“I-I…” Theo let out a shuddering breath “I didn’t-”
“No.” Irepeated “we’re gonna go home and we’re gonna put a plan together. He’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” Theo whispered.
CHAPTER 29
Matthew
The following days were rough. We’d gone directly back to Draelon where Johnathan had strung together meeting after meeting to find our missing soldiers- Stryker wasn't the only one who'd been taken. We were useless.
Theo, on top of that, had come down with a cold that had left his throat itchy and his nose runny and his eyes watering with every cough and sneeze, and had been complaining about it to me ever since. I triednotto get annoyed, but my nerves over the whole situation certainly weren’t helping.
On the fourth day of uselessness and after a morning of attempting to read, to gathersomeformof information on where the prisoners may be, whilst simultaneously trying to block out Jack, Dean and Alex chatting, Theo emerged from his bedroom and flopped down beside me, kicking me with his bare foot “after careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that I must be dying. So I thought I'd just lay here with someone who would be so kind as to properly record the time of my death."
I rolled my eyes, lowering my book to look at him. I hoped I’d never have to see Theo sick again, because he was more dramatic than my four year old brother.
"Theo, you have a cold. You're not dying."
"You can't fool me, Matt," he closed his
eyes. "I'm a smart man. I have thought long and hard and know very well that I'm dying. Now, get out your quill and write this down: 'Grand Duke Theodore Lucas Danes-'"
"You're not a duke," I reminded him flatly.
"No need to tell the news that, Matt. I want the public to properly mourn my passing in the manner I see fit. Where was I? Ah, yes. Theodore Lucas Danes left this world on the twenty second of May -''
"It's the twenty first."
"At least I got the month right. Are you getting all of this?"
"I don't have a quill on me."
Theo lolled his head in my direction and cracked his eyes open to glare at me.
"Then how are you supposed to properly record the time of my death? How will people know to stand for a moment of mischief in the future when they mourn the passing of their fallen emperor."
"I thought you were a duke?"
“Same thing.”He sighed, helplessly looking at Alex and Dean who shrugged at him.
“Alright. What crawled up your arse and died this morning?”
“Nothing.” I replied simply.
“We got a visit from averypregnant Raven.” Jack sighed heavily “she’s pissed and…pissed. Didn’t help the situation, let’s say.”
Theo groaned “fucking…forgot about that. Raven, I mean.”
I grunted, something finally clicking in my head “me too, to be honest. Hey, uh…you guys clocked onto this?”
Dean and Alex leant forward. I opened my book wide enough for everyone to see, demonstrating a map “Stadal is here.” I pointed “but going north there’s…nothing. Apparently aload of abandoned land. Around these parts there are never abandoned lands. Someone would have claimed it by now.”
“How old is that book, Matt?” Jack sighed whilst Dean frowned pensively.
“Not very.” I replied defensively. I’d looked for it especially.“I know it’s a stab in the dark, but…”
“He may be right.” Dean mumbled, scrambling to his feet. I felt a rush of satisfaction; at leastsomeoneagreed with me around here. “Give me that, I’ll show John.”
