Chapter 17 Cethin #2
“Kailia didn’t tell me shit about whatever it is you’ve coerced her into,” Razik replied, and while he’d slipped into his uncaring facade, his eyes had shifted to vertical pupils, betraying his own barely leashed control.
“In fact, she’s denied you forcing her into anything.
But if you truly understand that she is needed to fight these creatures, then you’d give her back her fucking arrow.
She said she can’t make more without the set. ”
“I have it handled,” Cethin gritted out.
“Do you? Because she saved all our asses last night, Sutara.”
“Yes, I’m well aware that instead of you guarding her, she was defending all of us. That this is yet another responsibility you can’t handle.”
That was when the first fist flew.
It took a second for Cethin to register the blow to his jaw. It wasn’t until he spat blood to the side that he felt the pain radiating along his face. He slowly lifted his head, dragging his eyes back to the male standing in front of him.
The two stared at each other for several seconds, and then it was Cethin lunging at him, throwing all his weight behind the hit to the fucker’s face, followed immediately by another to his gut.
Then he didn’t know who had the upper hand.
Not as they each took swings. Not as they fell to the ground, rolling and shoving.
Cethin let out a grunt as a boot connected with his side, fairly certain a rib or two had cracked with the hit, but he was scrambling, grabbing Razik’s ankle and twisting.
The male snarled and flipped to his stomach, and Cethin was there, raining punches to his lower back.
Until Razik’s wings appeared, launching him up and getting him back on his feet.
Cethin took the opportunity to push to his own feet, his breaths short gasps due to the aching ribs.
Swiping a hand across his mouth, blood smeared across his flesh.
The same dripped from a cut along Greybane’s brow, while his other eye was already bruising.
Cethin was certain he didn’t look any better.
“Did you two get that out of your system?” drawled a female voice, and they both turned to find not only Ariadne, who’d spoken, but the entire Cadre standing there.
Bram and Jarek were smirking like fools.
Fallon had the same look of annoyed disapproval as Ariadne, and Draven looked like he wasn’t sure what he should be doing.
“None of you thought you should step in?” Cethin muttered, removing crushed leaves and twigs that were stuck to his jacket.
“Not even once,” Jarek replied from where he was leaning against a tree. “Out here, you’re still just one of us.”
“He’s never been one of us,” Razik sneered, stalking past them all and disappearing into the trees.
Cethin followed, the Cadre trailing him. His magic was pushing to be let loose. Even if it wasn’t physical, Razik had still managed to get the final blow in with those parting words.
“Seriously, Cethin. The two of you need to figure your shit out,” Ariadne scolded, handing him a leather strap so he could tie his hair back.
“It’s been this way for centuries. I don’t think it’s ever going to change,” he replied flatly. “Some people aren’t meant to be friends.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to be enemies,” she countered.
“And either way, I don’t think that’s the case here, considering who he is and who you are.
” When Cethin said nothing, she added, “All I’m saying is he’s the queen’s personal guard now.
You two are going to have to at least be civil with each other. ”
“Where is she?” Cethin asked as they stepped into the clearing where they’d stopped for their midday meal. They’d harvested a few more birds, a fox, and some other smaller game that morning, planning to stalk larger game this afternoon and evening.
“Who?” Ariadne asked, glancing up at him.
“Kailia. Where is she?” he demanded, scanning the area, the horses, all of it.
“She was with Wren.”
“She’s not with me,” the Fae answered, looking up from where she was pressing a wet cloth to Razik’s brow, the male’s wings already banished.
Ariadne’s brows crashed together. “But I thought—”
“Where the fuck is she?” Cethin demanded again. He turned, advancing on Wren, and she scrambled back at the same time that Razik lurched to his feet.
“Back the fuck up, Cethin,” Razik growled, his eyes shifting. Cethin knew the male was moments away from shifting fully, and then they’d be having an entirely different type of brawl. One with power thrown about and likely causing massive destruction in a sacred space, but he didn’t give a fuck.
“She was the last one to see her!” Cethin bellowed.
