*Kryzen*
I always hated waiting.
We were supposed to leave the valley that morning, but the elders announced that so preparations still needed to be done, including crafting a weapon specifically for . I suspected it was likely a dagger similar to the one they had given Briella.
I paced outside the healing center for a few minutes trying to calm my seemingly never-ending nerves.
I paused and forced myself to take a breath and think about the one person who could calm no matter how anxious I was.
Briella, my mate, soothed .
My love for her only seed to grow more fiercely with each day since affirming our mate bond, and with it, my desperate need to protect her. I gritted my teeth, frustration welling up inside of as I recalled her refusal to take more people with us on our journey.
I had been tempted to grab her by her slim shoulders and shake her until she saw reason, but I held back. I knew it was useless. Briella’s stubbornness rivaled mine, and I couldn’t deny that she understood this realm more than I did. This was her ho.
She had to have her reasons. I just wasn’t seeing it.
But I knew soone who might be able to help see it.
I pushed the infirmary doors open and stepped inside.
“If Kai Black isn’t too busy, please inform him that I would like to speak with him,” I told a young woman at the front desk.
“Of course, Mr. Stormfall,” she said politely before rushing off to do just that.
I had only been pacing around inside the infirmary for a couple of minutes before Kai arrived, looking a little panicked.
“Everything okay?” he asked at once.
I gave him a quick once-over. He looked so much older in his long white dical coat. Although, I could still imagine the young boy who hid behind Briella when we were all kids.
“Everything’s fine,” I assured him. “I just wanted to ask you sothing. Do you have a few minutes?”
Kai relaxed and nodded. “Sure, I was just about to take a break. Should we grab a coffee?”
“Sure,” I said, following him into a little cafe attached to the healing center.
“You’re still planning on leaving today, right?” Kai asked conversationally once we had settled at a table with our drinks.
“That’s the current plan, yes,” I told him, taking a sip of my coffee before pushing it away. “I wanted to catch you before we left.”
“I’m going to definitely see you two off,” he said, sounding slightly affronted that I thought otherwise. “I’m just getting so last-minute things finished here.”
“Well, I wanted to speak to you without Briella,” I told him. I leaned forward slightly, keeping my voice low. “With Tian out there sowhere, I thought it would be best to take so n with us, to help protect her, but she refused.”
Kai’s eyebrows rose. “And that concerns you?”
“Briella didn’t seem against it for the reasons I suspected,” I explained. “That is the part that concerns , I suppose. It seed like she didn’t really know why she wanted to go alone. I was hoping you would have so insight as to why.”
Kai’s lips tightened. For a mont, he looked so much like his sister. They had the sa vibrant green eyes, although Kai’s were a shade lighter. He looked down at his coffee, deep in thought.
“Even when we first arrived here, my sister seed to have a connection to the realm that I didn’t and could never have,” he said, his eyes looking far away as he stared over my head. He smiled wistfully. “She says that she feels things sotis like the world itself seems to be speaking to her.”
“She’s never ntioned that to ,” I said after a mont, looking down at the table as I thought about everything she and I had been through up until this point.
“I don’t think she is fully aware of it herself,” Kai said. “She waves it off sotis too, saying that she’s probably just imagining things, but I’m not really convinced. I think she does have a special connection to this place. She’s always been an instinctual person, even when we were kids. She just goes with her gut without thinking, but things seem to turn out well in the end.”
I nodded slowly, processing what he was saying.
Kai was watching as if trying to read my thoughts. “To be honest, I wish you would take people with you. I can’t go with you, so knowing there would be more people around to protect my sister would put my mind at ease sowhat. But I also think you should trust Briella. She seems to know things that we just can’t see.”
I thought I had intuitively known that. Briella seed to internalize things and not just in the typical way that a pensive individual might. She didn’t just stare off into space sotis. She seed to be feeling things strongly.
“Thank you,” I said to Kai. “I appreciate your insight. I think you’re right about her. You’re her brother obviously, but I think you’ve really been paying attention to her. The two of you have spent a lot of ti together here in Embervale, so I’m glad I sought you out.”
