne hadn’t been kidding when he’d been talking about his mother.
There was no support there.
Hell, she was telling Meyer that if he wanted, he could take a step back and let Tyne go into the fight with Carlyle on his own.
It was almost as if she didn’t want her son to have his shield with him.
“I don’t need to be forced,”
he said.
“I’m Tyne’s shield. Where he goes, I go.”
“That’s not what you decided before.”
“I didn’t decide anything before. I’m not Peyton. I don’t have any of his memories, and frankly, I’m happy about that because he sounds like an asshole.”
“He’s you.”
“He’s not,”
Tyne yelled. He shook his head.
“This was a mistake. I don’t know why you wanted to have dinner with us, but I’m done. I never wanted to come back, and I hate that I had to, but it’s the last time you’ll see me.”
“This is Peyton’s birth clan as much as it is yours. You can’t keep him away from it.”
“If Meyer wants to come back once this mess is over, he’ll be free to do so, but I’m never coming back. I have a good life, Mom, and it’s made better by the fact that you’re not in it.”
Tyne moved toward the door. No one tried to stop him, not even his father, who was hovering there. Neither of Tyne’s parents had hugged him or tried to understand him. They weren’t on his side, and if Meyer had to guess, they never had been.
He didn’t want to spend one more second in this room. He turned toward Tyne’s mother, knowing he needed to be clear.
“If Tyne isn’t coming back, I’m not, either. This isn’t my home. It might have been once, but Peyton is gone, and he’s never coming back. Apparently, neither am I.”
He turned and quickly went after Tyne. No one tried to stop him, which was a relief. He’d suspected he wouldn’t like this place after what Tyne had told him, and he couldn’t wait to get out of there.
But first, he needed to get to Tyne.
TYNE WASN’T SURPRISED when he heard footsteps behind him.
He’d left Meyer with his parents, which had been a nasty thing to do, but he hadn’t thought he could stand being in the same room as his mother any longer.
He hadn’t meant to abandon Meyer with her, and he was glad that Meyer had left almost as soon as he had.
He didn’t want to talk, though.
He didn’t want to see the pity in Meyer’s expression.
He’d seen enough of that in the expressions of the clan members when the mess with Peyton had happened.
Tyne’s parents hadn’t supported him, but most of the mages in the clan had understood his pain.
He supposed that it had been easy for them to put themselves in his shoes and understand how it would feel if their shield left them.
Their support wasn’t what Tyne had needed, though.
He’d needed his parents to be there for him, and they hadn’t been.
Next time Jarvis needed something from Tyne’s birth clan, he was coming to get it himself, dammit.
Once Tyne was out of the house, he would never return.
He didn’t slow down for Meyer.
He slammed the door open when he reached the room where he would spend the night, making it bounce on the wall.
He felt incredibly satisfied at the thought that he might have ruined the wall behind the door and had to resist the urge to slam it a few more times.
Instead, he left the door open and flopped onto the couch under the window.
He leaned his head back and tilted his face toward the ceiling, not caring one bit who tried following him.
He heard the door close.
He didn’t need to look to know who it was.
He didn’t even have to say anything.
Meyer came to sit on the other side of the couch, not asking anything.
Tyne stayed tense.
He expected Meyer to have something to say, but his shield was quiet.
Tyne wondered what he thought of the mess that had just happened.
Was he happy he didn’t remember anything? Did he feel sorry for Tyne? Tyne felt sorry for himself, so maybe.
“I’m sorry,”
Meyer eventually said.
That wasn’t what Tyne had expected him to say.
“What are you sorry about?”
“What Peyton did. I can’t imagine leaving you, and we don’t even have the relationship you and Peyton had. What he did was awful.”
It had been. It was why Tyne had kept Meyer at arm's length. He hadn’t wanted to risk putting his heart out there again and having it break a second time.
But Meyer wasn’t Peyton, and Tyne was finally starting to believe that. If he was, he’d have wanted to talk to Amber, right? If Peyton had loved Amber so much, he would’ve left Tyne behind this time, too.
He hadn’t.
He’d been uncomfortable and hadn’t even hugged Amber back.
He hadn’t asked any questions about her to Tyne’s parents or to Tyne. He’d apologized for something he didn’t remember doing, and he sounded truly sorry.
Meyer wasn’t Peyton, even though they shared the same body.
Peyton had never apologized for leaving Tyne.
He’d told him what would happen once Carlyle had been defeated, and he’d expected Tyne to accept it. He hadn’t felt sorry for hurting him.
Tyne could accept falling out of love with someone and falling in love with someone new, even though it was hard to imagine the bond between a mage and his shield being so weak it would allow for that to happen.
What he couldn’t accept was how cruel Peyton and Amber had been about it.
But not Meyer.
“You have nothing to apologize for,”
Tyne said gruffly.
Meyer frowned.
“I left you.”
“You didn’t. Peyton left me. Peyton fell in love with my cousin, and Peyton was the one who didn’t apologize for hurting me. You never hurt me, yet here you are, apologizing for it. You’re not him.”
Meyer stared. Tyne could only imagine how he felt. After he’d tried talking to Tyne and telling him that he wasn’t Peyton so many times, he’d probably lost hope that Tyne would ever accept that.
Tyne had known it.
He just hadn’t been able to look at Meyer without thinking about Peyton.
It was time to let Peyton go, though. He was never coming back, and that was a good thing. Tyne didn’t want him to come back.
He wasn’t sure what he wanted or what he could have with Meyer, and they might not have the opportunity to find out, but it was time to stop pushing him away and give him a chance to show that his words weren’t empty promises.