Page 32 of Tino
“That’s…” I had no words. Amazing. Life changing. Cool?
“Yeah, it really is,” he agreed, not waiting for me to finish my sentence.
“Oh, and get this,” Julie said, sitting up in her chair. “Gilbert can squirt venom! He’s basically an acid gun!”
Wow, okay… way too much information at once.
“We’ll explain further after the meeting, but we need to be there in five minutes.” Wilston tapped his wrist. We’d each been given a watch so we would know what time it was so we wouldn’t be late for meals. They didn’t allow phones, so our only way of knowing the time was the old way.
I stood, glad my pain was gone, and with my good hand, I laced my fingers through Tino’s.
Mages filled the area like at the first meeting we’d held. They all looked at us as we sat on the thrones. It still felt like we were playing pretend, but since these people trusted us to save our world, the least we could do was sit on the pretty thrones they’d made for us.
“How’syour arm, dear?” Grethe asked me kindly while we waited for the last mages to arrive.
“Still broken, but I’ll heal it once I’ve gotten enough magic back,” I assured her. She placed her hand over it and light poured out of her palm. A shiver ran through my body as the sound of my bone snapping into place filled the air.
“There. Now the bone is put together again. You need your magic for more important things.” Then she left without offering further explanation.
“Well, that was ominous,” Silver muttered as we watched her sit down with the mages.
“Very,” Xari agreed.
“I have a bad feeling about this meeting,” Tino said, voicing my worries aloud. I could only nod my agreement, trailing my eyes over the crowd. Every mage seemed to know this wouldn’t be a happy meeting, not that our meetings would ever be happy, but this seemed… like something big was happening.
Willow and Nujik stepped up beside our thrones and spoke to everyone with grim expressions. “We need to return to the Realm of Mages. Today.”
Chapter 22
Tino
I was stress packing my bag while Tair sat with his already packed and ready beside him on the bed. Willow’s words still ran through my mind.“The council found our safe base and attacked last night. Several mages were executed for treason. Our other safe location is ready for us, but they need us there immediately.”We were given an hour to grab our things and return to where the portal would be opened.
We were returning home.
“Baby?” Tair said, and the wordbabyhad my heart pumping faster. Damn, how could he still affect me so much? Not that I complained.
“I’m fine,” I assured him, ignoring the endearment. We didn’t have time for me to show him just how much I liked it anyway. “I’m just not ready to go back yet.”
“Me neither,” he sighed. “Ever since the talk about our families being threatened… I guess I’m not ready to face all that yet.”
“Fuck,” I stopped packing as horror filled my every vein. My mom and dad… They were innocent.
“Sorry,” Tair said, jumping up from the bed to hug me from behind. “We’ll do everything we can to protect them.”
“I know,” I sighed, returning to packing my bag while Tair kept hugging me. He was just so damn perfect.
The front door opened and since no one had knocked, I knew it had to be either Silver or Xarius. It seemed they both hated wasting time on knocking, whereas Niam and Wilston were both too polite to just barge inside.
“Ready to go home?” Xarius asked us, leaning against the doorframe to our bedroom.
“Yes, or as ready as we can be, I guess.”
He sighed. “We all feel the same trepidation. At least Niam and Wilston don’t care what happens to their family members. Silver even said his grandmother dying was a blessing. Now they can’t hurt her to get to him.”
I felt sympathy for Xarius then. He still had his mothers who loved him, and one of them was even a leader in the council. Leah had helped him and guided him with his other mother’s help to find us and get our powers. She wasn’t with the council. She was with us. A hidden ally. But that also meant she was the one in most danger.
“It’sgotime!” Silver called from outside.