First thing tomorrow, I’m training with Wekun, I tell myself.No more whining and putting shit off.Clearly, I have no control over my abilities, and that is not a good thing when we’ll be heading into war any day now.
The Bond Weaver is nowhere in sight as I fling the entrance to his tent to the side. I stomp out and make my way back toward the Gryphon camp. Ryn is going to think I pulled a bitch move and ran away like a coward. Even though I am done with the discussion we were having for tonight, I don’t want him to think that I didn’t hear him and that I’m not going to give what he’s saying thought.
He did give me a lot to consider. I just need to do that when I’m completely sober—and he’s not pressed up against me, clouding my good sense.
It takes me several minutes, but I cross the line between the Ouphe side of tents and the Gryphons’. Winding my way through the camp, I move in the direction of where I know the bar tent is located. I figure Ryn will have gone back there as soon as I disappeared.
“She’s being harder than a rock troll’s prick,” a voice declares to my right, and I pause mid-step when I recognize that voice as Ryn’s.
“We’ve been hard on her, so are you really surprised?” another deep voice replies, and I’m surprised to hear that it’s Zeph’s.
They’re inside the tent I’m currently standing next to, and I pause for a moment, not sure what to do.
“I thought she would understand. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I thought she would see what we have been up against our whole lives and that wehadto be careful. Loa is just more proof of why we couldn’t simply rely on our instincts: they’ve been used against us for so long,” Ryn confesses, and I bristle at the sound of Loa’s name.
I want to destroy her. I’ve never wanted to hurt someone as badly as I want to hurt her. I take a deep breath and file my vengeance-filled thoughts away. I’ll think more on that later when I don’t need to focus on spying on the guys.
“She doesn’t see things as one-sided the way we have though,” Treno offers. I stare at the side of the tent in shock. Are Zeph and Ryn really having a heart-to-heart with their mortal enemy? Is Treno seriously talking to them like equals? “We all keep forgetting that this isn’t her world; she doesn’t have the same prejudices as we do. She takes everything and everyone at face value, and truly we can’t expect any different. None of us gave her time to make up her own mind before we pushed our will and the way that we see things onto her.”
“But what choice did we have?” Ryn asks him.
“Maybe none, given what we’re up against, but what choice did she really have either?” Treno volleys back.
“She was shoved into this world, and we all demanded that she make a choice before her wings ever caught the current. We did the best that we could, but so did she,” Zeph states, and the tent goes quiet.
“So what now?” Treno asks.
“We do better,” Ryn answers simply. “She doesn’t want to listen, but the bond works in our favor: she physically responds when we’re close. It’s natural for mates to crave one another, and she gives into it instinctively when she forgets to fight it.”
I shoot an incredulous look at the tent. I’m going to punch Ryn in the dick the next time I see him, giving my weaknesses away like that to the others.
“She still wants to sever the bonds,” Treno informs them, and deep growls bleed out through the tent.
“That tree rutting Ouphe told her he couldn’t do it,” Ryn supplies.
Well, well, well. I suddenly don’t feel so bad about eavesdropping, when they’ve obviously been doing the same thing.
“He’s going to ask someone else about other ways to do it, but some female Ouphe threatened to hit me with a pot if I didn’t get out of their camp, so I didn’t catch who. We need to keep an eye on him,” Ryn adds. “I told her we were all going to fight for her, that we were all working to show her that the mating matters to us.”
“And what was her response?” Treno presses, like he’s a kid at a sleepover hanging on every word his friend is delivering about his crush. It would be kind of cute if the foundation between us wasn’t layered infucked up.
“I think, despite everything that’s happened, she wants to believe it, but she’s going to think that all we are is what she’s seen so far.”
“We’ll just have to show her more then,” Treno declares, and Ryn grunts in agreement.
I’m so floored by what they’re saying, and the fact that the Altern of the Avowed and the Altern of the Hidden are the ones saying it, that I don’t even feel the person behind me until their huge hand is covering my mouth, and their other arm is holding me tightly against them. My feet lift off the ground, and I try to kick out as I’m pulled away from the tent and whatever the guys are saying now.
“It’s not nice to listen to conversations that you weren’t invited to be a part of, little sparrow,” Zeph whispers in my ear. He nips at my lobe as he holds me even tighter against him, and my fear is quickly replaced by irritation.
I try to bite the hand that’s pressed over my mouth and squirm out of his hold, but all of a sudden, my stomach drops and we’re no longer standing in front of a tent, but inside a cool dust-covered room.
We both tense, Zeph still holding on to me tightly, and I mumblefuckagainst his palm. I think I slipped us somewhere, only this place doesn’t look familiar at all.
“Cum on a tree sprite,” Zeph whispers quietly, his hold on my mouth and waist weakening slightly. I look behind me and see recognition in his eyes, and I immediately realize that I didn’t slip us anywhere...he did.
16
Iswear, as soon as I figure out how to slip from one place to another on purpose, I’m never going to walk again, but until that happens, this shit is annoying. I look around the unfamiliar room, taking in the lumpy mattress and the handmade wooden frame. There’s an armoire in the corner, and the walls and floor are made of old wooden planks.
