Chapter 4
Four
Zephyr
Keoni found me just as I was stepping out of the Mountains area. Some of the mountains in the area had turned a little...spongy for some reason, and I'd had to rework the spell from scratch. It'd been magically draining, and I wondered if I might have to push some of my other tasks to the next day.
"Let's go," Keoni said as he took my left hand before I could even think of finding Touya to discuss changing my schedule, and I glanced over at him as he led me toward the exit.
"Where are we going?"
"Out," he replied, as if that explained everything.
"I can't leave. The Sanctuary..."
"Will be okay. Nolan's here, and they'll contact us if anything big happens. Or use the brand-new emergency exit."
"But—"
"Shhh. Come on."
There was a wheelchair already waiting by the exit, along with the leather gloves I wore to hide my metal arm when I went out, and Keoni unstrapped his cart and slid into the wheelchair smoothly after handing me the gloves, like he'd been practicing.
Leaving the Sanctuary didn't sit well with me, but it was clear Keoni wouldn't be dissuaded. With a sigh, I slid the gloves on, then opened the door, and he wheeled forward, glancing back to make sure I followed.
I helped him down the ramp—I was afraid he'd roll too fast, like he tended to do in his cart—then walked beside him as he led the way.
I wasn't sure what this was. Were we on a date?
We hadn't really talked about the mate bond except for Keoni assuring me he'd been an adult since the day we met.
I didn't know how he felt about the bond.
Was he happy that we were mates? Indifferent?
Did he wish for someone who wasn't as much of a mess as I was?
"Oh, this is not a date, by the way," Keoni said, as if he'd read my mind. He beamed up at me, his baby blues crinkling at the corners. "I just wanted to get you out of the Sanctuary so you could relax a little. When we go on a date, you'll know we're on a date."
"Do you want to go on a date with me?" I asked hesitantly, flexing my fingers as I resisted the urge to curl them into a fist.
"Of course I do," Keoni replied, shooting me a smile before he focused on the path ahead. "But you're already so busy right now, and I don't want to add to it. Once things calm down a little, I intend to do things properly."
"Are you just saying this to push me to accept Nolan's help?" I joked, and he huffed.
"No. I just don't want to add to the dark circles under your eyes," he grumbled, and I sighed. He wasn't wrong. I barely had time to eat regular meals these days. Even if we started dating, I wouldn't be able to give Keoni all the time and attention he deserved.
We walked in silence for a while, and I realized we were walking in the direction of Liam's comic book store.
"Do you want to go see Khush and Dustin?
" Keoni asked, and I nodded. As much as it had been the right decision for them, I hated that they'd had to move out of the Sanctuary because of my incompetence.
When I first brought Khush home, I'd promised he would be safe there, and I'd failed to keep that promise.
Liam and Haruto were both at Sanctum of Geeks when we got there.
While Liam was the owner of the store, Haruto was his mate, and they both lived at the Sanctuary.
Liam was human, and Haruto was a jorogumo.
Liam had lived in an apartment above the store before he moved in with Haruto, and that was where Khush and Dustin were now staying.
"Headmaster!" Liam exclaimed in surprise, coming out from behind the counter to glance from me to Keoni. Haruto was curled up in a beanbag beside the counter with a comic book, and he waved at us before dropping his gaze back to his comic book.
"Hey, Liam. We came to see Dustin and Khush," Keoni said, and Liam nodded.
"Shall I fetch them?" he asked, and I realized Keoni wouldn't be able to get up the stairs. How was Khush doing it? Why hadn't I checked in with them before?
"Is there somewhere I can set up a temporary portal to upstairs?" I asked, and Liam led me to a small office.
"Are you okay to make the portal? Touya told me you had to expend a lot of magic this morning," Keoni murmured when it was just us in the office, and I shook my head.
"I'm okay."
Portals were easy, especially over such a short distance, and it barely took me a thought to set it up.
I went in first to make sure it was working properly, and Keoni followed soon after. We were in the living room, and he called out Khush's name as I closed the portal.
Khush slithered out of the bedroom, the green scales of his lower half gleaming in the sunlight that filtered through the windows. He brightened the moment he spotted Keoni.
"Hey, K! It's been a while. Hey, Headmaster," he said as he turned to me, and I nodded in greeting.
Even after all these years, I still wasn't certain where that title had come from. None of them could decide who'd first come up with it, but it certainly hadn't been me. I'd tried to get them to call me Zephyr, but they refused.
"Khush, how have you been?" I asked, scanning his face.
I knew better than most how strong his claustrophobia was.
In the Sanctuary, his bedroom had no ceiling, and the walls were transparent on one side so he'd never feel trapped.
But now he was living in a small apartment that he rarely left, all for the sake of his mate and his unborn child.
