Page 6 of Tino

The silver haired man hit the crying man’s arm, “Stop that! You’ll make me cry, too!” he hissed, but then started sobbing too. The weirdest thing was that the tattooed guy with what looked like many piercings was crying the hardest, clenching his chest above his heart as if it psychically pained him.

“Tino,” Tair said again, tightening his grip on me.

“Tair,” I said, nuzzling my face against his neck.

He whimpered. “Fuck, I never thought I’d hear you say my name again.” I didn’t like that, so I rubbed his back, willing to give anything just to stay here with him in my arms.

“Are we dead?” I asked after the crying strangers seemed to get control of themselves. That only seemed to start their crying again, though.

“No,” Tair shook against me.

“Oh, so this is just a dream then?” I sighed, letting myself enjoy the feel and smell of him while it lasted. Hopefully, I wouldn’t wake up any time soon.

“It’s real,” the tattooed stranger said. “We’re all shunned mages from the Realm of Mages. Well, not this one,” he grabbed the woman in a side hug. “This is Julie, our friend.”

I nodded, unable to really form words at the moment. This was real? Tair was in my arms, in real life? I hadn’t eaten in so long, so I didn’t even bother arguing with what they said, even if it sounded too crazy to even believe. Hungry, tired, and aching, I couldn’t really trust my brain to function at the moment.

“I’m sorry,” I finally said, speaking only to my Tair. “I got your letters the day before I was shunned. I had no idea you’d sent them.”

“You never got them?” he asked, sitting back so he could look at my face. Damn he was beautiful. My light. My Tair.

“No.” I shook my head. “Just finished your last one.” I picked up the letter from where it had landed beside me.

“That’s why you were sad?” he asked knowingly.

I nodded. “I didn’t think my heart could break further. But I was proven wrong.”

That set off the criers again, filling the cabin with sobs. I sighed, not really knowing what the hell was going on, just glad to have Tair in my arms again.

“What are you doing here, Tair?” I asked, wondering how he’d been able to find me.

“We were looking for you,” he grinned, his eyes still wet with tears, but his smile was genuine.

“Why? How?” I asked, unable to look away from his brown eyes. Eyes that always seemed to light up whenever he looked at me.

“Because,” he began, but then seemed nervous all of a sudden.

“Because you needed me as much as I needed you?” I decided to ask, knowing he loved me, but he didn’t know how I felt about him yet. He was in for it later. As soon as those crying strangers wouldleave our sight, I would be on him. I needed to feel those perfect lips on mine. Something I’d wanted since the day I drove away from him. It was hard picturing him as older, but whenever I thought about him, he’d changed to my age, an older version of the boy I knew. As the years passed, I couldn’t think of the thirteen-year-old boy as the love of my life, that just felt weird, so I imagined an older version of him, and now I knew my fantasies had nothing on the real grown-up Tair.

“Yes,” he said, giving me a beaming smile while his eyes kept leaking with new tears. I wiped them away, still unable to look away. He was so beautiful.

Chapter 5

Altair

How could I tell the others to get lost? I needed to kiss Tino, to finally feel his lips against mine. But I wasn’t eager to do it while they watched from the sidelines. Didn’t they get that privacy was a real thing?

“I wished we had the RV,” I groaned, letting the others know my thoughts, hoping they’d take the hint.

“What?” Silver said, his tone indicating he’d heard me, but that my words had been an epiphany. I reluctantly looked away from Tino’s eyes, barely managing to escape his deep blue gaze.

Silver had our undivided attention now. “Why the fuck don’t we just return to Sutiner? We have the RV and everything there, plus the ward will still hold.”

Fuck. He was right. Why hadn’t we thought about that?

Xari groaned. “How are we supposed to be future leaders? We’re fucking stupid when it comes to planning stuff.”

Julie grinned, clearly loving hearing Xari call himself stupid. They truly acted like siblings. It was kinda sweet.