A Fiery Spirit and a Big Heart
1487 Words
Red’s POV
When I wake up the next morning, I’m very, very sore.
Granted, the arduous horseback journey from Archon to Vila the day before didn’t exactly help with the soreness. But, as you might have guessed, there’s a rather large, handsome, bearded reason for my soreness, as well.
“We should have taken it easy,” Rowan says with a frown as he watches me wince my way through getting dressed. “If my mother or father notice—”
“That ship sailed before we left Crescent City the first time around,” I remind him with a grin as I lean down to kiss his cheek. He’s the one to wince this time, and I realize I kissed him right on top of a particularly nasty bruise. I kneel down, frowning, as I scan the rest of his injuries. The faerie doctors did an excellent job of cleaning him up, even charming up a silver hand to fit over his stump. But the bruises and scars still linger.
“We should have taken it easy,” I affirm, taking his silver hand in mind and bringing it to my lips to kiss it. “I let myself forget how hurt you were in that fight.”
He scoffs. “Please. I had that hybrid scum long before you came and did your whole celestial Harry Potter hands thing.”
I burst out laughing, and he tackles me into a hug. We fall to the floor in each other’s arms, not in heated passion this time, but in soft, sweet warmth.
“She knows,” I tell him softly, arms still wrapped around his neck. “She saw my neck.”
He nods. “I know. She looked happy, though. Don’t you think?”
I do, and it makes me ten times happier. And yet… “Do you think they all will be? Do you think we should tell everyone?”
His expression darkens slightly. “I hope they will be. But… no. I don’t think we should tell them just yet. I think we need to figure out the plan first.”
- - - - -
Our meeting the next morning is in the same place, and has most of the same players, save for two additions: Logan Nim and Emmett Eclipse.
“With your permission, Majesty,” Auron says with a bow when he sees my eyes flicker to Logan, “I thought it might be pertinent to include your Delta in this meeting. You may find use for him when making plans.”
Right. I always forget that Logan is our Delta now. For so long, it was Kat.
May she rest in peace beneath the stars.
I don’t mind Logan, though I don’t have much of an opinion of him. He’s a rather simple man, from what I can tell. He’s in his mid-forties, and, like so many other wolves, is brown-haired and bearded. He dresses conservatively, and has an easygoing smile.
Emmett, on the other hand, is a bit more interesting. He’s much closer to my age—if memory serves, he graduated two years ahead of me and Corrin—and handsome, to boot. He has short, finely cropped, dark brown hair, piercing, green eyes, and a strong jawline beneath what seems to be a never-ending five-o’clock-shadow.
You’re drooling, Rowan snaps in my head. I look away from Emmett quickly, blushing, and am relieved to note that Rowan looks more amused than angry.
Gross—he’s my cousin! I tell him as I take my seat at the head of the table. Anyway, if memory serves, Emmett always had a thing for Corrin.
Rowan’s eyes widen, and his attention snaps to Corrin, who, of course, is looking at Westley, not Emmett.
Realizing I haven’t responded to poor Auron, I say hastily, “Yes, of course—Logan is welcome here, as are you, Emmett. I can’t thank you enough for giving our people shelter when they needed it most.”
“Indeed,” Auron agrees. “Lesser wolves would have locked their doors and stayed inside the fort until the fighting was done. But you chose to do the right thing.”
Emmett smiles. He really does have quite the dazzling smile. “It was my honor and my pleasure to serve my king and country.”
I hear an incomprehensible sound come out of Westley that’s akin to a snort, and do my best to ignore it.
“Now, then,” says Auron, clearing his throat. “We decided last night that the best course of action is to travel northeast to Meridian, where we will leave the bulk of our forces to establish new roots and to protect the kingdom while a select few join Her Majesty on her campaign to find allies. Does anyone dissent to this plan?”
I replay his words in my head, frowning. Travel to Meridian… campaign for allies…
“How long do you think this will take?” I ask him abruptly.
He blinks. “The entire process, Majesty? The travel to Meridian, plus the campaign?”
I nod. “Plus the time to get back to Crescent City and beat Sawyer. How long, in total?”
He frowns this time. “Quite hard to say, Your Majesty. Months, at least. Possibly as much as a year, depending what our future allies ask of us in return for their allegiances.”
I wonder what he means by that, exactly, but I don’t have much time to linger on it. Possibly as much as a year…
“No,” Rowan says, seemingly realizing what I’m thinking. “Red, no. We can’t change the whole plan just for—”
“Sophie Gibbous,” I interrupt. “And Marleigh—her mother. We need to save them.”
Auron looks confused. “Indeed, but—”
“Within four months.”
Technically, I gave her the potion less than two months ago, so we have a little more leeway than that. But I won’t take any chances.
“Within four months,” Edward repeats. “That’s an oddly specific time frame.”
“We potioned her,” Corrin explains for me. I don’t mind; I trust everyone here. “It’s physically impossible for Sawyer Lancaster to procreate the marriage… for four more months.”
I glance at Kenton and Nelle, whose interest has clearly piqued; now they know what the potion they made was for.
Auron looks pained. “It was a noble and cunning move, by all means, but… clearly it has made no difference to Sawyer’s successes. Because of that—”
“But he hasn’t been able to r**e her,” I interrupt. My voice is suddenly so sharp, it could cut a knife. “Or does that make no difference to you?”
It’s too harsh; I know that. Auron didn’t mean anything by his comment.
But as someone who was very recently r***d, this is very, very important to me.
“If I may,” says Emmett, frowning. “No disrespect meant to Lady Gibbous, but, as far back as I can remember, she was gaga for the guy. Are we sure that she even wants to be rescued?”
I can read between the lines well enough: Are we even sure that it would be r**e?
Every inch of favor I felt toward my cousin instantly evaporates.
“He killed her father and her brother,” Rowan snarls at Emmett. “What do you think?”
Moon God, I love my mate.
“I spoke with Murtaugh Davies last night,” offers Eli. “He and a handful of other Gibbous wolves turned on Sawyer, defended the king, and then rode north with the rest of us. I asked him about Sophie, and he said that Sawyer’s got her locked away—that he’s given her some sort of potion that doesn’t allow her to link with the pack.”
I swear, the Lancasters and their f*****g link-blocking potions. “A potion I myself am quite familiar with,” I say gravely. “Look, I made a promise the night of Sophie’s wedding. I swore that if anyone tried to lay a finger on her or anyone else in the Gibbous family, they would have to answer to me, my wolf, and my phoenix. Now, I’ve already failed them twice over. I will not fail them again.”
“But the Gibbouses are your family’s sworn enemies,” Logan says, seeming more befuddled than upset. “What changed?”
“Gaige Gibbous was a fool,” I tell him. “But Gaius was not. He and the rest of his family were kind to me, and a thousand times more brave than my father ever was.” I hate myself for saying such things with my father dead and gone, but it’s the truth. “The Lancasters are our real enemies—that much, at least, should be clear even to you.”
Logan bows his head, seeming to accept my answer.
“Sophie is a wonderful girl,” Corirn says. “A little spoiled, and a little immature at times, but she has a fiery spirit and a big heart. She doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve Sawyer.”
“What, then?” asks Edward. “What do you suggest? We forego the campaign for the sake of a single girl and her mother?”
I don’t know what I suggest. I just know that we have to get her out of there.
Thankfully, I don’t have to know. Corrin sets her jaw and says, “I’ll do it.”
- Writer