Kai was quiet for a mont before he smiled at . “I’m glad that Briella has found you,” he said. He then chuckled. “Honestly, when I found out the two of you were mates, I wasn’t sure I was ever going to recover. When we were kids, Kellan and I used to joke about you two getting together, but I don’t think we ever really believed it would happen.”
I laughed openly at that, amused by the image of Briella’s two younger brothers giggling as they watched her and I fight back in the day.
Kai laughed with , but then his expression grew serious. “I’m glad she has you, but if you fail to protect her, I will personally hunt you down so I can kick your ass.”
I rolled my eyes with a smirk but then nodded seriously. I had no intention of failing to protect Briella.
She was far too precious to .
After talking about her with Kai, my body sought out the warmth of my mate. It didn’t take long to find her. She was moving around the little house she had been calling ho for over a year.
I leaned against the doorjamb for a few monts, content to watch her as she tidied up, dusting furniture and moving clutter off of surfaces. She told she was going to pack, but we were only taking so essentials like food and dical supplies.
Her hair was pulled back away from her face, the loose strands whipping around as she dashed about. She tiptoed to place a book on a nearby shelf. I had to suppress a groan at the tantalizing way her hips swayed and the light pants she wore stretched against her firm ass. It took all my willpower not to go over there and pin her against a nearby wall.
What stopped from doing so was when she turned and I got a good look at her face. Her gorgeous green eyes were glassy as if she had been crying. Her creamy skin was a little flushed as well, so wavy dark hair sticking to her face with a sheen of sweat.
There she was, cleaning innocently in so light training clothes, and she was still the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
Her eyes widened slightly when she finally noticed standing there. She offered a tiny smile that didn’t even co close to touching her eyes. “I didn’t think I would fall in love with this place as much as I have,” she murmured. Her words were so quiet that I had to step closer to hear every word. She sucked in a sharp breath.
“Hey,” I said consolingly, crossing the room and taking her hands. “You’re going to be back. We’re not leaving forever. Hell, we could be back in a week for all we know.”
I knew that that most likely wasn’t going to be the case, but we really had no way of knowing what would beco of us after we left. We didn’t even know where we were going.
Briella didn’t seem at all cheered by my reminder. Her frown seed to deepen. “Sotis I find myself not missing my ho in Drogomor at all.” She stepped forward and pressed her face into my chest a little desperately as if asking to hold her.
I wound my arms around her waist, pulling her snugly to . “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that,” I told her gently. I raised one hand so I could tangle my fingers in her wavy locks, enjoying the feel of the soft tresses against my palm.
“It is,” she argued, her voice slightly muffled against the front of my shirt. “I grew up there, Kryzen. I should be missing it at least a little. Most of the ti, I don’t miss it at all.”
“But you do miss your parents,” I reminded her, having no doubts about that fact. “I watched the way you hugged them, Briella. That’s what matters. You don’t have to miss Drogomor itself.”
I could feel that Briella disagreed with and was quickly reminded of the conversation I just had with her brother. She seed to be mourning the fact that she didn’t have the sa connection with Drogomor as she did with Embervale.
I wondered if Briella truly could feel the realm itself. Just how deep was this connection?
I was about to ask her when I felt her body start to shake. My chest constricted as Briella began to cry.
“Shh,” I murmured soothingly. She didn’t even notice when I scooped her up in my arms and walked over to the couch, settling her on my lap so I could rock her back and forth. “Hey, everything’s going to be fine. I’m going to be right there with you the whole way.”
It took her a while to calm down enough to speak. Even then, she was hiccuping and struggling to do so. “Sorry,” she said finally. “I don’t really know what’s happening.”
I truly didn’t either but that didn’t matter at the mont. The only thing that mattered was comforting her and showing her that I wasn’t going anywhere. It was then I realized that Briella was under more pressure than I realized to protect her new ho.
For so reason, she felt like she had to do so alone.
I was going to have to show her that wasn’t the case.
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