Page 38 of A Courage of the Chosen

Lumiathar lies in its scabbard on top of the drawers in my bedroom, and I loop the belt around my waist. A year ago, I’d never even seen a sword, let alone used one. Now, having a weapon on me brings a sense of comfort, and it’s second nature to don it as part of getting ready for the day. I haven’t wielded it since the Craobh was taken, and my fingers brush over its delicately crafted pommel, wondering if it will feel different in my palm without the power of my family pendant.

My friends have arrived whilst I was showering, occupying the same seats as last night, with breakfast laid on the table in front of them.

“Morning,” they all greet me cheerily.

Reyne approaches with a cup of coffee that I greedily take, and leads me by the elbow so we’re stood by the windows, somewhat out of earshot of the others. There’s a tightness to the set of her mouth hidden by her usual smile.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“Aye, lass. I know things with the council have been hard, and I saw Callahan leaving the palace on his first night here. We haven’t had a moment alone, so I wanted to see if you were okay.”

We keep our backs to the group, facing the view over Ederline and the mountains that have a bank of clouds hugging the middle of their slopes.

I take a sip of my coffee before replying. “Yeah, we’re okay. He didn’t react well to the news about the Craobh.”

Reyne angles her head, peering at me with a side-eye that Rach would be proud of. “And that’s all that’s going on with you? I feel like there’s something you’re hiding since we got back. I could be overthinking, but there’s a distance to you lately.”

She’s too observant, and knows me well enough to see when I’m keeping something from her, and the things I’m not saying loom over the conversation. This is Reyne. She’s proven to me over and over I can trust her. When everyone else lied to me, Reyne was the only one who had my back. This secret is safe with her . . . right?

She begins to turn more fully toward me, her brows puckering as my knuckles turn white around the mug of half-drunk coffee.

Maybe she could help me work out how to tell Callahan?

The bridge between light wielders has been kept secret for millennia, so how do I explain to Reyne that it’s not the connection itself that wakes me up at night, but rather who it’s with?

I glance nervously over my shoulder at the rest of our friends gathered around the table.

“You guys coming to eat?” Eòghann calls out. I’m somewhat grateful for the interruption, and the chance to decide if I am going to tell Reyne without sharing something sacred between me and Callahan.

“Later?” she whispers as we move to take a seat.

“Yeah, later,” I reply, and pull out the chair between Rach and Cal. I busy myself filling a plate with pancakes, fruit, and syrup.

The conversation moves on to the reaction of the soldiers from Morven being told that they’ll be integrating into the royal armies from now on. It’s been largely positive, but there’s been some discord amongst small groups of soldiers that we’ll need to keep an eye on. They’re skeptical about how well we can fight together as we move into the next phase of war when most of Elfayne believed the rebellion to be the Dorche.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” Callahan assures me when I ask what we need to do about it. “They’ll see soon enough that we’re on the same side, and that the other soldiers need them to share their training. We just need to observe it carefully.”

I smile tightly, not entirely convinced, but trust that he knows how to handle it. After all, he’s spent far more time with them than I have.

“Since there’s no council meeting, what are we doing with our day?” Brodie says, serving himself another ridiculous portion of bacon and square sausage onto his plate.

Reyne turns to me, a question poised on her mouth, but her eyes dart down to my neck before blowing wide. She’s quick to lift her glass of juice and take a sip.

“What?” I mouth, in an attempt to not draw attention to our interaction.

Reyne moves subtly, pretending she’s fiddling with the braid sitting over her shoulder, but points to her neck, where her collarbone is visible through the buttons open at the top of her shirt.

“Are you trying to tell Elsie about the massive bites on her neck, Red? Yeah, we all saw those when she walked in,” Brodie announces, and Eòghann snickers.

“You have the subtlety of a fairy fucking elephant, you know that, right?” Rach says affectionately while I pray for the ground to open up and swallow me whole.

“You marked me?” I challenge into Callahan’s mind.

He looks entirely too smug sitting next to me as he cuts into his breakfast. I recall his teeth nipping me in many places, but I don’t remember him biting hard enough to leave a mark. Then again, I was mindless with the way he toyed with my body like he’s always known what makes me tick.

“Now everyone knows who you belong to.”

“Oh, for Dhia’s sake, Cal. Was that really necessary?”