Chapter 7
The next week passed in a depressed haze of me wallowing in my own misery and unsuccessfully practicing magic. With Colton gone to stay with his parents and Eric and I still on awkward terms, Ramsay was the only mate in the house I could depend on. But despite how much I appreciated his presence, it didn’t help with learning magic since he was just as clueless about all this as I was.
Eric grew increasingly tense, which was not helping my concentration at all. He’d leave for hours on end only to return looking even more haggard and annoyed than before. Ramsay and I left him well enough alone, since he clearly had no interest in telling us what was going on. Part of me wondered if we should just leave and stay at Ramsay’s barn, but I knew bringing that up would just incite another argument with Eric, and I didn’t have the energy for that right now.
Every day I practiced with those stupid element pouches--and every day, I made exactly zero progress.
It was early evening when I gave up. I let loose a howl of frustration and tossed the pouches across the ground in front of Eric’s house. Crystal, who stood silently in her wolf form by the front door, pinned her ears back in sympathy but didn’t speak. She watched me for the past few hours with a kind of taut anticipation, though I didn’t know why.
“Screw this,” I growled, hot tears prickling my eyes.
I kicked one of the pouches, sending ashes sprawling into the dirt. I felt guilty and childish, like a kid throwing a tantrum, but all the pent-up negative energy inside me had nowhere else to go. Around me a dark, heavy aura seemed to buzz like a swarm of insects, probably from stress.
But it wasn’t like I could afford to stop. Everyone depended on me. Without me, they--
A crash from the trees made me jerk my head. My mind instantly flashed to when Neil ambushed Noro and tore his wing. I stumbled back, fear tainting my blood, until I heard a familiar voice grunting in frustration.
Eric emerged from the tree line, his eyes screwed up as if in pain. One of his arms was held up awkwardly. A flash of red caught my eye. There was a bright, angry gash on his forearm.
At the sight of his injury, all thoughts of our argument disappeared.
“Eric!” I ran to him and grabbed his hand. “What happened?”
“Sir!” Crystal said in a panic, running up beside me in human form. Her face was struck with fear.
I didn’t realize until now that Eric had left Crystal behind. He never left on his mystery outings without her; she was his closest and most trusted guard. No wonder she seemed so tense for the past few hours.
But that didn’t explainwhyhe’d gone alone.
“I’m fine,” Eric muttered, making his way towards the house.
“Eric, your arm is split open!” I cried.
He sighed and said without any bite in his tone, “Yeah, it is.”
Anger and fear wove together in my chest, knotting it up. “Are you going to just walk in there and pretend like nothing happened to you?”
He didn’t meet my gaze, but if he did, I had a feeling he would wilt beneath it. Exhaustion came off him in waves. He didn’t seem like he was in the mood for a fight anymore, which only worried me more.
“Oh, dear,” Tansy said when Eric walked in. She immediately scurried off to retrieve a first-aid kit.
Ramsay, who had been lounging on the couch, leapt up with shock on his face. “Holy shit, Eric, what happened?”
But Eric’s lips were sealed. He wouldn’t reply to anyone, and he barely made eye contact with us. I was getting more and more worried by the second. Part of me wanted to just throttle him if it would make him spill the truth, but at the same time I was scared of it.
Crystal tailed Eric, frowning deeply. She knew more than she was letting on, but unlike Eric, I had a feeling she would tell us the truth immediately if she had her leader’s blessing.
Eric sat on the couch with a pained grunt, gingerly holding up his injured arm. Crystal leaned into his ear and I heard her mutter, “Sir, you’ve got to stop this.”
Eric furrowed his brow and held up a hand to silence her. Crystal ground her teeth.
When Tansy returned with the first-aid kit, she and Crystal both tried to administer it. But Eric barked, “Could the two of you please give me some space?”
The women paused and backed off a little, eyeing Eric warily as he tried to open the kit with one clumsy hand. Ramsay glanced at me and shrugged.
I turned to the other three and asked, “Do you all mind giving us a moment?”
Eric shot me a half-hearted glare, which I ignored.
