‘I miss everything about you, Son.’
He smiled. I could feel it, his cheeks lifting beneath my palms.
We sat like that in silence for a long time. Minutes. Maybe more. Just Kaelric listening, Valkaryn humming gently, a song from his childhood maybe, and the river whispering around us.
Finally, she spoke again.
‘I will find a way to free our people, Maelis included.’
Then the power ebbed. I let my hands fall from his face and opened my eyes.
Kaelric stared back at me, bright yellow eyes burning. His jaw was clenched so tight the muscles trembled.
I swallowed.
“You okay?”
“No,” he ground out. “My wolf is not okay with how I treated you for keeping the sword.”
His voice was strained, low and rough.
I just watched him, surprised he admitted it.
“But you are?” I pressed.
His eyes snapped back to emerald-green so fast I flinched.
“No. Brynn, I’m sorry.” He put his head in his hands. “I was mad at my mother, not you.”
I crossed my arms, holding the steel wall around my heart firm. “I could have magic right now, Kaelric. My entire family could be helping rebuild homes for our people withmagic, not with blistered fingers. I gave all of that up to help you.”
I stood, and he dragged his hands down his face, looking up at me with a desperate expression.
“I know. I’m sorry. Please, little human. Forgive me?”
The pet name cracked something inside me. I stepped back anyway, needing distance.
“I’ve cried myself to sleep for months with one thing on repeat in my head:I’ll never forgive you for this. Those words cut into my soul, Kaelric, and you’re a shitty mate for ever saying them.”
He flinched as if I had struck him. His eyes slid away, glassy and distant, and for a moment, he looked like a ghost of the man I once loved. I turned from him, feeling Valkaryn stir.
‘Do not say anything,’I warned her.
She fell silent.
My heart still pounded from the confrontation. The river rushed nearby, a constant whisper on the rocks. Kaelric sat frozen, shoulders hunched, too proud to beg again, too broken to fight.
I walked away, collecting Valkaryn from the rock, and the moment my fingers closed around her hilt, she hummed low.
‘You were honest,’she told me, gently.‘He needed to hear your truth, or you would never be able to get past this.’
I swallowed hard. I wish honesty didn’t hurt so much.
The forest filtered sunlight in soft bands as I made my way back to camp. Everything looked too peaceful for how wrecked I felt. Godric waited near the training field, already reading my mood by the tightness in my jaw.
He rose without a word. “Want to spar?”
Did I want tospar? I wanted to rip someone’s head from their body. If I didn’t hit something, I might scream.
