Page 4 of Tino

“Wrong?” I asked, looking around the forest we were sitting in. Nothing seemed amiss and the familiars remained calm.

She closed her eyes, then grabbed onto Xari’s leg, making light burst from where they touched.

“Holy fuck!” Silver yelped and got to his feet with Wilston right beside him. Niam just looked intently at his bonded, raising a curious brow.

“Look!” Niam said, pointing to the now visible wards around each of us. Julie’s had cracks in hers which were now mending as she touched Xari. Niam stood and rushed to her side, touching her shoulder and offering his magic too, making the ward mend itself faster.

“Oh!” Silver said, then followed Niam and touched her too. Wilston followed, and soon her ward was in place again.

“Altair,” she rasped, looking exhausted.

I quickly stood and placed a hand on her thigh, not really knowing why I was needed. The others gasped once we’d made contact.

My ward was cracked too. Many splits covered the sides of the ward surrounding me. It looked like a light blue dome, surroundingme. But with the others near the gaps slowly closed, making me release a breath of relief.

“What is happening?” Silver asked, looking around to see if anyone was targeting us.

Julie seemed to pull in a mouthful of air, like she hadn’t been able to breathe properly until now. “They’re targeting us,” she said. “I felt it.”

“How?” Xari asked, looking around at each of us. “You don’t have any magic?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know how to explain it. But I felt something poke at my heart, trying to break the protection around me, and then I could see the ward. See how it was breaking before my eyes.”

I gave them a worried look. “I think they were expecting us to get here,” I said, voicing my worries. “I fear this might’ve been a trap.”

“Fuck!” Xari exclaimed, tugging on his hair. “Of course it is! Why didn’t we think of that? They’re offering him up as bait.”

At the wordbaita whimper escaped me. If this was my Tino… I couldn’t even go there. Couldn’t picture him being used like that. Being hurt like that. It was my Tino, I had to remember that even if he wasn’t the Tino I loved, he was still my soulmatch.

Could I even love someone else? Not while Tino still had my heart. I couldn’t give another man a heart that no longer belonged to me. It was impossible.

I shook myself. Now wasn’t the time to think about that. Not while Tino could be in danger.

“I think we should try to reach him as soon as possible,” I said, gaining all their attention. “No matter if it’s a trap or not, he’s in danger. And the longer it takes us to reach him, the worse it will be.”

Wilston grabbed our bags and piled them on the trolley, then made a… harness? Oh… it was for King to wear. King came over and got into the harness with ease, pulling the trolley behind him as we began walking again.

“We need to have our hands free if we’re attacked,” Wilston said, gesturing to King and the other familiars. “King can get out of the harness with ease if we’re attacked. He’ll watch our backs, Leon will watch our fronts, Shamus and Snowflake our sides. Julie and Altair, walk in the middle.”

No one questioned Wilston. Whenever he spoke it was with a calm authority. He never rushed his words, always speaking clearly. It made the rest of us truly listen whenever he did speak. I had no idea why his way of talking was so… mesmerizing. But I found myself clinging to his every word.

We began walking, looking at our surroundings with unease as we followed the glow of the locket. It had a way of showing us which way to turn, getting dimmer or brighter whenever we moved off course or back on it again. It was truly helpful.

Two hours of silent walking had passed when we arrived at a cabin. The locket was so bright I had to hide it under my shirt. We didn’t want to be spotted, and it was basically a beacon at that point.

Xari whispered, “I think he’s in there.”

“Do you think it’s a trap?” Julie whispered.

Xari shook his head. “There’s no one else, only one person. And no wards.”

“What is he feeling?” Niam asked, clearly wanting to know if Tino was afraid or not.

“Sad,” Xari grimaced. “Fuck…” he touched over his heart. “He’s heartbroken. Like the kind of heartache I would feel if something ever happened to you,” he said, looking directly at Niam, who smiled with love, then frowned when he realized Tino was hurting.

“We need to move,” I whisper-shouted, done with stalling while a man who belonged to me was sitting all by himself, feeling his heart break. Was it because he had lost his family? Or someone… closer than that? Damn… now wasn’t the time to get jealous! I didn’t even know if he wasmyTino yet or some stranger.But if it was?

I all but ran towards the cabin, the others right behind me, whispering for me to keep quiet, but I couldn’t stop. I was this close to maybe seeing Tino again, and nothing in the world could stop me.