The Mesmer || Gavriel

TWO

I looked around the room before loosening the buttons on my sleeves and pushing the fabric up past my elbows. Aelin sat with her feet kicked up on the table's surface, her back rested against the wooden support of her chair. Aedion hunched over on his forearms and rested his chin in one of his hands and Rowan was resting slightly, arm wrapped around the back of Aelin's chair.

"Well," I laughed lightly, "I certainly haven't been making a name for myself like the two of you."

Aelin batted the words away with a flimsy hand as she took another swig of mead. "To be fair, Aedion's the only one making his real name into a legend."

He rolled his eyes and looked to me, "Seriously, Rae, where have you been?"

My smile slowly began to fade and I looked to my hands, toying with my fingers and picking at the dirt under the nails. The bottle of alcohol was placed gingerly between my two forearms, resting on the table, before Aelin walked toward the cabinets to retrieve more. I took a long drink of the mead before wiping my lips and studying the label.

"Well, considering I was old enough to pass for an adult, I went to Belhaven after wandering aimlessly for months. I didn't understand just how much of a mistake that was when I'd made it. The wealthy aren't usually a good kind of people. I fell in with the wrong crowd, spent quite a long time chained up in a cell. People can do all sorts of things to you when you can't fight back. I had a son about a year ago, but for the past 6 months I've been hunting the man who killed him."

Aelin sucked in a sharp breath.

"Was it... the same man?" Aedion treaded lightly.

"No," I shook my head. "The father has been dead for well over a year."

"How?" He questioned.

"I stabbed him in the neck during our... conflict," just the lightest smile graced my lips.

"Holy shit," Aedion looked caught between a shudder and a grin.

"Who killed your child, Rae?" Aelin spoke up.

"A man by the name of Pennington. I do believe he's of political importance in this area," I cracked each of my knuckles before taking another hearty swig of alcohol. I started to feel the effects in my head. "Though, I've gathered that he may not be here."

"Duke Pennington? How? Why?" Aedion sputtered.

"I've blacked out the 'how' in my brain, though sometimes it haunts my nightmares. I don't think he appreciated my running from him. It seems he's not one who takes 'no' for an answer. But instead of dealing with it like most men," I looked up and my eyes connected with Rowan's before moving to Aedion, "sorry, guys. But instead of dealing with it like most men, he went to my home instead."

"Raelynn..." Aelin whispered.

I cleared my throat and shook my head before sitting up straight, kicking my feet up on the corner of the table, leaning back in my chair, and tapping off the bottle of mead. "Don't worry, I'll get him."

"What do you plan to do once you meet him again?" Rowan questioned, speaking for the first time since restraining me.

I placed the bottle back down on the table and slid it to the center. My lips curved into a devilish grin, "I'm going to rip out his throat with my teeth."