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All eyes shot to Lilith, who recoiled, slamming her hands over her mouth. She grazed over the three of them before relaxing and clearing her throat. “Borrow first.”

“Oh.” Luka lowered the hand reaching toward Croll’s face. “Be right back.”

With a taut smile, Lilith watched him as he ran off, then turned back to the two men, awkward and nervous as ever. Croll’s demeanor changed completely, as if Jarek hadn’t warned him moon after moon which Flare he was certain to return with. The Coffer Keeper blissed over the small incarnation like a precious tome behind glass, and Lilith, a tattered grimoire leaking a dark miasma.

Jarek stepped to his side and hissed in Retian, “Respectful.” Croll closed his open mouth, but his dark brows didn’t ease up. “Evelian, this is Croll. He’ll be accompanying us back to Markoth.”

She turned her glare from Croll to Jarek. “Markoth? Isn’t my chain in Rimore?”

“I’m your chain,” Jarek responded, putting on his most arrogant smirk, “and I’m going to Markoth.”

Arms crossed, she leaned into her hip. When Luka’s feet sounded behind her, she kept a watchful eye on him as he flew past to a still kneeling Croll. Caught in the moment, the boy glanced at Jarek and smiled.

Jarek wanted nothing to do with Luka. He did his best to avoid him more than he did Lilith. Regardless of whether or not he was a child, his possession of the Guardian was still immoral. Allowing him to keep it was like allowing Jarek to keep the Serpent, and it was part of his second life’s purpose to restore the Flares to where they rightfully belonged. Lilith’s attachment to him was more than frustrating.

But maybe it was the eyes he’d once seen in his own reflection, or Luka’s familiar features that spiked the confusing pace of Jarek’s pulse and not blood boiling tension when the curly-haired boy looked up at him.

He looks so much like Caine.

Luka’s hand was gleaming, aglow like sunlight through a leaf. Jarek recalled the tingle in his own hand when the boy pressed his palm to Croll’s face. The man was in such regal awe; his own emotions blended perfectly with the light from Luka’s touch. He pulled away then went back to the horses.

Croll rubbed his healing cheek. “I’ve been given nothing but blessings since your wakening, Master Atwood,” he said.

Oh for gods’ sake, not the Master title. Jarek waved him off, wishing the man would get to his feet already and stay there. He risked a glance to Lilith who was watching him, not out of disgust or disdain, just looking, trying to pick him apart—eyes filled with hundreds of questions.

He snapped back around. “Let’s get moving. We’re late enough as is.”

The boy hopped up and down; Croll finally stood, and Lilith stayed put.

“I’ll continue walking,” she declared.

Jarek adjusted the reins of a horse, frowning at her threadbare shoes. “You go out of your way to make things difficult, don’t you?”

“Animals don’t like Lily ‘cause they know she has the Wraith,” Luka chimed in atop his chosen mount.

Lilith’s cheeks turned a slight pink, though she kept her chin high.

Jarek’s brows deepened. “It can’t be that bad.”

She sighed heavily, dropped her head, and took big, loose steps forward. The animals screamed and cantered backwards as if surprised by a snake under their hooves. Jarek tightened the grip on his so it couldn’t thrash, and Croll scrambled to collect the two near him. Luka’s horse didn’t budge while he laughed quietly under the noise. She spun around mid-step and plodded back to where she was.

Jarek chuckled while Croll realigned his pair. “I stand corrected…”

Luka leaned over the animal’s shoulder and patted it. “Come on, Lily, you can ride with me.”

The smile she gave him was as bashful as her aura, one that matched her Flare. “Let’s start with me walking next to him.”

A nice change from the sour and nervous attitudes she normally displayed. But it also rolled a wave of pity through Jarek. This is the helm of Eizreth’s reapers? Seeker of destruction for everything that Erebria gave us?

Keara’s restraint while he had his hand wrapped around her neck sprinted through his mind.

Jarek pushed away the thought and instructed Croll to take their belongings and tie them to the spare horse and it to Luka’s, which he gladly did until he got to Lilith, switching to more of a begrudging reluctance.

The next leg of their trip started far later than he wanted. Lilith returned to a nervous wreck, not from the situation, but from fear of Luka falling off his horse, though he quickly took to it, and she calmed down.

“I appreciate you collecting supplies, Croll,” Jarek said after their pace had been set. “Even with the loss, it should be enough for the camp.”

Croll dipped his head, rigid and nervous on the horse. He’d seen as little fauna as Luka, particular to the north or not. “Of course. I apologize again for the—”