My shoulders tremble.
“When I heard about you in Geisel, I didn’t believe it. And then when I saw you…” He trails off with a shake of his head. “I wanted to keep you at a distance. A part of me blamed you—and I know how damn ridiculous that sounds, but it’s the truth. I blamed you for my own hate. My own shame that I’d carried around for my entire life. When you showed up, I wouldn’t allow myself to think of you as family—as that little girl I abandoned. I only wanted to see you as a good thing for the Vulmin, because that’s all my life had become. I’ve dedicated my entire life to the Vulmin cause. Maybe in some vain effort to redeem myself and avenge our parents.”
Now that he’s started to get the words out, they’re rushing out of him. The floodgate has opened, and he’s letting the truth surge. Causing damage in its wake, but no longer holding back.
“Admitting you were anything else to me would’ve forced me to relive my mistakes all over again, and I didn’t want to do that,” he admits. “Didn’t want to look you in the eye and tell you what I’d done. Because the truth is, I don’t deserve to carry the Turley name. Don’t deserve to tell you I’m your family. Not after abandoning you. Hell, if most Vulmin knew what I’d done, they’d never have followed me in the first place. And this cause…it’s the only thing that’s kept me going. When I stopped being a Turley, becoming a Vulmin was all I had.”
It’s hard to hear.
Every confession from his mouth is another stone tossed at me, landing in my gut. My thoughts and reactions war withone another, and I know it’s going to take time for me to pick it all apart. To digest every piece.
He looks at me with wet eyes and rattling desperation. “I’m sorry, Auren. I’mso—sorry.”
I take in a shaky breath, and the two of us stare at each other. All the words that poured out now trying to find where to settle.
Devastation has ripped up my roots and left me scattered. There’s no denying that.
But I reach across the table to Wick’s hand, startling him when I grip his fingers. He looks up at me and flinches, like he’s waiting for me to deliver a blow.
“You were a child who made a mistake,” I say slowly, and I cut him off before he can interrupt. “Sometimes, our mistakes are so big that when they land, the consequences stretch out farther than you ever could’ve imagined.”
He swallows hard, watching me like he’s hanging on my every word.
“What’s done is done,” I tell him. “What happened that night was a tragedy for us both. We lost our parents. Our homes. Our safety. Our identities…” Grief threatens to strike my tongue, but I push on. “But the two of us have reunited now. I think we owe it to our parents and ourselves to be each other’s family. Because youarea Turley. The proof is right there in your veins. And I think we’ve lost enough. We don’t need to add each other to the list.”
His jaw muscle jumps, like he’s trying to lock down his emotions, though his eyes shine with moisture.
I give him a sad smile for the boy he was, for the terrible regret and shame he’s carried that’s so obviously affected him. I could yell and scream. I could choose hate. But it’s like Wick said in the city square.
We can do better.
I give his hand a squeeze. “You don’t just have the Vulmin, Wick. You have me too now.”
He looks utterly ransacked. Like he’s kept all his emotions and secrets hidden away, and now that they’ve been dumped out, he’s unsure what to do with all the pieces.
For a moment, he just stares at me as if he expects me to change my mind and tell him I hate him and want nothing to do with him.
When I don’t, he clears his throat, shaking his head. “You’re still the same. Just like when you were a little girl. Forgiving me. Smiling when I deserve to be shunned. No wonder they all called youlittle sun. You have the warmest heart I’ve ever known, Auren.”
This time, he squeezes my hand back before we let go.
I blow out a big breath and look between him and Slade. “I think that’s enough rehashing the past for today,” I say, trying to keep the shake out of my smile. “Now let’s move on to Vulmin business.”
He seems relieved at the topic change, and honestly, so am I. Everything I said to him was genuine. I’m not going to punish his eight-year-old self for a mistake that was made over twenty years ago. It’s obvious he’s punished himself over that choice plenty. But I also need time to take everything in on my own, and we’ll both have to learn what it means to be family.
So for now, we’ll focus on being Vulmin.
Wick starts telling us about everything that’s happened in Lydia since Slade and I reunited, catching us up on all the details.
“Keeping our control of the capital is vital,” he says. “But it’s tenuous. The royal guard could storm the city any moment and retake control. I have Vulmin on the move, all the ones trained in combat and willing to fight, but it’ll be a couple more days before the first influx arrives.”
“But the invasion on Orea has to have greatly depleted Carrick’s army,” Slade says.
“Exactly. He’s stacked the odds by sending most of his forces into another realm. This is the perfect time for us to strike. He’s the weakest he’s ever been. But if we want to end the Carrick tyranny once and for all, we have to end the king.”
“But we still don’t know where he escaped to?” Slade asks.
Wick shakes his head.
