He nodded and picked up three hatchets, then told me to stand near some of the wooden targets.
I listened to his instructions and tried hard to make sure I held the handle right and put just enough force into the throw. I sent a prayer to any higher being in the world that the blade would stick into the wood but it didn’t. After five tries, I had the movement locked down, and I managed to get the axe stuck at the bottom of the target a few times.
“Rune will be happy to know you’re improving so fast,” Najen commented, observing the blades embedded in the wood.
Rune would only care because it meant he was closer to being reunited with his mate.
Chapter Thirty
Dris and I had been reading through books for days, without much new information. I was up-to-date on Fae history, having heard about wars with past kings, Verin, and invading Fae from across the seas. Tor’s family was kind and strong. He and Nyx’s marriage would make a powerful alliance between the two kingdoms.
The more I read about Verin, the more I thought he was behind the apocalypse and the Fae losing their magic. I remember Tor saying something in his stories that the Fae believed he released something unto the world and that’s when everything fell apart.
I wished the Fae had photographs like I’d seen in the human world. Then I would know what he looked like. Stories mentioned his black hair peeking out from his ebony armor in battles. His army was always bound in head-to-toe armor of black and red, and they’d sweep over battlefields like a smoke of fire and death.
The evil Fae hadn’t been seen or heard from him since the Fae lost their magic. An eerie silence had remained in the badlands where his palace was located. Fae were edgy at first, but after a while, whispers of his death began.
My body and mind were tired from my intense training. My slim and weak muscles were now solid and strong. My figure showed womanly curves I didn’t know how to handle. I was getting better and more efficient, though. Between Rune and Najen, I was becoming a fair fighter. I didn’t think I could take on an army of Dramens, but I felt confident enough that I wouldn’t die in the first five seconds of a battle.
Najen told me yesterday that Rune would be back today and continue my training. I wasn’t excited about being yelled at to work harder or try again and again.
This morning, like every other morning recently, I rose early from my bed, sneaked out of the palace with a fish in my hand, and crept to the Hallowstags. I hadn’t seen Desmire since that one time, but I wasn’t losing hope.
The woods were quiet as usual. The sun wasn’t yet ready to break from darkness’s hold on it, and I was OK with that. The mornings were a time of peace where I could think and not have eyes on me or the weight of failure pressing against my shoulders.
“Oh no, who told you?” I whined, seeing the dark figure standing against the tree I liked to hang out on while I waited for Desmire.
“You think I wouldn’t know your every move? You’re still an outsider to this place.”
“Oh, good to have you back, Rune, to remind me where I stand in this world.” I smirked, only feeling slightly annoyed to see his handsome, scarred face.
He smirked back, his blue eyes watching me with every confident step I made. I didn’t shrink under his scrutiny this time. The general was losing his edge, or it could have been his relaxed lean against the tree or the soft slack in his normally tight jaw that had me moving without hesitation.
“What are you doing out here?” He observed our surroundings curiously.
“Waiting on a dragon.” I shrugged, setting my fish on the boulder I usually left it on and walked over to the tree. I grabbed the thick limb before hoisting myself up, then sat gently.
“A dragon? No dragon has been seen in over twenty years.” He looked at me in disbelief, and I shrugged again.
The silence between us was strange. He wasn’t making any moves to leave, and I would stay for the hour I usually did.
“This is usually my time to think,” I grumbled.
“So, think.”
I hit him with my best version of his one eyebrow-up stare. “You’re messing up my little morning routine being here.”
“Are there things you do that you don’t want another person seeing?”
His retort shut me up. It could be taken so many ways and I figured it was best to keep my mouth closed than to say something that would be used against me or teased for as long as I lived.
Then again, the possible reaction I could stir in Rune outweighed the implication of embarrassment on my part. “I can’t very well release some urging tensions in my core with you watching me, can I?”
Willing my cheeks not to turn red from what I was implying I did out here, I stared Rune down with my own smirk. Maybe I’d make him uncomfortable and he’d leave.
His lips turned up at the corners, and his eyes crinkled slightly at the sides. “If you needed release, you probably would have been better off somewhere less open. Anyone could find you here.”
“Hasn’t happened the past couple days.”
“I hope you aren’t telling the truth. Some of my men were out here watching you.” His face wasn’t as easygoing as it was before. His eyes closed and he ran his hands down his face in exhaustion.
“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.”
I heard a twig snap in the distance. My heart started beating in excitement for the arrival of my friend that would scare Rune, but then a deer walked by moments later.
“Your mouth was not something I missed while away.” Rune’s words caught me off guard.
“But you missed other things?” I made myself vulnerable to the inevitable pain he would inflict.
“You remind me of her. A pain in my ass and yet . . .”
Yet? What yet? What did yet mean?
I stayed quiet, eagerly waiting for him to finish.
“You aren’t afraid of me; you make me feel like a man instead of a cursed soul. She was the only other one who did that.”
The arrow that shot through his heart when he talked about her changed course and hit me right in the middle of my chest. We were both being cut open in front of each other, right here in the Hallowstags.
“I don’t believe you’re cursed.”
“She used to say that, too. The only one, actually. This scar.” He ran his finger down each of the three lines over his eye. “My father burned them into me when I was twelve, so everyone who laid eyes upon me would know to keep their distance. That I was cursed.” He looked off into the woods. I waited for him to continue. I didn’t dare breathe too loudly or move, afraid any shift would cause him to snap out of this rare exposed look into his soul.
I couldn’t believe his father did that to him. Tor’s father. His father hurt him like that.
“It’s happened a few times in our family history. Most of the family have cores of wolves or gems. Dual cores are rare. I know you saw the records and saw I had two cores. I figured you would have said something by now but you haven’t, and you treated me like you had before you knew.”
His emotions were unreadable to me.
“Werewolves are not treated too kindly in Crysia. Or any Fae kingdom. With my magic and Nyx’s help, I was able to control it and not be plagued by the moon. Since magic is gone, I have no choice in turning or not, and the full moon is near. I’ll be gone until the gibbous moon.”