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I clenched my eyes closed tighter. It wasn’t so simple. “They were brought to me to heal, not to keep. Their lives await them. I’m just glad I was able to be part of it, for even a brief period of time.”
“The first time I met Caleb was during a Halloween festival when we were both ten years old. His parents followed him as he ran around to every vendor at the festival in the center of the city of Jinla. He was so happy and carefree and I could smell that he was like me, a hybrid.”
My eyes opened and I turned my head to look at him.
He smiled. “Yes, I’m an elf and werewolf hybrid.”
My guess had been close.
“My parents forced me to keep my animal a secret, told me it was too dangerous to let others know. I watched Caleb running around, enjoying life, letting each of his different animals out with no fear of retribution, and was instantly jealous. He noticed me glaring at him and walked right up to me, got inches from my face, and said, ‘you’re like me. You’re special like me.’”
Riddick laughed. “Special. I’d never been called special before. My parents pulled me away, fear pouring off of them in waves. Caleb exhaled and a sense of safety and peace spread from him to us. My parents released me and his mother walked up, the beautiful Princess Jolie, and she squatted down before me, a smile on her face. She looked at me and Caleb and asked, ‘Did you make a friend, Caleb? Did you find another special boy like you?’ You know what that punk said?”
I shook my head.
“He said, ‘I don’t think we’re friends. Yet. I think he needs his butt kicked first.’”
A soft laugh shook my body, which made me flinch, but thankfully didn’t stop Riddick from finishing his story.
“Princess Jolie invited me over that weekend and my parents accepted, but when we got home, they told me it wasn’t going to happen. They told me that people like that didn’t truly care about us. That I needed to let it go and just be happy for that brief day of happiness I’d experienced with him.” He raised his head and looked at me. “I forced them to let me go to his house, convinced I had to tell him to his face that we couldn’t be friends. He told me the choice was mine, if we wanted to be friends, but the greatest pain in life was losing someone. Losing him before I’d known him would have hurt because of the unknowns, because of all of the things we could have done together that I hadn’t experienced. Losing him back then would have hurt way more than losing him a month later. Those could-have-beens are what haunt us, Ember. Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t lose out on what could be the happiest friendship or relationship in your life because of fear.”
He didn’t understand. He didn’t know what my life had been.
“Thank you for the story. I’m glad you two found each other.” Rolling my head to face the ceiling, I closed my eyes again.
I wasn’t going to doom Branson to a life with me in the woods. He deserved to get back to the world, the real world, and find who he was meant to be with. His true mate.
Chapter
Five
Rubbing my aching chest, I looked out over the forest, feeling like I didn’t know anything about the land I once had memorized.
Kieran flew around me in a circle before shifting and landing on the roof beside me. “What is your plan for today?”
“I’m going to go explore the river,” I answered and held out one of the rocks Natalia had brought just yesterday. It hummed with power.
Kieran scowled at the rock and tapped it with his fingernail. “Odd.”
I nodded. “It is odd, which is why I am going to investigate.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“Aren’t you going with Branson and Riddick to explore the cave today?” They’d apparently followed the giant bear creature’s scent to the cave and were going to see if they could find out anything more about the creature.
“Yes, but if you need me?—”
I needed him more than he knew.
Turning, I gave him a bright smile and said, “I’m just going to the river, I’ll be fine.”
He frowned and his lips thinned. “Fine, but call if you need us.”
I patted my bag at my feet and said, “I have a flare in here.”
“Ember, you?—”
“The wolf is awake!” Branson called.
