“I do not … I …” He flushed.
“What is it?” I asked gently.
“It … I do not want to wake up and it all be gone,” he admitted, voice barely above a whisper.
I exhaled slowly, keeping my voice even. “I know what that is like. It will get better.”
His ears flared and flattened.
“Truly?” he asked, voice rising in pitch.
“Yes,” I reassured him. “I will argue for your integration into our society. We will leave you on the outside again and we certainly won’t kill you.”
He swallowed, flexing his claws on instinct. “You don’t know what the mother will do.”
“No,” I agreed, “but I know my word.”
That seemed to land somewhere deeper. It wasn’t enough to undo whatever life had carved into him, but for now it was enough.
His head tipped back against the rock. His eyes closed. He wasn’t fully relaxed, or even fully trusting, but he was trying.
I leaned my head back against the stone, staring out into the dark. This was what it felt like to lead. This is what Benedict had meant by taking responsibility that no one else wanted, standing between them and the consequences of everything that came before and after.
We broke camp at first light.
“I hate this. We are nothumans,” Canavar grumbled. He was cranky and in pain.
“You cannot fly, and we are not flying on without you,” I explained again, for what felt like the tenth time.
Veskor moved stiffly, but he stayed on his feet. His color had improved slightly, though he still looked like he could collapse at any moment.
Perri, of course, bounced between all of us like none of it had ever happened.
“We will be home soon!” she declared proudly.
“Yes,” I confirmed. Hopefully only a week or so, at most.
“Veskor! I have to show you my dolls and my friend Kya and my favorite tree to climb and–”
“Sweetheart, let Veskor focus on walking, he needs to concentrate,” I reminded her.
Veskor didn’t look well. His scales were dry and flaking.
“Maybe you should fly ahead with him,” I murmured to Nasi.
He frowned. “Perhaps. Let us monitor.”
Our progress was slow and messy and certainly cautious, but no one complained because we were still alive, and because we were moving forward.
Together.
Chapter Twenty-Five
WREN
I’d been so excited to finally get to be a part of some real bloodmagick. So of course, it rained the next three days. Hard, relentless, it caused localized flooding on the island.
Then Ronan returned with Canavar and Nasi. And with the rogue draken.
