*****Alone by I Prevail. Go listen ;) *****
SAGE—
It took but a moment to edit the letter I had already written to send to Queen Hestiel. I hadn't ever planned on going back to Veil, since my family's farm was only a day's ride north, just near the Akar border. So I only had to add that I was travelling to Akar for a few weeks before returning to my family farm.
When I left Ember behind, stewing in his anger and deep hypocrisy, — gods the man had a temper— I easily caught up to the cart where the children huddled together. My irritated, frustrated mood lifted immediately at the sight that met my eyes.
Llyric sat with his legs crossed beneath him, Ember's cloak wrapped around him like a large blanket. The youngest children— the twins— sat in his lap, held to his chest as he hummed a joyful, lilting tune. The other boy, Kye, had his thumb in his mouth as he curled up against Llyric's thigh, his other hand fisted against Llyric's leg. The sound of Llyric's humming was beautiful and danced against my skin like lightning, making the little hairs in my arms and the back of my neck stand on end.
When he caught sight of me his eyes lit up, but he didn't pause in his singing. Then he was flinching heavily when Brin moved forward, taking the young Jude, deeply asleep, from his arms. Her hands brushed against Llyric in pulling the boy up out of his arms, and I could nearly see the battle he had with himself not to jump up and throw the children off his lap to get away from her touch. She made a soft-throated shushing noise, and I couldn't tell if it was towards Llyric or the children who stirred a bit when she pulled them away to sleep in the makeshift bed they had set up on the side of the cart.
When Brin had brought the sleeping twins to the little pallet of furs, Llyric pulled Kye up and into his arms gently, so careful of him it made something in my chest tighten. He held and rocked him, his humming turning soft, sleepy, and before long the boy was also asleep in his arms. When Brin came back to get him, Llyric shook his head and smiled up at her. She nodded and moved back to Bek, whom she pulled tightly to her chest. He sleepily reached out to her and wrapped his arms around her as she sat.
By noon, we had travelled half the distance we should have. I felt as if we stopped every hour for one of the children to pee, and when Ember finally gave Brin and Al'iya a bowl and demanded they use that instead, he was met with an angry glare and harsh Akari words from both women. I couldn't understand the words, but I could take a guess at their contents.
I stayed out of the argument, simply smiling in amusement and sharing a look with Llyric as Ember raised his palms in surrender and backed away from the women. Needless to say, we sped up not at all; though Ember did send a few of his men ahead back home, keeping only enough to keep the children safe.
The twins slept often, but when they were awake, they were joyful, loud bundles of energy. Al'iya watched them with eyes like a hawk, assessing, studying them. They moved from talking gibberish to each other, to chattering the ears off of both women in Akari, before moving to crawl all over Llyric. He endured their little feet digging into tender places with a few grimaces, their tiny fingers tracing his various scars and bandages, but his gentle smile never wavered. Each time they grew tired again, he would hold them tight, sway back and forth, and sing them to sleep with the voice of an angel.
Gods I wanted to hear his voice. Hear him say my name.
Kye stayed near Llyric through the entire day until we stopped for lunch. Even while he slept, Llyric held the boy to him, comforting him, rubbing his hands up and down his back. He too fingered and petted Llyric's scars, as if testing the feel of them, but Llyric never complained and even moved his arm so the child could follow a scar he had traced from his shoulder.
Through the day, Tristan watched Llyric with resentful, spiteful eyes. But he never moved from across the cart, despite Llyric's obvious welcome. Bek kept to Brin, except when Count or Fern would ride by and scoop him up on their horses to take him riding for a few hours. He always came back giggling, wide-eyed and breathless.
Tristan's glower grew darker each time.
LLYRIC—
Ember brought me and Sage lunch when we stopped to eat. The sun was high in the sky, burning my skin and making me cringe at the brightness. My eyes still watered at the light of the day after so long in the dark, beneath the stones, trying to adjust to this new normal, but I reveled in it. I was free— free of the darkness, the pain, and the degradations that had haunted my entire life.
As free as I could ever be, at least. For I had come to a realization that made me acknowledge how little time I had.
Sage and Ember would discover who I was. That was made abundantly clear to me when Tristan named me, telling my men of the evils my father had inflicted on him while calling him my name.
How dare he? How dare he take a child's innocence, while forcing him to degrade himself by calling him what should be a title given with respect and love? How dare he use the name my mother gave me to taunt and torture children?
How dare he?
"Hey, hey, hey," Ember said from a little ways from the cart, his eyes jumping from my eyes to my clenched fists and back again. "Shhh, da'rin. Everything's alright now."
