Guardian of Calandria | ✔️

Chapter Eighteen

          Addrick's feet crunched on the debris, the sound was the lone noise in the silence of death surrounding him. His jaw clenched, eyes scanning the remains of the only home he'd ever known. Mementos of his family laid melted or destroyed in the ruins. Tears threatened to fall, but he fought them back. To be sad was to embrace the emotions within. Addrick leaned over and pulled a doll from under a broken piece of wall. One hand stroked the wool hair before he pulled it to his chest. The scent of his sister had long since faded on the doll, but Addrick remembered the smile on her face when he'd given it to her. He sighed and rummaged for his satchel, hoping to find it where his room once stood. It was buried under ash and stone, a small hole ripped on one side, but it was otherwise intact.

Addrick stuffed the doll in the bag. There was no sign of Kira within the rubble, for that he was grateful. He closed his eyes and sniffed. Ash and dust and blood coated the heavy air with their decay. Kira's scent was impossible to pick out of the collection unless he shifted into his leopard. Nothing masked the scent when he had full range of his beast. He ran a hand over the fresh buzz of his hair and laughed. Sorrow was a useless emotion, like most, and yet he stood there feeling sadness for the carnage around him.

Bodies of Wilders and harpies littered the debris. Blood stained stones told the story of the battle. They'd put up a fight, black blood of the harpies stretched in splattered lines from the blasts sent by Wilders. If he tried, he could almost see the men and woman doing their best against the unholy she-beasts. It wasn't enough. Indents in the dirt showed where many had kneeled before fleeing.

Near the seer's meeting place was a mark of black, exploding from a single limp body. Addrick wasn't ready to see who the body belonged to, though he had a guess. He turned away from the silver strands of hair covering the face and looked to the rest of the mess. It wouldn't take much time for New Calandria's magic to swallow the buildings as if they'd never existed. Life would return in the form of the foliage surrounding the once modest village.

"Addrick?" He turned to face the voice. Demitra stood with two swords strapped to her back, silver daggers in both hands. Several Wilders followed behind her with their own weapons or magic at ready. Children tucked against legs of their parents, wide eyes filled with tears. Demitra's braids jingled when she looked around. Tears mixed with dust and dirt on her dark face, leaving a slick trail on her rounded cheeks. While she hadn't spent as much time there as Addrick, he knew it was still home to her too.

"Demitra, where the bloody hell have ye been?"

"When I got separated from Rylanne and Sabina I waited for them in Halden. When I found out they'd made it to another tribe I went back to the castle for reconnaissance. It's horrible, Addrick. Rodyn is imprisoning every Wilder in the area. He has the Princess's support, blaming us all for the death of her father. These are refugees I found on the way here. What happened?"

Addrick shook his head. "I don't know. Like a fool, I was off pouting. Meanwhile Kira was here and . . ."

He closed his eyes. A growl built in his throat, he tried to fight it off, but the leopard insisted it be set free. His head tilted back, unleashing a mixture of a leopard's growl and the scream of a man. Demitra's hand gripped his shoulder, but he shrugged it off and opened his eyes.

"I don't need your pity," he said, the growl ravished his words.

"Right, because you never feel emotions since they're useless. You're a fool, Addrick."

"Aye that I am. We need to bury our dead, not get inside me head."

"And Kira?"

"She's fine, for now. I'd be able to smell her blood if she'd been harmed here. I lost her trace toward the explosion, I'm sure I'll pick it up again when I shift." Addrick pointed toward the body at the center of the black marks. He could no longer delay seeing what face belonged to the body.