“Well, I’m not a child anymore.” I pulled my sword and shoved it into his gut. “You should have listened.” I yanked it free and stepped away as he fell to his knees. I watched him slowly fade away and felt no remorse. None. He was a stark contrast to the family who would take River in, and it solidified my difficult decision.
“We have to go. Before we are seen, Temir.”
Within minutes, we were back outside the glassmaker’s barn.
“You have to listen to me,” she said, kneeling before River and wiping the blood from his swollen lip. “You can’t stay in the Wind Court anymore. There are nice people here that will take care of you and keep you safe.”
“What do you mean?” He pulled away from her to look into her eyes.
“Temir and I can’t always be there to save you. Bad things are happening, and we want to make sure you are going to be with someone who will love you the way we do. Do you understand? We have to leave you here.” Her voice trembled. She gulped.
River threw himself into her open arms. “I don’t want to stay here. I want to go home. Let me stay with you,” he cried.
“I wish I could,” she said into his ear.
I knelt beside them and pulled him from her. “I’ve always taken care of you, haven’t I?” Giant tears streamed down his face, enhancing the ice faerie marks upon his pale cheeks as he sniffled and nodded. “I’m still doing that today, and I will still do that tomorrow. I will think of you in everything I do, River. You are the reason we are trying so hard to fix the world. You will be so loved here, and these people,” I gestured to the fae behind me. “They have waited for you for a very, very long time.”
“Don’t make me stay, Temir. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was a bad boy and left the barn. I’m sorry you had to protect me. I’ll be good, I promise. Please take me back.”
He launched himself at me, and I held him in my arms as he cried.
“Can I show you something magical?” Gaea asked from beside us.
He nodded but still clung to me. She tried to pull him away, but he shook his head and buried his face in my chest. I stood and carried him into the barn.
“Open your eyes, River.” Gaea brushed her hands down his back.
His head lifted from my shoulder as he took in the room. “Whatisthis?” He wiped his nose on his sleeve, those marks catching the light as they so often did.
I sat him down and turned to the glassmaker and his wife. They stood hand in hand, staring at River in greater awe than Alavon had when examining the adda.
“These are my friends, and Alavon has a magical power that helps him form glass. I bet he could make you anything you ever wanted.”
“Lemon tarts?”
Alavon’s wife giggled and stepped forward. She knelt before River and said softly, “I can make you lemon tarts.”
“And chocolate?”
“All the chocolate you want, my dear. After dinner, of course.”
I looked at Gaea and noticed she wasn’t breathing as she watched them. I grabbed her hand and squeezed. I thought she would pull away again, but she didn’t move as tears pooled her beautiful feline eyes. She would never let him go. Not really. She would always come back to him.
“You can stay,” I whispered to her. Still, she didn’t move. “You don’t have to go back. You could stay with him.”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t lead him here. He would hunt me, and if he found me, he would kill them all.”
I nodded. “For a few days, then? The king doesn’t know we have the flower, we could convince him the journey took longer?”
“You wouldn’t mind?”
“Not in a million years.” I squeezed her hand. “In fact, I have something I need to do for Rook, and the replica is going to take a couple of days anyway. If you would take me to Volos, I could finish that task and you could stay with him. Make sure he gets settled in?”
“Why would you want to get that close to The Mists?”
“Rook.”
“Temir, it’s dangerous. Have you no care for your own life?”
