Page 18 of Tino
“Next time tell us instead of doing something when we’ve trusted you with one of our own,” Wilston said, his tone firm but not hostile.
“We promise,” Willow quickly replied. “We’re sorry.”
I waved it off, not wanting to spend more time discussing the fact I couldn’t claim Tino yet.
“Tell us more about what we’re doing here,” Silver said, effectively turning the conversation back to the questions we needed answered.
“Very well,” Nujik replied pleasantly. “We wanted a place on Sutiner where you could train and build your strength and control before you return to the Realm of Mages. Here you’re given food, shelter, and safety, so you can focus on training and bonding. Weknow you work better the stronger your connections to each other are. So, we encourage you to focus only on that. We have many mages here that are highly trained in battle, glamour, wards, and other things we believe you didn’t learn as you grew up.”
“We would all love that,” Xari replied with a charming smile.
“Do you have any other questions before we end the meeting?” Willow asked.
“I have one,” I said, needing to understand this one thing that was still bothering me. “Why didn’t they kill me?”
Tino grabbed my hand even tighter. I got why he hated hearing about how I’d almost died. But we needed to understand the false leaders better.
It was Nujik who answered. “The offer on your head states you must be returned to them alive. They wouldn’t trust the mages word that they’d killed you and once someone is dead, it’s easier to add glamour to their bodies to fake who the dead mage is.”
“It didn’t seem to be a problem before now, though,” Xari said. “We’ve been attacked for months and I doubt they wouldn’t have killed us, if they could.”
“I second that,” Niam said.
“We’re not sure but we believe they didn’t care back then, but now that only one pair is left… They wouldn’t risk trusting you’d died unless they saw and did it themselves,” Willow said with a grimace.
“Oh,” I said. “So, they were going to bring me to the false leaders?”
Nujik nodded. “We know that much for certain. They needed more of their mages to join them before they were strong enough to open the portal. We arrived as the last of them joined, some of us pretending to be on their side.”
“Fuck,” Tino swore. “It was that close of a call?”
They nodded; their expressions grim. “We acted as fast as we could, and luckily, we were successful. But now the false leaders will be much more brutal in their search for you. Which is why you must wait. We simply want you all to be in the best shape before you face the false leaders. They won’t play fair. Remember that.”
Chapter 14
Tino
Once the meeting had ended, we all walked back to Xarius and Niam’s cabin. We told Willow and Nujik we would eat lunch together, the seven of us, which seemed to please them.
“Still trustworthy?” Silver questioned Xarius as we sat down around their living room table.
He nodded. “No lies, except the thing they had Grethe do.”
I tightened my fist as I recalled what they’d done. I got why, but damn. What a violation.
“Still can’t believe they did that,” Silver spat.
“But at least they were honest when we called them out,” Xarius reminded us. “They could’ve just as easily lied their way out of it.”
“Undoubtedly,” Niam shook his head. “They knew you had some kind of way to tell they were lying or withholding something.”
Xarius shrugged. “Maybe, but still, they owned it and explained their reason. It wasn’t a good call on their part, but it seemed they were in agreement and each held the blame for it.”
“One of them being my fucking uncle,” Silver muttered in disbelief. “Imagine what my life would’ve been like if my grandmother hadn’t taken me.”
“You wouldn’t have been bullied,” Niam said. “But you also wouldn’t have truly lived. It sounded like a very strict and let’s be honest, controlling childhood.”
Silver nodded. “I’m glad I turned out the way I did. Who knows how different I would be today had I not been raised by my gran. I never lacked love, and the bullying, although horrible, still made me who I am today.”