“Doesn’t sound like your worst idea,”the small voice graces my consciousness.
I hiccup, followedby a surprised laugh. “Wren?”
“Of course it’s me, you big dummy,”Wren scolds me. “I like it up here,”she continues to muse.
Hugging my arms around my chest, I give the tiny, childlike voice all my attention.
“It’s perfect, isn’t it?” With the suns now beginning their reach overhead, I feel heat start to prickle my skin. The choppy waves below crash in the likes of a choreographed dance as I take in deep breaths of briny goodness.
Wren sighs. “Don’t give up.”
“What?” The statement catches me off guard. “I’m not giving up.”
“And you cannot leave these lands, not yet. You are needed here. You are important to people,”she emphasises the last part.
“Yeah, right. I’ve been forced upon a fae prince who surely has been taught to hate humans. Sentenced to death by a tyrant king who I have no idea how to kill. And…”
“Yes.”
“I killed her. I’m just like him.”
The wind picks up as hatred courses through me. Not just hatred for the man who raised me, but a little for myself. I face-palm my hands, scrubbing at more sore eyes.
“You protected yourself. You are nothing like him. And that bond lives in you because it is fate, because it will bring life and joy and peace,”she continues.
“I only see destruction and feel heartache,” I whine at her encouragement.
“You know, you’re insufferable sometimes,”she grumbles.
Snorting out loud, I push down on my forehead. “You are giving me a headache.”
“Well, you’ve been giving me a headache for the past twenty-five rotations.”
She’s right. I have not been easy to live with. I’ve barely lived the last fourteen rotations, just barely surviving.
“Open yourself to the help of others, Dove. Let the fae prince in. Let him heal what is broken. And don’t discount the wolf,”she cryptically continues.
I scrunch my face. “What, you have the sight now?”
She giggles. “Just call me your wisdom wielder.”
“Great, thanks.” The bit about the wolf is intriguing. “Do you mean Gideon?”
“My beast,”she teases.
“So mature.”
“The dragon wakes.”
“What?” I turn to face Saff, whose eyes have opened and are staring intently at me.
Silence rings, and I turn back towards the exposed plunge. “Wren?”
Nothing.
“Wren, please, don’t go,” I plead with the sky.
“WREN?” I scream for answers. For my sister back. My true other half.