“I didn’t!” Wren cried, peering around Razik, her eyes wide. “I swear it to you, Cethin. I didn’t see her. The others left to see what the commotion was. I stayed to finish packing up everything. I thought Kailia went with them.”
“She doesn’t know, Cethin,” Bram said, his tone coaxing as he stepped next to Razik to shield Wren. “Take a beat and think about this. Get yourself under control. Kailia isn’t her responsibility to look after.”
No, it wasn’t. It was Razik’s, who’d insisted on having a conversation about things that were none of his godsdamn business.
“Cethin,” Bram said again, sharper and more forceful. The male looked pointedly at the ground, and Cethin looked to find pools of inky darkness at his feet, creeping along the ground.
“We’ll help you find her,” Fallon said gently, taking a step towards him but stilling at the magic. Jarek was tense beside her. They were all tense. All of them waiting to see what their king was going to do next. All of them waiting to see if they were going to have to intervene in some way.
Inhaling sharply, he pulled his power back. His words were jagged and raspy when he said, “Don’t bother. I’ll find her myself.”
Then he was striding through the trees. A few called after him, and he heard others say to “let him have a minute.” He knew they’d follow from afar. None of them would let the king go too far without additional protection.
As if he couldn’t handle himself.
As if he hadn’t trained with them for centuries.
As if he weren’t just as skilled.
As if he were indeed the incompetent king that Razik claimed he was when he was the one who’d failed to keep tabs on her. The one person he was supposed to watch and guard with his life. It was his one fucking job.
Unable to keep his power completely contained anymore, he let some of the darkness out. It trailed him, leaving a path of dying foliage in its wake. He tried to keep it as subdued as possible, but with his attention and focus homed in on something else, it was the best he could do.
Why would she wander off? Was she testing him? Seeing just how true his words about always finding her were? Was she trying to prove a point of her own?
Because he could find her, and he would.
He could sense power. It was a gift few knew he possessed, one his family had purposefully kept a secret, but he could feel someone’s power and the strength of it.
It was how he knew that Razik’s power was only partially refilled, and it was how he knew she hadn’t moved among her smoke and ashes halfway across the continent.
It was how he was tracking her now. How he’d known she’d been watching him for months.
He could feel her. It was fleeting, as if her power was flickering in and out like when she moved among her magic, but he could still sense it. It was all he needed to be able to follow her path.
They’d stuck to the eastern edge of the forest, slowly making their way from the Elshira castle to his family’s old estate.
The home he’d lived in for so many decades with his parents.
It was the same path they took every year, but she wouldn’t have known that.
And she was moving deeper into the trees.
Deeper into sacred spaces guarded by more than the spirit animals.
Why couldn’t she give just a fucking inch?
He was trying. Trying to make her feel at home.
Trying to acclimate her to what her new life would entail.
Trying to get to know her, to make her comfortable.
Trying to include her. To show her the people and lives she would save by agreeing to use her power to help them.
What kind of person didn’t want to save thousands and thousands of lives?
She accused him of wanting to lock her away in the castle, and now he was beginning to think that wouldn’t be a bad idea. At least until they came to a new understanding.
He continued his search, a new and different kind of hunt from what these days had started out as, but a hunt nonetheless. With long strides, he moved, homed in on her power and the call of her magic. Feeling it more acutely the nearer he came. It consumed him.
Until he heard the scream.
Then he was running because he’d only known her a short time, but she never screamed.
She never asked for aid. She was annoyingly self-sufficient.
More than that, she was as skilled with weapons and combat as the warriors in their company.
In fact, the only time he’d heard her scream like this was when Razik had been holding her in an attempt to subdue her.
Which meant someone was touching her.
Every primal piece of him snarled in fury. She may not be his wife yet, but he had still claimed her. She was still his. No one touched her.
Darkness scattered, rolling along the ground, up the trees. His veins darkened with the power, and death sang through him.
Clearing a cluster of dense trees, he found her, and the scene made him come to a halt.
Several bodies were on the ground, blood pooling, some with weapons still in hand. Some had arrows protruding from their backs, while others had met blades. A harvested deer lay nearby.
What the fuck had happened here?