I rolled my eyes. I had expected holding onto a command while I slept to be trying, but with my power ever growing, it was easier than I’d predicted. “Unfortunately I’m going to have to release you guys so we can continue on, but that doesn’t mean this is over.”
“Why are you so insistent that we work things out?” Sebastian rose to his feet the second I dropped my command. “Maybe this is just how things are going to be from now on.”
“How? You wanting to rip his throat out?”
He shrugged. “Yeah.”
“No. I won’t tolerate it. You guys are best friends.” I turned to Sawyer. “You’remybest friend. And I can’t live with knowing that I’m the reason you both hate each other.”
“I don’t hate him,” Sawyer said simply.
“No, youenvyme. You want to be me so you can have my girl.” Sebastian approached Sawyer, and I think my heart ceased to beat. “You may have kissed her, but you’ll never know what she sounds like when she?—”
“Enough!” I yelled, waking the others up no doubt. “Sebastian, stop it right now! Both of you just stop. There is enough to worry about without having to deal with the two of you acting like toddlers fighting over a toy.” I marched forward, putting myself between them. “I amnotyour toy,” I put a finger up to silence Sebastian's incoming dirty comment, “so knock it off, pack your shit up, and get on your damn horses.”
They didn’t argue with me. Instead, they brushed past each other, Sawyer shouldering Sebastian in the process.
The rest of our ride was silent except for Kohen’s teasing comments to Sawyer about Stella, and Sawyer’s snide remarks back. I was fine with the quiet. The peace I got from the rocky terrain we passed helped ease my mind, almost being enough to fully silence it.
Mealioria’s castle crept into view, glinting through the horizon, tinted red from the rising orb in the sky.
“It’s smaller than I expected,” I said to Sebastian, tightening my grip on him as Honey picked up speed.
“That’s because we're still far away,” he bantered, and I pinched his side in response.
“You said you have been here a few times. When?”
I could hear his jaw grinding. “I came once or twice with my father. A few times with Sawyer, once with Kohen, and some other times in between by myself.”
By himself?My brain did not like that. “What were you doing when you came here alone?”
He jerked Honey’s reins to the left, taking us up the elongated dirt pathway that would take us to the fortress. He cleared his throat. “I?—”
Kade interrupted his explanation. “Hawthorne, are these guards going to try to kill us when we approach?”
Sebastian dug his heel into the side of our mare. She picked up speed, slowing when we led the pack. “We’ll go first. They’ll recognize me.”
My pulse raced. They wouldrecognize him?
A set of Mealiorian guards stopped us upon our arrival, swords drawn and blocking our entrance through the black iron gates.
“Stay here and don’t say anything,” Sebastian instructed me before jumping out of the saddle and approaching one of the guards in their silver armor like he had no fear.
Who was I kidding? He didn’t. Fear wasn’t something that Sebastian Hawthorne felt often, unless it was in regard to my life.
My breath hitched as I watched from afar. One of the guards removed his helmet, revealing creamy olive skin and a toothy smile before pulling Sebastian into a one-armed hug.
What the fuck?
I whispered to Sawyer who had pulled his horse up next to me. “They seem to know him well?” I said the fact as a question.
Sawyer removed his eyes from Sebastian, who was chatting up the guard like they were brothers. “This is not something I’m diving into with you, Willawood.”
I frowned, dropping my gaze to the dirt path under me.
Sebastian startled me when he returned, climbing back on Honey and grabbing hold of the reins.
“We’re good to go. Head straight for the stables; they will mend our horses for us while we meet with the king,” he informed the others, then clicked his tongue, prompting our mare into a trot.
