Guardian of Calandria | ✔️

Chapter Fifteen

"I don't understand it myself, Ry. You're right, he is an ass. He's arrogant, pompous, condescending, and every other word you can think of that means ass. Despite my physical attraction to him, I tried to ignore my feelings. Then I saw the real him. This front he puts up, the one where he acts like he's better than everyone, is just that. A front. Deep down, Addrick has a heart that was hurt when he lost his family. If you heard him talk about Alyssa, you'd understand."

"Alyssa?" Ry dropped his pawn. His hand hovered over the piece, his eyes lifted from the board to Kira.

"Yeah." Kira returned her gaze to the board, pondering her next move. "That's his sister's name."

"But she died?"

Kira shrugged. "That's what Addrick said. Are you going to straighten up your piece or are you giving me the free victory over the pawn? You know I'm going to beat you anyway, but if you want to hand it to me early then by all means."

Ry tilted the pawn upright. Kira made her next move and looked up at him with a smile. Her smile faded when she caught sight of his mouth hanging open. Wrinkles creased her brow.

"What?"

"When did she die? I mean, how old was she when she supposedly died?"

"Three," Addrick said.

Ry jumped and looked to see Addrick leaning against the staircase railing. Red hair appeared to shine in the fire lit room; his eyes were trained directly on Ry. With a grunt, he pushed off the stairs and stomped over to the couch. Long legs stretched outward, intentionally bumping into Ry, as Addrick took a seat and leaned back. Kira shook her head at him. There was plenty of space for him to stretch his legs to the side or even to sit closer to her, but he'd intentionally taken the spot closest to Ry.

"And you're sure she's dead?" Ry slid away from Addricks feet.

"What's it to ye?" Addricks voice rose to a near shout.

Ry raised his hands. "I don't mean any disrespect or wish to speak ill of the dead." His head tilted to look upstairs. Sabina was still sleeping in Addrick's parent's room; she had been for the entire night and most of the day. Kira was tempted to check in on them, make sure both were still breathing, but walking in on Ry in bed with a girl wasn't high on her list of exciting moments. She'd done it once on accident. She took almost a year to wash the sight from her mind.

"Then ye better get to the point. For Kira's sake I'm not throwing ye out right this second, but tread carefully human. Her care for ye will only get ye so far where talks of me family is concerned."

"When we were with that Wilder tribe their seer cut our hands and put our blood in some kind of pot before tying them together."

"She used blood magic? That's impossible," Addrick said. "Most Wilders from New Calandria shy away from that kind of magic, especially seers. They know the damage that much power can do."

"I don't know if it was blood magic or not. She cut—"

"If she used yer blood to cast a spell it's blood magic—"

"All right, fine. Its blood magic, the point is—"

"I can't believe ye were daft enough to merge yer blood with a—"

"Will you two stop arguing?" Kira sighed. "Let Ry get to the point before you start ripping his head from his shoulders. Seriously, whip them out and compare them right now so we can be done with this measuring contest."

Ry choked on his laugh, but Addrick raised an eyebrow. Kira smiled. He growled and waved a hand toward Ry before tucking it under his arm when he crossed them over his chest again. Kira turned her attention to Ry, watching him take a deep breath and scratch the back of his neck.