Page 86 of Anomalies

You deserve someplace happy, Cin. You deserve a dream to chase.

Callan says you’re an unrivaled kind of witch, a true anomaly. I told him I wasn’t surprised. Nana always said you were different.

Jude and I will be okay. We miss you and we love you, but if this is where you’re meant to be, don’t you dare come home.

Ivy

P.S. I don’t know what they put in the water there, but if all Solian men look like him…send me one.

The laugh that bursts free feels foreign, and it’s accompanied by a bloom of heat across my tear-soaked cheeks. Ivy. He’d gone to see Ivy. A mix of relief and bittersweet closure floods me– I hadn’t realized how much I needed it.

“Lucina, I’m so sorry for what I⁠—”

I throw my arms around his neck. Callan’s stunned for only a second before his hands wrap around my waist, and my tears fall onto his shoulder. “Thank you.”

It’s all I had wanted. I’m still upset with what he did, and I’m more than wary of trusting him, but Ivy and Jude matter more to me than anything else. And they’re okay. Ivy and Jude are okay.

My grip loosens, but Callan places a gentle hand on my forearm to keep me close, using his free hand to wipe a tear off my cheek. “I would have brought this to you sooner, but it took me a while to find her. Took me even longer to convince her that you were alive.”

“I’m sure she interrogated you within an inch of your life.” I couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe that he saw her…he saw Ivy.

“You could say that.”

Silence falls, but it isn’t filled with anger or resentment. It’s an impasse, a crossroads, and I’m not ready to fully choose the path that is Callan. He got too much of my trust all at once, and I won’t make that same mistake again.

I sniffle, pulling my hands away to tuck the letter into the pocket of my jeans, and Callan stills as if he’s scared I might turn around and bolt at any second.

“I’m…” My train of thought dies, and I try to start again. “Last night I…” Thought I could trust you? Gave a small fraction of my heart away, and you stomped on it? None of it felt right to say. “I want to trust⁠—”

“Lucina, I don’t expect you to know how you feel, and you certainly don’t owe me anything.” My mouth snaps shut. “You could walk away right now, and I’d understand, but can I say something before you go?”

I nod stiffly, settling my hands at my sides.

Callan straightens. “When I took an oath to my people, protecting them became my life’s purpose, and I never let myself want or need anything else. But then I found you. Fate sent me a storm…a strong-willed, merciless, and beautiful storm. I wasn’t ready. It knocked the wind out of me. It challenged everything I’d ever believed in. Every standard I’d ever held myself to. I probably don’t deserve you, Lucina. Actually, I know I don’t. But I’d travel across the world collecting letters for you, if that’s what you needed.”

My exhaled breath is the loudest thing in the room. That and my heartbeat.

“I have enough men to put on your watch to take myself out of the rotation, so if that’s what you want⁠—”

I shake my head, a tear spilling over my lower lashes. He means it. I can tell he means every word. Honesty can be brutal and hard to swallow, but he doesn’t seem to have any problem speaking it freely. Callan isn’t afraid of how the truth will make him sound; it’s more important to him that I hear it. And that…that’s where trust grows.

“I don’t want you out of the rotation,” I tell him, remembering what Kimber said at dinner. Remembering the kind of threat that I’m under. “I think I need all the protection I can get.”

Callan extends his hand out to me, a silent invitation, and I stare at it for a moment before lacing my fingers with his and letting him pull me towards him. A shiver runs down my spine when he slides his other hand along my jaw, the expression on his face hardening into something devastating and serious.

“I’m never going to let anything happen to you,” he says simply.

The Captain’s promise settles like rain on scorched pavement and my voice is quiet when I finally have the strength to speak. “That’s a brave thing to promise the daughter of an alleged traitor.” Who's being haunted by a demon and is in possession of something that could have her killed.

“I don’t care whose daughter you are.” His silver eyes dart between my own and my throat tightens. “I care about who you are, Lucina.”

More of my resolve slips away. “And who do you think I am?”

The Captains response is an echoed whisper through the vacant kitchen, “Someone worth protecting.”

It’s the woman who looks like me, bound in chains.

She’s screaming, but no sound is coming out. The only sound is the pound of heavy boots, coming up the stairs.