Serves him right.
CHAPTER4
The first sign that his guest had awakened was a long, piercing scream.
Kat raced into his guest room, heart pounding and nerves unraveling beneath the calm exterior he tried to project. “Shh, it’s fine. Everything is fine.” He tried to soothe the hysterical teen. He didn’t dare touch him, not with those burns.
“The Grove is burning! Mother!”
Kat grabbed Rance’s hands to stop him from clawing at his bandages. “Leave those alone. You’ve been burned, and we don’t want them getting infected.”
Tears dripped down Rance’s face, and the teen’s breaths came in short, panicky bursts. “Who are you?”
“I’m Kat. Are you Rance?”
“Yes.” His flickering gaze took in the small guest room. “Where am I?”
“My house.”
“I was supposed to go to my mother’s tree. She said I could claim sanctuary with someone called Anthony.”
“You reached it. We brought you here to rest after Anthony’s mother, Hallea, dug you out of the trunk. I’ll call and tell him you woke up. You can claim sanctuary when he arrives.”
Rance deflated. “Can you take me back to the Grove? I need to see what happened to my mother.”
“Was she caught in the fire?” At this point, they were only guessing that there was a forest fire due to Rance’s extensive burns. For all they knew, Rance could be a pyromaniac who started it all. There were stranger things than a dryad firebug.
“She told me to run.” Rance’s eyes remained unfocused as if he were lost in memories. “It was so hot, and the trees kept exploding. Everything was on fire around me. She told me to run.” His hollow voice revealed his trauma at the memory.
“You’re safe now. You made it out.” Kat gently squeezed Rance’s shaking fingers. “We will do our best to find your mother.” He hesitated to make any false promises. He didn’t know what they would find when they went to the forest. “Why don’t you take a cold shower while I call Anthony? Your bandages are waterproof but try not to get them too wet.” He hurried to continue when Rance opened his mouth with a stubborn expression. “I can’t stop a fire on my own, and we don’t want to get in the way of first responders. We don’t know for sure if the fire is out yet.”
He didn’t want to tell the kid that if the fire was still raging, the chances of his mother still being alive were slim.
Rance shook his head, then winced as if regretting that action. “There won’t be any firefighters. The Grove’s magically hidden.”
“Good to know. Go take your shower while I call Anthony.”
The teen’s wounded expression hurt Kat’s heart. The kid had lost everything. Kat couldn’t even begin to understand that level of devastation. Sure, he had left almost everything behind when he fled the wizards, but that had been his choice.
A cheery song broke the heavy atmosphere. “You have a bird in a cage.”
His disapproval was so strong that Kat had to laugh. “Yes, that’s Big Bird. I’ve had him for a few years now. He’s a rescue bird. No one wanted him because his right wing was broken when he was younger. The asshole who owned him before had thrown a rock at him when he wouldn’t quiet down.”
“He can’t fly?” Rance slid out of bed to get a better look.
“No.”
“He’s so pretty.” Rance put a finger through the bars and stroked the fluffy feathers.
The parakeet preened.
“Yes, he is.”
After an awkward silence, Rance asked, “Is Anthony really a demi-god? My mother told me he was, but I wasn’t sure if that was just a story to make me feel safe.” His expression was one of a child who no longer believed in magic or fairy tales despite being a figure of folklore himself.
“He’s a full god these days, I think. A minor god, but a god.” He never dared ask, but the rumors around the pack claimed Anthony had come into his godhood a little while back.
Rance wrinkled his nose. “How does that work?”
