Page 27

Chapter 27

Thevin

Sleep came quickly as an easy sort of slumber—some of the better sleep I’d had since returning to Felgren .

I’d lied about why I didn’t want to sleep next to her. Her tossing and turning never bothered me when we were just childhood friends, and I’d slept in far worse circumstances.

I didn’t want that tug on my heart I knew would come when I woke up to see her there beside me, curled up in a ball, her wild hair almost entirely freed from the braid she’d forced it into the night before.

I looked away quickly when I woke and pressed my palms to my eyes, forcing myself to calm down from the urge to pull her to me and wake her with light kisses.

Those were out of the question.

Far , far out of any question, and dammit, I needed to pull myself together.

She’d had a long night learning her father was somehow still alive and that her mother wanted to save him. I couldn’t fathom why, seventeen years after his supposed death, Baron Karus had chosen now to admit he lived. This knowledge would change things. If the Wieldwryns knew about Baron Revich’s survival, new tactics would need to be implemented when the Dimming came to pass.

I allowed myself one last longing glance at the best friend I was hopelessly in love with and slid silently out of her bed.

Though I was tall and strong, I was also trained for silent steps, a shadow who could slip in and out of a space without so much as a shift in the air. While the Wieldwryns were soldiers trained in magic, the Runners were used as a covert group of soldiers with no magic abilities whatsoever. The Four used us to get their army behind enemy lines and pull them out again when the tides turned.

It’d been that way for over a decade. Baron Karus was just one of the Four on the isle. She played her part in training soldiers sent to hold back the line of Blight trees, Blight beasts, and… I ran my hands through my hair, looking back at Sae . The girl I had laughed with while riding lumens grew into woman right before me, and it had taken all of a year to even notice.

I’d been involved with a few women in the past few years, but any pursuits of someone to share my bed had faded away at the end of last summer when I had admitted to myself that there was only one person I wanted to wake up next to.

I silently slid into the washing room, cursing my lack of magic in the dark. For whatever reason, the Fortress sported very few windows— Sae’s room included—and from glancing at the clock on her mantle, it was dawn.

I managed to splash water on my face, brushing at my teeth and spitting the taste of sleep from my mouth. I needed to get back into my parents’ rooms this morning and pack my few things, change my clothes, and?—

“ Why are you up so early?”

Sae’s question in a yawn startled me. Some Runner I was. She’d somehow gotten out of bed and all the way to the washing room without me hearing.

“ I slept hard. I’m usually up this early.”

I stepped back into the room, thankful she’d started the fire again so I could see. I grabbed my shirt and pulled my arms through, beginning to fasten the buttons at the bottom.

Her cheeks flushed and I realized she’d likely never seen much of the male body. I couldn’t even remember the last time we’d gone swimming together in the Great Stream of Felgren .

“ I should start packing,” she muttered, spinning on her heels to avoid me.

I hid my chuckle at her embarrassment, refraining from teasing her on the day she’d be leaving her home for the first time. I finished my shirt and headed to the chaise, pulling on my boots.

She began yanking skirts and dresses from her drawers, folding them neatly on the bed, muttering to herself something too low for me to hear.

“ The Spire has…” I slipped on my last boot and stood. “ A different style of clothing than Felgren . You’ll see what I mean when we get there.”

“ Are you suggesting I’m going to stand out like a sore thumb in something like this?” She held up one of her gauzy dresses lined in pale pink lace.

“ I like that one.”

“ I look like a child in most of these.” She bit her lower lip, scrunching her face.

My gut lurched at her expression. I was in so much trouble.

“ What about this?” She tossed the dress back into the wardrobe and pulled out a black skirt and cream top with ties up the front. She held the pieces up against her body for me to weigh in.

My heart tugged for the third time this morning. She was adorable standing there—hair a frizzy mess pulled up on top of her head, sleep still dragging at her eyes.

I nodded convincingly. “ That one.” I cleared my throat and headed to her door in a rapid dash. “ I’ll see you at breakfast.” I left before she could say anything more and slammed the back of my head against her closed door, releasing a breath and wondering how I was ever going to get through this.

* * *

Breakfast was a somber affair.

My parents had pelted me with questions as soon as I got to their room to start packing up what I had just unpacked only days ago.

They wanted to know everything Sae had told me and everything I knew about Baron Revich . I’d shrugged more than once, reminding them they’d actually trained with him, not me.

They asked about Sae’s power and what I knew of it. I told them what little I did know or at least most of what I knew, explaining that, yes, I had always known she was more powerful than most.

