“I’m sorry.”
Henry sighed. “Look, Ward… do you mind if I call you Ward? Sawyer seems set on calling you that and I kinda like it.”
Saeward looked confused for a moment then gave him the smallest smile.
“I like it, too.”
“Okay, then. Ward it is. So here’s the thing, I know you’re new here and all, but you gotta quit apologizing for everything. We’re a team, okay? All of us are here for one reason. To keep Sawyer safe. And yeah, we love him too and each other, and that’s an awesome bonus. Like, the best bonus you can imagine, but it doesn’t change that we were chosen to protect him first. And you’re part of that. Understand?”
“I— I don’t understand,” Ward confessed. “Sawyer wasn’t able to explain it to me. He saw my mark and said it meant I was his but that was all.”
“Whoa,” Henry said. “You don’t know about the prophecy?”
Ward shook his head, looking as confused as ever.
“Well, that explains a few things.” Henry gave him the brief history of what they’d learned so far and then he showed Ward the mark he had on his wrist. It made the other guardian gasp. He held Henry’s hand in his like he was fragile, and then traced the marks carefully with his fingers.
“Mine does not look like this,” Ward said. He held out his arm, placing it alongside Henry’s.
“Nope. They’re all different. And not everyone’s is on their wrist. But we all have one that appears and it marks us as a guardian.”
Ward seemed even more stunned. “I thought he was confused.”
“Nope. If he saw your mark, he knew what it meant. And I bet it made him feel a lot better, didn’t it?”
Ward nodded. “He was very frightened but he said he knew I would keep him safe.”
“Yep. And you did. I mean, it’s kinda weird, but I was drawn to him right away, you know? At first, I thought I was just missing my brothers. I have three of them, plus two sisters, and they’re pains in my ass sometimes, but I love them and I was used to having them around. But now I think… yeah, part of me knew he was it for me.”
“When I first saw him,” Ward said quietly, his words nearly lost on the ocean breeze, “he was so hurt. I was shifted and he looked at me and knew. He begged for help and I… helped. I should have turned and ran, remained alone. It’s safer for me that way. I never would have even approached another human. But I approached him.”
Henry reached over and laid his hand gently on Ward’s arm. “It’s going to be okay. I know you don’t know me so that promise doesn’t mean much, but I can tell you that we’ll look out for you. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”
“Hope is a dangerous thing,” Ward said.
“I know.” And he did. He knew what it was like to pin your life on something you didn’t know you could trust. He’d risked his baby brother’s life on such a chance, but in return, he’d gotten a family and a pack. Hope could be dangerous, but it could be so much more if you let it.
Ward stared at him a long moment, looked deep into his eyes, and seemed to realize that Henry did know exactly what he meant. He nodded quickly and shut his eyes, before turning back and looking out toward the ocean again. “The boat approaches.”
“Okay.”
“I will check it for danger.”
Ward stripped off his tattered clothes and walked into the water. Henry about swallowed his tongue. Then he almost choked on it when he realized Ward had shifted back into the horse they’d seen earlier. Except… he had a tail. Like, a fish tail. A merman tail? Except he had the head of a horse. That’s what a hippocamp was. Holy crap.
Henry remembered reading about them in one of the books he and Sawyer had studied but they’d been so obscure and rare that neither of them had considered a hippocamp as an option. Legend had it that they were Atlantean in origin, and they were the god Poseidon’s guards. They pulled his chariot a lot in old Greek statues of the god, but Henry knew from living with a couple creatures of myth and legend that a lot of those old statues were based on fantasy and not reality.
Ward shot through the water like a torpedo, aiming straight for the boat. Henry couldn’t take his eyes off his form. It was weird and stunningly beautiful at the same time. Kinda like Eduard with his eagle head and lion body. It shouldn’t fit, but it somehow did. Henry felt the little bubble of anger and fear that had been inside him since the moment they arrived burst. He giggled and slapped his hand over his mouth to muffle the sound.
“What is it?” Eduard asked, suddenly appearing by Henry’s side.
“He’s a merma-horse.”
Eduard arched his brow then gazed out at the approaching ship. His eyes changed, becoming the solid black orbs of his eagle and Henry knew he was scanning the boat and making sure it was one of theirs. Then he turned his head slightly, taking in the silver flash that was Ward heading back their way. Eduard frowned a bit.
“He’s actually a merma-horse,” Eduard said.
Henry snickered, unable to help himself.
