“Stop. Dove, stop…” Rivern grabs me from behind and lifts me off the ground.
“Let me go, Rivern.” I kick my legs and pound the leather vambraces secured to his arms.
“No. Listen, stop.” He grabs my arms and pins my whole upper body to his, my back to his front. “I know you are angry. Angry at me. Angry at this bond. Angry at the king. Angry at your role in all this. You have a lot to be angry about. I just don’t want you to hide it from me. I feel it all.”
“ARGH!” I scream. “Godsdamn right, I’m angry. Why did she choose me? I don’t want this responsibility. Just leave me to the wolf, Rivern. I deserve it.” I slump in his arms.
“Listen up, Dove, and listen closely.” His voice sternly breathes along my cheek. “You don’t deserve this. No one deserves any of this. The first moment I saw you… Your truth, your light, your righteousness. If anybody can get through this, you can.And I’m not letting that wolf get you.”
His lilting voice and his conviction soothe the gremlins in my head.
Feeling my anger dissipate, he releases his hold and sets me down. “Come, Mage is this way.”
“Mage?”
“My horse,” Rivern answers swiftly, moving through the thick forest.
Silence passes between us as we navigate our way. I know this peace well. It is one that I savour in the uncertainty of my future. It is a space where I can find my thoughts and muddle them back together again.
Solen has been touching base with us every so often, and Rivern receives his messages with grunts and murmurs as we continue on our way.
While walking, an idea occurs to me.With the villagers on their way to Terra, besides breaking this bond, what is my purpose there?
My final goal isn’t Terra. It is Haven. The king, Castor. If I want to save all of my people, I will need to kill them both.
If Rivern wants the song, I can teach it to him, and he can bring it to his people. And if we both want this bond broken, I’m sure that can be solved on my mission to kill the king because his death will more than likely result in my own.
This bond twists me up something fierce at the notion of leaving Rivern, but I continue my mantra—I do not choose this. Rivern said to trust the Goddess, but I cannot trust as easily as him. I did not grow up in the sort of environment that fostered that ideal.What is it even like to trust someone fully? Sure, I’d surrendered to her after killing Cardinal but this is different.
Is it?
I twist and turn the fragments of my sanity, and my only conclusion is to return to Haven.
I must keep my plan a secret from the fae leading me.
I may be broken and inconsequential to the priestesses, but I burn. I burn with a fire and rage I don’t want to squander. I want to finally unshackle the cage I was placed in as a child. Release the monster within. Give them back my wrath tenfold.
We find Mage, Rivern’s stunning dappled stallion, grazing a small field.
The wind blows salty air through the surrounding trees, letting us know we could touch the sea if we wanted to.
“It seems the wolf is going slow.” My head whips up at Rivern’s melodically charming voice. It feels almost strange to hear after being surrounded by the soft, mellow sounds of the forest for the last while.
“Slow?”
“Solen says he has not shifted, but is instead in his human form, ascending the mountain.”Strange. I would have bet the wolf shifter would be in his animal form. Surely, in his natural habitat, the wolf in him would take over.
My mind reminisces on one very toned and muscled wolf shifter’s backside.
A longing pricks at my chest.Do I miss the beast? Surely not.I barely know him. Here I stand, staring at the most beautiful male alive, my bonded, and I am missing the dyre wolf who has been sent to kill me.
Shuddering myself out of my strange reverie, I approach the stallion carefully. “I’ve never ridden a horse before,” I express in amazement.
“Here.” Rivern guides my hands towards Mage’s speckled coat.
Instant heat hits me as our hands glide in unison over the stallion’s side.
Our hands move towards the soft leather saddle covering Mage’s back.