When we’d arrived at breakfast, packed and ready for the day’s journey, Baron Karus and Pompeii were already seated. They sat across from each other at the ridiculously long dining room table, chewing silently. My parents stopped in the doorway, staring at the Baron , waiting for…something.

“ There were reasons you could not know,” the Baron spoke softly, her black eyes focused on the three of us.

“ Reasons ?” my father scoffed. “ Like what?”

“ Talon .” My mother used her light voice to calm him as she often did.

The Baron answered with, “ We will discuss further details on the matter when we arrive at the Spire for the meeting of the Four and the commanders.”

“ Further details on the matter?” My father ignored my mother’s steady calmness as he brushed forward, sliding into the chair next to the Baron , continuing, “ You told us Revich was dead. You told the world Revich was dead and seventeen years later, you spring it on everyone—on your own daughter —that we need to change the Dimming to accommodate saving him?”

Pompeii cleared his throat. “ You speak to the Baron of Felgren , Talon , lest you’ve forgotten.”

“ I don’t give a damn,” he snapped.

My mother gasped and my brows rose in shock. I’d never heard such words or disrespect from my father.

“ Talon ,” Baron Karus soothed, placing a hand on his shoulder. “ There are threads here I don’t expect you to yet understand, but I’m asking you to trust me.”

He pulled his shoulder back from her hand, demanding, “ Why haven’t you saved him?”

He asked what we’d all been thinking since the truth was revealed. The air in the room tightened and silence remained.

Baron Karus’s eyes hardened staring at my father. They seemed to have a wordless conversation that lasted long moments, interrupted when Sae opened the dining hall door, dressed in her black skirts and cream corseted shirt.

She smiled at me and then glanced around, her face souring when she caught sight of her mother and the Overseer she called Pah - Pah .

The Baron rose to greet her daughter, offering her a seat on her other side. We sat in silence, only the tiny clinks of our forks and plates heard and echoing off the walls of green and gold.

Finally , Baron Karus set down her fork and knife, turning to her daughter. “ Pompeii will help you finish packing. You will also need to say goodbye to Boros . We leave in two hours for the Spire .”

“ We can’t bring him with us?” Sae asked.

“ We are leaving by portal, and no lumens will be joining us. The people outside of Felgren use horses.”

“ But Boros is just as big as a horse, I don’t see why he can’t?—”

“ Lumens are not welcome outside of this forest. He will frighten the people who do not know him. He cannot come.”

Saelyn paused, her eyes flicking to me. I nodded slightly.

“ Because of the Blight beasts?”

The Baron’s dark eyes shot to me, and I coughed into my delicate tea cup.

She lifted her chin slightly and asked, “ What have you told her, Thevin ?”

Before I could contain my coughing fit, Sae replied, “ I asked him to tell me what’s out there so I’m ready to face it. I know about the war you’ve kept from me, and I know why you did.”

The Baron’s eyes did not leave my face as she softy questioned, “ Why did I keep it from you, Saelyn ?”

“ Because this Blightress wants my power. That’s why you never trained me, isn’t it? She’d find out somehow and would want to harness the power I can wield.”

“ Is that true?” my mother asked the Baron , setting her hand on my back and patting lightly as I drank from my cup to clear my throat.

All eyes on her, the Baron took a deep breath and said, “ Yes .”

“ This changes everything,” my mother admitted, her shoulders slumping as she moved eggs around on her plate. She shook her head and looked back to the Baron with tears. “ Why did you wait? Seventeen years, Karus . Why didn’t you fight for him? We would have helped you.”

The Baron closed her eyes and took another deep breath.

I watched Sae carefully. Her entire world had been turned upside down in a matter of hours. It didn’t help that I foolishly confessed my feelings for her less than two days ago, either. Of all the people at this table who had mourned Baron Revich’s life, I felt for Sae the most.

I glanced to my own father who stared at the Baron with a furrowed brow as she gathered herself. I couldn’t imagine my life without him. Couldn’t imagine who I would have become without his guidance, his ever-insistent adage that had gotten all of us Wieldwryns and Runners through the worst of it.

Hold onto hope. Defy the dark.

My father spoke then, pushing his chair back to leave. “ We loved him, too, Karus .” He took my mother’s hand and squeezed my shoulder. They left without another word.

Sae reached out to her mother, taking her hand. “ Is everyone going to be angry with you?”

“ Many , Little Love .”

“ Then I won’t,” she promised. “ I just want him back. For all of us.”

I caught Pompeii’s side glance. He nodded toward the kitchen door, and I rose to follow him through, giving the powerful mother and daughter time together before they left their home.