I stared at him, wanting to scream, vent, rage. Nothing's alright! Nothing's ever going to be alright! You're going to find out! You're going to learn of the evil in my blood, and you're going to hate me even more than you do now!
But I only shrugged and turned away, stepping down out of the cart and tugging Ember's cloak around me. I brought it up and around my face, digging my nose into the soft wool and taking a deep, bracing breath.
Calming the children had taken more out of me than I had thought it would. I had used my power only a few times in my life, and very rarely intentionally. However, the moment I had held the male twin Jude in my arms, followed immediately by his sister, I knew I had to try. They deserved a chance at a normal life. And if my power, my song, could do that for them? How could I not?
I couldn't take away their memories, or even fully the bad things they felt about their past. But I could lessen the feelings, help them confront them, soothe them so they knew they were truly in the past. Put them on the level they belonged, rather than letting them overwhelm them and take over their lives.
To pull the children's fear and shame from them and into myself had been... exhausting. More so than I had bargained for. And so I was left stumbling when I dropped down out of the cart, and was caught by a gruff Ember, who put me on my feet so quickly I almost fell again.
"Careful, da'rin."
Al'iya moved towards us then and I deliberately pulled myself away from Ember. I could see the hurt in his eyes at my action as the healer began to talk to him, but I couldn't care. I needed to learn to control my power better because the emotions around me were beginning to overwhelm me to the point I barely knew how I felt. I couldn't stop feeling Tristan's jealousy and deep hatred and even darker shame, Bek's fear of abandonment by his new family if they found out how dirty he felt he really was, Ember's resentment and confusion, Sage's rage at Ember's treatment of me, and Al'iya's... burgeoning understanding?
I turned to her, meeting her eyes as both she and Ember studied me.
Kye stumbled over and pulled himself up into my lap, his thumb in his mouth, scooting his butt until he was comfortably leaning back against me.
"You seem to have gained a loyal little brother," Sage said with a chuckle, taking my plate so I could position the boy better. I returned his smile and turned, ignoring Al'iya and Ember's watchful eyes.
EMBER—
"That boy's magic is... unusual." Al'iya began, pulling me from the confused hurt I had been stewing in from Llyric retreating from me. When only this morning he couldn't stop touching me.
And that's nothing but your fault, you asshole, I chided myself.
"What do you mean?"
"He's... he's not healing the children, not physically, but..." She paused, as if gathering her words, before continuing with a sigh. "You've heard him singing?"
"I have. His voice is..."
"Haunting? Alluring? Absolutely beautiful? That's because it's filled with magic. He's putting a sort of healing trance on the youngest— Jude and Harley and Kye. Bek won't leave Brin, Fern, or Count's arms, and the eldest, Tristan, needed to be held down and sedated when I examined him to treat him. He's aggressive and in pain. He won't go near any of us. But I wish he would let Llyric help him— he needs it the most."
"Tristan's not a danger to the other children, is he?" I asked, my eyes studying the boy who did seem to hold himself as far away from the others as possible.
"I don't think so, no. He's hurt, and afraid. He needs time and patience."
I nodded before asking, "What do you think of Llyric? Of a boy who has been under the Monster's thumb since he was a child, but only ever tortured mercilessly, never sexually assaulted? He was treated so differently from the other children— why?"
"I don't know, Chief, but that too, I think, will come with time and patience. I can tell you two things: the boy knows the reason. He knows, and he's terrified of you finding out. And two: the bond between you, Llyric, and Sage is one of the strongest mate bonds I've ever witnessed. Stop being a bigoted asshole and woo your mates, or you're going to lose them both."
"I want nothing to do with the mate bond to not one, but two El'kahrians, witch," I grumbled, making Al'iya roll her eyes.
"You act as if none of us know what you call him. You try to hide it by calling him 'boy', but you've let 'da'rin' slip plenty of times. He may not know that 'da'rin' means 'sweetheart', but the rest of us do."
I grunted a noncommittal answer, making Al'iya huff and turn from me.
"You're as stubborn as your father, may the asshole rest in peace. Fine. Lose the deepest, purest love you'll ever know. But don't come crying to me when you realize what you've done."
She stepped away from me without another word, moving to Tristan. They were an odd pair— the 23-year-old Akaran hedge witch who spoke not a word of El'kahrian, and the 13-year-old El'kahrian boy who seemed to not understand a lick of Akari. But somehow they communicated and he followed her to get a plate.
The moment they could, my eyes flickered to Sage and Llyric, who were both staring me down. My shame was heady as I avoided their eyes and ducked back behind the cart, all but running from Llyric's hurt and Sage's accusing glare.