"I'm okay. Come on in. Dustin's not allowed to leave the bed, so you'll have to see him in the bedroom."
Keoni
Dustin looked tired. He was still beautiful as ever, but I could tell he was ready for the baby to come out. Still, he hid his feelings well as he laughed and chatted with us, his blue eyes bright as ever, and I told him about everything he'd missed.
Zephyr was mostly quiet, but Khush and he talked in low voices.
They were talking about the Sanctuary, and about how the due date wasn't too far away.
Maybe coming here had been a bad idea. I didn't want Khush to add more stress on Zephyr.
This was supposed to help him relax, not add more pressure on him.
Thankfully, Dustin dragged Zephyr into the conversation before long, and we spent the next few hours chatting amiably.
We took our leave when Dustin's energy started to flag, and Zephyr offered to leave the portal open for Khush, but he declined.
His wheelchair was kept downstairs, and he usually just went down in his true form since the stairs weren't open to the public area.
Unlike me, he could move around without assistance in his half-human, half-snake form.
Once we were outside, we decided to just stroll for a while. Zephyr was silent, and I didn't try to fill the quiet with inane chatter like I usually would.
"It's not that I don't want to do everything I can to get the Sanctuary back to normal," Zephyr said suddenly, and I felt like he'd been thinking about this since we left the store.
"I know that," I assured him because I did. There was nothing Zephyr valued more than the Sanctuary and its people, and he would never intentionally let them be harmed.
"I just—it's hard for me to trust someone.
And especially Nolan, with our history..
." He trailed off, shaking his head. "I know now he didn't do anything wrong, but it's still hard to accept it after how long I spent hating him.
I was afraid my magic would refuse to cooperate with his, but it worked fine yesterday.
Maybe it won't be as hard to accept his magic to make everything else function properly, but I just.. ."
"I understand," I murmured as I spotted a small park with a bench he could sit on.
I led us there and waved toward the bench.
Zephyr sat down, and we were finally at the same level.
"You've been doing all of this on your own for so long—of course it's going to be hard to let someone help now.
Especially when you have history with them.
Can you... can you tell me what happened? Only if you want to."
Zephyr blew out a breath, his gaze falling away. For a moment, he was quiet, and I figured he wasn't ready to talk. But then he reached forward and took my right hand in his, his skin warm against mine.
"I'll tell you, but it's not a pretty story," he said, and I smiled, though I felt no joy.
"It's yours, so I'd like to hear it," I murmured, and Zephyr nodded, then took a deep breath.
"My parents were both sorcerers, but they weren't very strong, not like me. My powers had stunned everyone since I started learning, and they caught a lot of attention, and not always the good kind."
I gripped his hand tighter as I imagined a smaller Zephyr captivating everyone with his magic. The image was sweet, though I could tell whatever happened next would be anything but.
"A sorcerer, a lord named Fredrick, decided to make me his disciple. He convinced my parents to let him take me to his place, to raise me. My parents said yes because they knew they weren't powerful enough to teach me properly, but he was."
"He wasn't a good guy, was he?" I asked as I remembered what Zamir had told me. Zephyr had been trying to escape someone when he asked Nolan for help, and I bet it was this man. "How old were you?"
"Eight, when he took me away. And no, he wasn't. He taught me, sure, but he didn't really let me use my magic outside of my studies. I later realized he was siphoning my magic to use for himself, but that was only after I got my familiar."
"Your familiar?" I asked in surprise. I'd assumed he didn't have a familiar because he'd never mentioned one, but if he'd had them once but didn't now, that meant... oh no.
Zephyr's lips curved in a fond smile, his fingers twitching in my hand.
"She was beautiful. She was a rare one, a dog.
While cats are often familiars, dogs rarely are, but she was great.
She was the one who told me where my magic was going.
After that, I started trying to figure out a way to get out.
I tried sending her to find my parents, but she couldn't find them anywhere.
It turned out Fredrick had long since killed them so I would have nowhere to go back to.
He told me that himself when he realized what I was trying to do. "
He shook his head, then cleared his throat.
"Anyway, that was a few years before I met Nolan.
All my attempts to escape had failed until then, but Nolan was so powerful, I thought if anyone could help me, it would be him.
But Fredrick figured it out somehow, and he used some spell to keep us from seeing each other.
I thought Nolan went back on his promise, while Nolan thought I changed my mind. "
"Why didn't you leave when you first met him?" I asked, then realized it myself before he could explain. "Your familiar."
Zephyr nodded. "He knew he could control me with her, so he didn't let me take her on the few instances he let me out. I had to go back for her."
"What—what happened after?" I wasn't sure if I wanted to know, but I could already guess it.
"He punished me," he murmured in a low voice, his grip on my hand tightening almost enough to hurt, "by killing my familiar."