where the thorns grow

CHAPTER ELEVEN,

CHAPTER ELEVEN | WHERE THE THORNS GROW

  THE NEXT FEW days passed in a blur, Rhys' mind barely able to gain a proper grasp on any specific event that happened. It happened too fast and her mind felt hazy, maybe it was anticipation, maybe it was the fear. All she knew was this: one early morning, while the wind was still cool to her skin, she and Dom went to send off Lu Yi and Ronan at the palace gates.

  This was, probably, the last time they'd ever see each other. They started some friendly conversation first, trying to lighten the mood, both avoiding the topic that hovered above them like a triggered time bomb waiting to explode. This was it, the plan was in motion. Ronan would run, and Rhys would stay. One of them would survive, and that would be enough. And both of them could finally stop running. Both of them could finally settle down in a place that would always be their own until they chose to leave, not because someone else forced them to.

  They'll finally have power over their life. But they'll be in very different places.

  Dom laughed. "Missions out of the city are the best," he said, "you can do what you want. No one knows as long as you still finish your goal and fancy up the report."

  "He won't, uh," Lu Yi hesitated, "shifu won't send someone out to monitor us, will he?"

  "I wouldn't worry about that," Rhys said. "We're already short of people. He won't be sparing anyone. He trusts you two anyways."

  "He shouldn't," Ronan said blankly. "He really shouldn't."

  Lu Yi glanced at him quizzically. "We're not that bad." But he didn't realise Ronan was talking about something else completely, something he had no clue about. Because only one of them was going to come back, and it was going to be him. The other one was going on this trip knowing this would be the last time he would be within palace walls, in the place he'd called home for the past six years.

  Rhys would, in a moment, pull Ronan aside. The other two would assume she was dispensing some of that wise advice she kept bottled up inside. They both knew better. It was final farewell. Their paths had intersected and crossed for years. Now they ran parallel, down two different roads.

  Rhys would be lying if she said she wasn't scared. But she had a feeling Ronan was far more terrified. His path was far more unknown than hers.

  Ronan's reply snapped Rhys back into reality. He said, "We're awful, Lu Yi. Absolutely bloody awful. Cannot be trusted with anything. We'll make a big fucking flop of this mission and get yanked back into training. Happy?" He smiled, all teeth with no joy and no friendliness. It was the kind of expression Rhys would have been used to seeing on him once upon a time.

  Wild child. Children raised with wolves, who learnt to bare fangs and howl before they learnt to talk and eat.

  They could never truly fit in. Part of that feral nature always remained, and nothing could ever remove it.

  Dom said, "Very sarcastic. Rhys is rubbing off on you too much."

  "Oh, so it's my fault?" Rhys demanded.

  Dom gave her a look. "Who else's fault would it be?"

  "Ever considered the fact that maybe part of him is just that sarcastic? Ever? That not everything is my fault?"

  Ronan said, "It's Rhys' influence."

  "God fucking damn you."

  Both men grinned at her. Lu Yi let out a huff and rolled his eyes. People were such children these days, Rhys couldn't comprehend it sometimes, how they were so immature. But then again, she was just as bad as them half the time.