“Because Kieran has been in bed all day watching movies with Bastian. She’s really upset over what happened, and she’s worried that we all hate her now,” Gabe pointed out, his voice clipped.
“She sounds like she’s doing just fine without me there,” I bit out, feeling a frustrating tinge of annoyance that she sought comfort in Bastian’s arms.
Gabe crossed the distance between us before clapping me on the shoulder. “Ronan, I consider Steele a brother. Someone I knowverywell, and I don’t even understand what the fuck happened today. I won’t be able to explain it to you, but I know you care about Kieran. You followed her down here, and I know you would rather be with her than out here, despite what happened earlier.”
I offered him a cautious look, confused as to why he was even trying to get me back in the picture. It just meant one more person to possibly steal her heart in the end. “Why are you even telling me this? Why do you care?”
He dropped his hand back to his side before letting out a heavy sigh and shrugging. “Because her happiness matters to me, and I know it matters to you too.”
His words were simple but impactful, making me respect him a hell of a lot. At the end of the day, I did want Kieran to be happy, even if it wasn’t with me. I wished she’d been able to tell us about what happened between her and Steele before he blew the whole situation up, but I owed her a real conversation about it.
“You said she’s back at the house?”
“Not anymore—she’s in the administrative building because the council wanted to talk to all of us about something,” Gabe explained as my wings snapped out fully. “I was talking to her about where she thought you might have gone when we got the message to come.”
Shit.Not this damned council again.
I didn’t hesitate to take off into the air, soaring above the treetops and making a straight shot for the common area of the Rebellion camp. No matter what happened between us earlier today, I didn’t like the idea of her facing the council without me there to support her. Not after the horrific news they threw in her face the other day.
I saw the fear on her face at their revelations, and I’d had to watch the tentative hope and excitement about her affinity get crushed to pieces under the weight of that damn prophecy. She had yet to even open up to us about how it went with Amelia.
What my beauty needed was a damn break from all that shit, not to sit through another lecture that would probably be about her responsibility to the Rebellion.
Ten minutes later, I landed and stalked into the building. Immediately, I walked down the familiar hallway toward the council room, Niz taking his spot on my shoulder as we entered. Gabe didn’t bother saying anything after he landed behind me, though he kept pace with me as I all but burst through the doors into the same chamber as before. The relief I felt at the sight of Kieran’s soft smile as she glanced at me was immediate.
Her eyes filled with a softness that I had grown to love. I didn’t bother looking at the council or Steele, who was pacing in the corner. Instead, I rounded the chairs and sat next to my beauty. I was unsurprised when Niz traded my shoulder for her lap, and despite the tension of the day, I didn’t hesitate to take her hand and hold it firmly.
Everything else be damned.
“Glad you weren’t attacked or anything,” Bastian drew out from his place on her other side. “You were gone for quite a bit.”
I narrowed my eyes on him as he flashed me a smile, but I could see the annoyance in his gaze. He was calling me out forrunning away from the problem. I hated that it was fair to do. “I’m here now. What’s going on?”
Gabe came to stand behind us but didn’t offer any answers as Kieran squeezed my hand and whispered, “They haven’t told us anything yet.”
“Why are we here?” I asked the council, all of whom stared openly at us. I wasn’t going to bother with bullshit formalities. They needed to stop stressing all of us out, especially Kieran.
We had enough to figure out as it was.
“Because of her,” Steele bit out, venom dripping from his words.
I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths as my rage from this morning came flowing back at the sound of his tone, the accusation ugly and clear in his voice. My brain was working awfully hard to convince me that he needed a few more hits to his mouth so he’d stop using the damn thing.
Amelia offered her grandson a confused and seemingly frustrated expression before looking back toward the rest of us. “We are not here because of anything Kieran did, nor because of what she is—not directly. You are here because you should be aware of a security breach that poses a potential threat to your life before we make a general announcement to the camp.”
“What happened?” Kieran asked as she sat up straighter, her voice soft but firm.
Her question, although reasonable and in the spirit of being helpful, had Steele shaking his head from across the space. My jaw clenched, wondering if maybe it was better for me tonotbe here. Clearly I didn’t have a handle on my frustration like I thought I had. Or maybe Steele just had a special ability to get under my skin really damn quickly.
My tolerance for the bastard was even lower than before. In the face of my anger fading from before, it had become all too clear what his earlier motive was. He didn’t need to out her infront of us all like that. Even worse, he humiliated her and acted like she was a horrible person for having feelings for us all. In his own jealousy, Steele had attempted to cause conflict to push all of us away from Kieran. Now that I was sitting here with her, her soft, delicate hand in mine, I knew I would never let him pull that bullshit again.
If Kieran didn’t want me anymore, that was one thing. But I wasn’t going to let someone else drive that wedge between us.
“This afternoon, scouts from Alfemir were found east of the Rebellion camp. We assume they were searching for our lands,” Amelia explained, and dread pooled in my stomach. “They engaged in a conflict with our security team, but they were killed before they even got within a mile of the camp.”
Fuck. They couldn’t hold them prisoner or something?
“This is the closest they’ve come to finding our territory,” Councilmember Summers explained. “However, the most concerning part was when we demanded to know why they were here and what they were looking for, they mentioned being in search of a fugitive they believed had fled to the Rebellion camp from Alfemir.”
