Wyatt runs up behind me, looping my arm with his. “I’ve got you,” he says, leading me further into the village, shielding me from onlookers concerned with my free-flowing tears.
How could I be so stupid, so blind not to see what was going on right in front of me? The side glances, the gentle touches brushing past each other. Lura was parading around with love-heart shaped eyes and I…I didn’t see it.
Wyatt stops at a small ivy-covered shack with a small circular window facing the river to the far left of Nu’cov. “Welcome tomy abode.” Wyatt opens the door. “It’s not much, but it’s mine,” he says with arms outstretched, reaching for a bottle of red wine from a cupboard.
He grabs a thick woollen blanket off his bed, and we sit on a broken log outside his door, the blanket draped over our legs with the starry night sky twinkling above us. Wyatt cracks open the wine and hands the bottle to me. Lifting it to my mouth, I gulp heavily before passing it back to him.
We haven’t drunk like this since we were young teenagers, sneaking into Dad’s wine cupboard and stealing a bottle or two, passing it back and forth.
The village is busy this early in the morning. I should sleep, but my body is suddenly alert. My mind will never allow it, replaying the scene with Seema, Lura, and Myles on repeat, like a broken wagon wheel thumping around, unable to stop spinning. And I don’t want to waste my time with Wyatt, not knowing if or when we could be separated again. I need my brother right now.
“What you thinking?” Wyatt asks, passing the bottle back to me.
“I dunno. I just…What did I do wrong? Mating bonds are a myth, or might as well be, with how rare they are. Why does the man I love have to be mated to someone else?”
“It’s not your fault, Andi. It just happened.”
Wyatt wraps his arm around my shoulder, tucking me into the nook of his arm. My eyes sting, a dam threatening to burst and drown everything in its path. Wiping away my tears, I take the bottle. “What about you, what’re you thinking about?” My voice feels brittle.
“I was thinking about when we were young, doing this exact thing, but with stolen wine.” He chuckles. The trouble we got in when Dad found out. Grounding us both for a week, I couldunderstand grounding me, but Wyatt didn’t even live in the house.
“Why didn’t you move in with us? You knew my parents would have allowed it.”
He takes a long sip, contemplating his words. “I don’t know. I guess I thought if I moved in, your parents would get sick of me and throw me out again.”
I glare at him. “Come on, that’s a rubbish excuse. Mum loved you more than she did me or Elana,” I say, snatching the bottle from him. “No one would have objected. You belonged with us. Still do. Do you ever think about going back?”
Wyatt gazes out into the village, lost in thought, his jaw twitches slightly, but he composes himself before flashing his winning smile at me. I can practically hear the cogs turning in his head.
“I dunno. Nu’cov has kinda become my home. This lot are dysfunctional and a bit eccentric, but they’re my family now too. Do not tell them I said that. I will deny it tooth and nail.”
I laugh, almost spitting out my drink. My eyes gaze over the village, Lura and Myles come out of Seema’s cabin, hand in hand. How in one instant, have I lost my fiancé and my friend? I look down at the silver ring on my finger, twisting it before pulling it off. My finger feels naked, but I can’t keep wearing it. He doesn’t belong to me, not anymore, hasn’t for a while, it seems. I toss it to a patch of muddy soil, willing the snow to fall and conceal it forever.
My already cracked heart finally shatters. I was wondering which tragic event would be the one that delivered the final blow, causing it to fracture and split into a thousand tiny pieces.
Blinking away the tears, I catch sight of a large, fenced-off field.
“What’s that?” I say, standing up to get a better look.
“That’s the training field. You can have a go. Another day. Maybe when you’re sober.” He snatches the bottle of wine from my hand, spilling some on the ground. “You need some rest but first let me introduce you to the hot springs. I love you, Andi, I do, butMisneach, you stink.”
I can’t argue with him there; it’s been so long since I had a warm bath. Reluctantly, I follow, groaning the entire time as my muscles refuse to move.
Oh my! I needed this.
Elana would squeal like a piglet in these hot springs. The cascading fresh, bubbling water is at the perfect temperature, replenishing the draining water. Protruding rocks in a variety of different colours, each producing varied floral soaps.Heavenly music distantly echoes throughout the spring's cave, lulling me into a relaxing slumber.
Except when I close my eyes, I see Lura’s death grip on Myles' hand, clinging for dear life. I scrutinise every detail of the past few weeks, if I were being honest with myself, I would say things had been… disjointed since we left Vendyl.
I guess I thought if I ignored the issue, the problem would disappear on its own. But misery loves dragging folk down with it.
The broken shards of my heart threaten to slice open my chest, leaving me exposed and bereft, wishing to go back to the willow tree. To simpler times. When all I worried about was Mum meeting and approving Myles.
Those days are well and truly dead. No amount of magic can resurrect this relationship.
The music fades, leaving me alone in the deathly silence of the dark cave. Sloshing water all over the cavern floor, I deck myself in ill-fitting clothes. Once I thanked Lura for the loan, butnow I realise it was all a ruse. The carefully chosen words, the ice in her eyes, the bite in her pleasantries.
I stumble out into the night, the moon glaring down on me, singling me out for the world to see. It would be less obvious to have a note stuck to my forehead, ‘shunted.’
