Page 57 of Where We Belong

“My opinion?” Amedeo says the words like he’s learning them for the first time. His stare is so piercing, I swear I can feel him sifting through my mind, my truths. Eventually, he takes a labored breath.

“You are set in your patterns, but your mind wants something different. Brimming with empathy and self-preservation. Bold and scared. You envy those with purpose, whilst struggling to fully face your own. My opinion, my Princess, is that you need to decide who and what you want to be and then decide to take control once and for all. Does that suffice for an opinion?”

I open and close my mouth, trying to find the words. He is right. I know what I need to do. But I dodge and avoid and ignore, push everything down and mask it, distract myself. Cursing the things that make me, me. I want my mind to be my own. I do not want to die, and I do not want to leave my fate up to someone else. I want to take responsibility. To run towards and not away. But how do I break out of the behavior that has always brought me comfort?

“Thank you, you’ve given me a lot to think about. What do you need in order to get better?”

The little creature drags himself backwards, eyes narrowing, likely at Kaed’s twitching jaw. “I need a tea brewed from the petals of a blue Calendular,” he says. “One cup, and I am restored. You know your uncle will not like this.”

“Don’t mind him. You will drink it, that’s an order.” I smile. My first time using my power, my influence for something outside of myself. And it feels good. If I had help when I needed it, maybe it would have taken me less time to heal.

He blinks slowly. “I will be indebted to you.”

I offer him a smile, which he returns with a spiky one of his own. Kaed’s stony face tells me that there is a slim chance he will forget those comments about Cook any time soon. “Yearning?” I smirk, looking up at him.

“Burning body?”

Chapter 52

Ashley

her battle cry so far from her first,

she claimed and reworked the land.

Training without Nyk for the last three weeks has been weird. Kaed seems to get pissier by the day. Usually, he’s hard on me, but if I hear him say ‘again’ one more time, I’m going to black flame him. I’ve ducked and dived, stabbed and swiped all whilst blasting little heatwaves from my hands, allowing puffs of tingling smoke to come out when I needed them. Kaed, of course, wafted away the ones that actually made it to him, like I was just an annoying Pyreling. But I did manage to singe his eyebrow once. I left a deep slice in the middle of it that I looked at with such awe and admiration. He covered my face in smelly smoke until I apologised.

He reported Theron’s claims to the King. The rambling, half-mad ideas, and the insistence that the Cursewater hadn’t been given to them. The King assured us that Nyk was correct and that he’d take it to his advisors, along with my request to go to Cinder Cliffs. He didn’t look happy about that one. At all. I told Kaed I wanted to be involved in every meeting from now on, and I’d asked the library for a few basic books, basic being a very generous term, it turns out. One morning, Aiden watched with raised eyebrows as I chased a particularly skittish volume titled Theories of the Saviour Princess down the corridor. It escaped by flinging itself open and sliding under the door of a locked broom cupboard. Later that day, he appeared outside my bungalow with his own copy, along with another ten books he thought I should read. He then spent a solid fifteen minutes explaining, in great detail, how deeply unhappy he would be if I lost or destroyed one of them.

One evening when we were training late, Rhory handed me a plate of creamy pasta and vegetables while I caught my breath on one of the grassy patches by the sparring ring. “Your tea worked,” I said, loading up my fork with burgundy broccoli. “Kaed all but threw it at Amedeo, poor thing. But I saw him last night, he’s basically healed.”

Kaed scoffed as he unbuckled his armor, throwing it down with a too loud thud. “Do not become familiar with the creature.”

Rhory smirked, settling down beside me. “Things to hide, Captain?” He flopped onto his back, stretching out on the grass. Kaed grumbled under his breath, gathering his weapons. “Pies to make, Cook?”

“We’re having tarts today. Do you like tarts?” Rhory grinned, eyes still on the seas as he basked in the breeze. Kaed muttered something under his breath and barked an order toward a group of trembling Volker trainees, waving them into the sparring ring.

“Anka wasn’t thrilled by the request for the remaining tea ingredients, took some…convincing.” He smiled at me, flashing his pretty teeth. I giggled, but I can’t believe everyone’s having sex apart from me. Rhory propped himself up on his elbows, navy eyes locking onto mine. “You have such a beautiful heart. No one else would help that little bugger.” I blinked at him, caught off guard by the sincerity in his voice. Compliments always make me feel awkward. I never know what to do with them. “You have a good heart, too, Cookie.”

“Cookie? Are you crazy? Gods no!” He practically shrieked. The crack in his voice and horror on his face sent me into a fit of laughter. Across the courtyard, I swear the sounds coming from the sparring ring intensified, blades clashing harder, shouts growing sharper.

This morning, like every other, the compound bustles with Volker making their way to the mess hall. Habit pulls me instinctively toward the training pit, to the stack of wooden swords lined up at its edge. Before my fingers curl around my usual one, a sharp whistle draws my attention. From across the ring, Kaed tilts his head toward Eira’s workshop and turns on his heel.

Her usually tired, brown eyes are a little brighter today. She barely looks up as we enter, but when she does, she throws Kaed a grin. “Thanks for last night, Captain.”

Kaed winks and my stomach drops. What the fuck happened last night? Sensing my confusion, Eira quickly clarifies. “He let me spend the night with Nyk.” Ah. My cheeks heat slightly and when I see Kaed’s dimples from the corner of my eye, my belly does the twisty thing. Well, if that didn’t show me, and both of them, how I feel about him, then what will?

“It’s finished,” Eira says, unwrapping the most beautiful sword I have ever seen from a cloth. It’s like something out of a story book. A polished silver blade with pink etchings swirling along it, like vines. The hilt is shaped like a butterfly, its wings forming the guard, full of tiny pink gemstones.

“It’s too pretty to be a weapon.” I gasp.

“Like a certain Princess I know.” Kaed hands it to me.

“For me?” I stare at them in disbelief.

“Yes, savior of the world, for you,” Eira laughs.

It’s much heavier than the wooden one and will take some getting used to, but I can’t wait to try it out, an actual blade. Eira smirks. “Your betrothed spent a couple of weeks making it.” She fails to hide her amusement. “He’s so specific, it’s kind of annoying. Sorry, Captain.” Kaed raises his eyebrows as if the very idea of him being annoying is absurd. It isn’t. He is annoying. Cute, though.