Guardian of Calandria | ✔️

Chapter Nineteen

          "Addrick?" Sabina whispered.

Addrick stayed still, eyes closed in hopes she'd think he was sleeping. A snore from both dragons and Ry carried to his perch down the beach. He'd moved away from the nest to a group of boulders near the lakes edge. He didn't like being that close to the water and the mermaids, but he liked being blindsided by the enemy even less. The rocks provided him a vantage point of their make shift camp. Ezail and his mate Nuri wouldn't aide them in a fight, they'd sooner scoop up their babies and flee.

"I know you're awake, Addrick."

He sighed. "Aye, that is me name. Ye can keep saying it, but it won't change."

He opened his eyes and shifted to look at her over the boulders edge. She stood at the base, moonlight swept across her skin in a pale blue, but shadows won the battle for her form. Mist coiled around the rocks and along the sand, making its way to the trees. Sabina shivered, wrapping her hands around her body. Fairy magic kept New Calandria's temperature moderate, but the ones back at the village had fled with the destruction, leaving the southern tip of the lake victim to the natural elements. Addrick couldn't remember the last time he'd had to worry about a chill within New Calandria.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Ye just did," he said.

Sabina placed both hands on the rough surface of the stone and hoisted herself up. Her feet braced against two edges of the rocks and worked herself toward Addrick. One foot slipped, causing her to stumble and slide back into the sand, landing on her rear. She looked at him.

"A little help here?"

Addrick shrugged. "Why should I help ye? I didn't ask ye to come."

She snorted and shook her head, working her way back up the side of the rocks. "Kira said you could be an ass." She reached the top and sat next to him.

"She understated my ability then. I'm always an ass." Silence fell between them. Addrick leaned back on his hands, looking up to the stars. No clouds covered them and unlike the human villages, no lights took away their beauty. Several stars converged in a river flowing from horizon to horizon. Addrick often watched the stars in New Calandria, wondering about life in other worlds. To him it wasn't outside the realm of possibilities. After all there was a realm of magic sealed away by his ancestors, why not worlds hidden in the heavens?

Sabina coughed. His head tilted to look at her. Both legs were pulled to her chest, her arms hugging them tightly. She scanned the still waters of the lake. Its still surface a perfect mirror reflecting the sky. The body of water was too wide to see the other shorelines from where they rested, even with Addrick's leopard vision.

"What were they like?" Sabina asked.

"Who?"

"Your parents. I keep trying to picture them, but all I see is what the vision of their death showed me. Neither my heart nor my head can accept I'm your sister. Alyssa is a stranger to me, as much a stranger as you. I thought maybe . . ." She took a deep breath. ". . . if you told me about them, maybe I could remember something."

Addrick grunted and grabbed the satchel by his side. The metal claps squeaked when he unbuckled the flap. There wasn't much in the satchel; he'd unpacked most of it when he thought their travels were done. Had he known what waited for them, he'd at least have left food in it. Instead all which remained inside was a short serrated dagger and the doll he'd pulled from the debris. He removed the doll and held it in both hands, staring at the face. When he found out he would have a baby sister, Addrick had saved his copper for months to buy the finest doll from the humans best carvers. No longer did the doll resemble the fine craftsmanship.