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“No, I’m a forester,” Carli told her. “I want more. Our village…” Her voice trailed off.
“We have so little to learn in our village,” Mallory supplied from behind me, her voice soft. “We wanted to learn more, to be part of more.”
The unspoken words rang in my ears. All three of us knew better than to give away my desire to fight. It was forbidden and, therefore, not allowed to be spoken aloud. If it was found out I was weaseling my way in this way, I would end up being shipped home in a heartbeat.
Before the woman could say anything else, the pound of footsteps turned our attention behind us. The man was just inches shorter than the cabin itself, the tips of his hair brushing the roof. I sucked in a breath as he drew into the light. Dark eyes sparked, like coal lighting on fire. His cheeks were sunken, and full lips curved into a smile. He wore a white-collared shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. I didn’t need to ask to know he wasn’t a soldier. Maybe at one point, he’d been because it was law every man fight at least one battle before being allowed to choose a different path of life if they were up for it. But he wasn’t now. He was something else. Something tamer than the wild-eyed, crazy men who saw things the rest of us could only imagine. Things I wanted to see but was told my fragile mind would never be able to handle.
His gaze flickered to the three of us, and he raised an eyebrow before glancing at the woman sitting at the table like a desk. “I hope we haven’t already got a round of troublemakers, Valencia.”
“Absolutely not,” she cleared her throat. “This is actually Helen’s daughter.” I could tell she was motioning at me simply from how the man looked at me with wide eyes.
His eyes roved over me, taking in every bit of me, unnerved by the fact that I stood right there. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “How strange. I did not take that woman as being a mother.”
“She and Xander,” Valencia told him. “That’s who she bred with it.”
Shock flashed in his eyes, clearly taken aback by the news. “Your father and I were in the same base,” he said airily and stepped around us without even apologizing.
My heart tugged as I turned around to follow his every move. I knew what swooning was. I wasn’t an idiot. But I wasn’t supposed to be doing this. I had a boyfriend, maybe he was fiancé – I still couldn’t figure that part out. I wasn’t supposed to be flustered by another man. A man I had a sinking feeling I’d never be allowed to have anything to do with, so what did it matter? It’d be my secret that I knew I would end up dreaming about the man whenever I’d close my eyes. This wasn’t fair.
“Girls, this is my partner, Ezekiel-“
“Zeke,” he corrected sharply.
“Zeke,” Valencia sighed heavily, rubbing her forehead. “He will be helping train you and everyone else.” She looked right at Carli. “Especially you. Zeke here is an excellent forester.”
Pieces of a different puzzle snuggled up together in my mind. Valencia was a healer, she’d teach my part, but she couldn’t do the same for Carli. Of course, she’d have help. Not everybody was skilled in everything. People had their specialties, or at least, that’s what I’d always been told. I was good at healing, but not the way my mother was. And I knew that my fighting skills could use some sharpening. I didn’t know what my specialty was.
A tiny bit inside the pit of my stomach lit on fire in the hope that I could, just maybe, learn something here. Something that I was at least a little better at than anything else. Because then, at least, I could tell people what I knew I was best at. So, I could stop getting pitying looks. I was at an age that I should’ve already learned. But what people didn’t understand about small villages was that it stifled people and confined and imprisoned them. You could only do so much with so little. There was no room to grow. Getting out of a small village was the best decision anyone could make in order to grow and be something more than they were.
It was one main reason I didn’t want to go back. Because even if I was in this place for all the wrong reasons, I knew that I could at least try to figure out if I was good at anything. If what people said about my mother was true, I had talent hiding deep inside me, and I just needed to pull it out.
“I’m a forester,” Carli blurted, and I snorted at her eagerness to be able to show off.
“You’re also a faerie,” Zeke pointed out, shock-riddling his words. “You don’t want to fight?”
“I’m only half faerie,” Carli huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “And no, I don’t. I don’t like fighting.”
“Half?” Zeke echoed. “What’s your other half?”
“She’s a witch,” Mallory supplied, sounding bored with the conversation. “Not a very good one, though.”
I saw Carli’s face turn beet red in embarrassment at the truth. She wasn’t a good witch. She couldn’t heal, and spells just frustrated her. She could manage little things here and there, but not to the extent despite half her bloodline being a witch. She was more faerie than anything else, that was for sure.
“She’s a good forester,” I interjected, defending her, and shot Mallory a sharp warning look. “The best in our village, honestly.”
My words washed out any confusion or questions in Zeke’s face, and his eyes lit up in excitement. “Is that so?” He asked Carli, trying to direct her back to talking instead of us doing it for her.
“I – I’ve been told that, yes. I don’t really like to boast, though. I just like helping, making sure our folk are fed.”
“Were you raised by the faeries?” he questioned, pushing for answers, soaking them in.
“No. I’m the only one in our village,” she said sadly, her eyes dropping to the ground. “So, I’ve never really been around another faerie.”
“Hmm,” was all he said and stepped to the side, nodding at Valencia in a silent gesture that meant more to her than I could even begin to figure out.
I didn’t bother trying, that was for sure. I had no desire to either. It wasn’t my place to pry information out of others. I was here on a mission and would be damned if I didn’t succeed. Still, I didn’t move as I watched Zeke leave, my heart feeling like it was becoming cased in stone at his absence. Until he was gone, and my heart was beating rapidly again, and I realized I was just being stupid. What the heck was wrong with me? I had a boyfriend and a fiancé if we wanted to be technical. I wasn’t allowed to feel things for other guys.
I could feel the heat on my cheeks and my neck.
