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My gaze focused on Melaina’s face. Since I couldn’t feel Quilla, and I no longer had the mark to tell me if she was even still on the planet, I had held on to a small hope that she’d managed to escape and that she and her aunt had gotten away to Earth after all. But with Melaina here, just as desperate to find Quilla as I was, that hope cracked.
“So what do you want to do?” Olivander
asked.
Heaving out a breath, I pushed to my feet and faced him. “I want to go to Tyler and talk to my uncle.”
“Uh…” Olivander blinked as he stood as well. “I was actually asking about the violent redhead, but okay. What brought about this decision?”
Melaina had. Her presence had prompted me to act, to stop relying on my hope alone, and to do something.
“My friend, Nicolette,” I answered though.
“You mean, the Queen of Far Shore? My sister’s sister-in-law?”
I nodded. “Yes. Her. She told me her true love began to read her emotions, just like she could read his. But he never got a love mark.”
“Really?” Olivander lifted his eyebrows, intrigued. “That’s interesting. Not sure how it’s relevant right now, but still an interesting fact.”
“And true loves don’t need the mark to heal their partners with a kiss,” I went on.
“True,” Olivander agreed. “But what does that have to do with—”
I held up a hand. “You share something with your soulmate,” I told him. “Something you can’t share with anyone else. The mark might help point it all out and bring it to light, but it doesn’t invent new or special powers between true loves that don’t already exist. Somewhere inside me, I’m still connected to her. I just can’t tap into it as the mark could.”
I shook my head, not quite sure how to explain what I was feeling, but I tried anyway. “I might not feel her here.” I pointed to my temple. “I might not know where she is. But she’s still here.” I pressed my hand against my heart before balling it into a fist and digging it against my stomach. “And my gut keeps telling me to go back to Tyler and talk to my uncle.”
Olivander studied my face a moment before giving a single nod. “Alright then,” he murmured. “That’s a good enough reason for me. We can leave in the morning.”
Releasing a breath, I returned the nod with one of my own, one full of gratitude and relief. I knew there was a reason he was my favorite Bjorn brother.
“Thank you, my prince.”
Chapter 39
Indigo
“Must we take this many guards?” I turned in my saddle to scowl back at the dozens of riders following us down the road.
Next to me, Olivander sighed. “I’m a scholar, not a warrior, Indigo. If we meet with any trouble, you’ll appreciate their presence, trust me.”
I snorted. We’d been traveling for almost a day now and we were currently a couple of hours shy the village of Ashley. I’d left a note for Melaina, explaining how I was following a lead in the hopes of discovering Quilla’s location, and I planned to return in a week or two. Then Olivander had left one of his knights behind to watch over her.
Her guard happened to be young and attractive, so I figured Melaina would be able to distract herself just fine with him after she woke and recovered from her compassion overdose. But I was still convinced we could make better time and return faster if we didn’t have so many damn riders with us.
Everyone knew that the bigger the group, the slower the travel. And I needed to return to Tyler, like, last week.
“I’ve seen you train,” I grumbled moodily, facing forward again. “You can fight just fine, Vander.”
“Ah, but why bother to fight when you can afford to pay a dozen other men to do it for you?” he countered on a smirk.
I rolled my eyes and muttered, “Pampered prince.”
“Erick travels with a larger entourage than I do, you know,” Olivander shot back with a scowl. “Did you complain to him about the size of his group when he escorted you to Belle?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Oh.” Mollified, Olivander waved a hand. “Well then, continue complaining, I guess.”
