Sons of Hellfire: Book 1 [Wattys 2016]

Aeric - 14

This chapter is dedicated to my dear friend and twin, Queenie, who gave me motivation while writing this book because her support is genuine and heartfelt. 

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They left on his birthday, when the sun was barely shining through the trees and the birds had yet to sing. Rodel and Demetrius insisted on an early leave to get to Ignisia as soon as possible. They claimed they had 'business' that really couldn't be held off for any longer.

Needless to say, Aeric was suspicious of them from the start.

When he brought them home, he tried to introduce them to Vajeel and found that there was nothing he had gleaned from their meeting other than that they were dragons, they knew Lucien, and what their names were. Despite his questions, the duo refused to tell him anything else. Their 'business' remained to themselves and while that was understandable, he found himself arguing quite a lot when they suddenly announced that they were all going down south.

Demetrius told him that Luce was apparently willing to travel down with them with every intention to bring along Aeric and Vajeel. The guardian merely quirked an eyebrow as Aeric leapt up, protesting.

Of course, he would go wherever Luce wanted to go, but there was no way Vajeel would join the trek with them. And while Aeric was comfortable with dragon-Luce, he wasn't sure how much he'd be accepted in a land full of dragons. By the way people spoke within the three kingdoms, he might even be the first human to travel down there in years.

Vajeel had taken him to the side to explain that it would be good for Lucien to go south where he belongs, and that Aeric should go with him as the closest thing he has to family. She would stay here, a place for them to return if they ever find that they need it.

It had taken an hour to persuade him to leave his guardian alone and another few to begin preparations for the next morning, Aeric stomping around the tree bitterly and throwing his things into his pack. It felt wrong to leave her here, alone after all these years together. Aeric needed Vajeel just as much as she needed him and they had lived together for so long that to lose one felt impossible to even consider.

Yet she pushed him away with a sad shine in her eyes and a supportive smile on her lips. If he hadn't known her, he would've thought that her insistent urging was a sign that she didn't want him here. But he knew better and knew that she wanted him to live the life he had wanted from the start.

"The forest can only show you so many wonders," she said as she cupped his cheek in the privacy of a corner of the room while Rodel and Demetrius packed food into bags. Their food. "What awaits for you out there is so much more. Lucien will protect you."

Three times Rodel had watched him stare blankly at the chair he always sat on, the cup he always used, and the stairs he always climbed, and said softly that he could always stay if he truly felt like he belonged here. But Aeric brushed her off with a firm shake of his head. There was no way in the four kingdoms that Aeric would leave Luce to fend for himself down in the south.

'Why?' he had asked Demetrius as they wrapped small cakes in paper to shove in their packs. The man simply gave him a curious look, as if he should've known the answer all along.

'Because he doesn't belong here, that's why.'

He had wanted to protest, to argue that Luce belonged right here in the tree in the forest, far from people who would ever hurt him again. But as he watched Demetrius shift just a single finger to slice a piece of cake with ease and pop it into his mouth, the words died in his mouth. A place where Luce felt comfortable being himself, he supposed, really was where he belonged.