AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Not realizing my inner turmoil, Wey continued, “Natas was pissed. We might not have been killed, but we hadn’t won, either, which meant he’d lost money. And someone had to pay for that. He took us home, and upon seeing Braz and me trying to keep Nica upright, he decided on a punishment for us. He saw our care for one of our own as a weakness and used it against us, made us watch while he…”
He shook his head before he continued. “He ripped Nica from our arms, tied him to a whipping post, and put on a show for the entire House. He… he went on so long that Nica passed out, but even that didn’t stop him. It was… bad—the worst whipping I’ve ever seen him do. Even to this day, that one still holds that title.”
I swallowed thickly at that, memories from my own and Florin’s whipping playing in my mind’s eye. Watching Natas hurt Florin like that over and over had been one of the worst moments of my entire life. I’d been terrified for him and disgusted with Natas. I’d felt guilt, even though the guilt wasn’t mine to bear. I’d felt sorrow for my friend, for a person I loved. I’d felt anger and pure hatred for Lord Tarquin Natas in a way I’d never experienced before that moment. I’d hated him before that, yes. But in that moment, I’d wanted him to die.
If Nica’s punishment was as bad as Wey said, I could only imagine how difficult it had been for Weylyn and Braz to witness.
Wey cleared his throat. “Braz and I carried Nica back to our chambers, cleaned him up, and tended to his wounds. Braz reamed me out, too.” A strange smile crossed his face. “That was probably the first time I felt like I saw the real Braz, the half-orc who protected his friends with his life.”
Of course it would take Braz yelling at Wey and protecting Nica for him to gain Wey’s respect. I should’ve known that was how it’d happened.
Wey ran his hand over his bald head again. “I’d been afraid Nica wouldn’t wake. I’d thought I’d killed him, three times over—out in the arena, on the training field as Natas whipped him, and again in our room when I tried to help him and he didn’t regain consciousness for so long. And when he finally did, I feared he’d hate me for the rest of my life. I’d deserved his hate after everything.”
“What did he say when he woke up?” I whispered, enraptured by this horrific story of my Venerits from years before we’d met.
“He said,You know, this would’ve been a lot easier if you would’ve just listened to me, asshole.I started to apologize, but then he grinned, and I knew I was already forgiven. Even after everything I’d put him through, he had a smile for me.”
That didn’t surprise me at all. Nica had one of the biggest hearts I’d ever seen, and I knew he’d seen through Wey’s walls long before the gargoyle truly let him in.
Wey fell quiet for a few minutes, but I could tell he had more to say, so I waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts. “After you left, Nica didn’t smile for weeks. He tried to fake it for me, but I could tell it never reached his eyes. I… I didn’t think anything in this world could take away my tiger’s smile”—he met my eyes—“until you did.”
His words hit their mark, and all the air was forced out of my lungs. My heart clenched tight in my chest, and all the blood vanished from my veins, leaving me suddenly freezing. Tears gathered in my eyes as I thought about Nica and his smile, thought about how badly he must’ve been hurting if his smile had disappeared like that, thought about the fact that I was the one who’d hurt him. I’d known what I was risking when I’d left. I’d known it would hurt them, but I wasn’t sure I’d realized just how badly.
Before I could even begin to formulate a response to that, Wey said, “You took away his spark, Theon. I never thought I would miss his nonstop chattering, his ridiculous jokes, or his constant smiles, until they were all gone. I had to…” He cleared his throat. “I had to pull him out of a depression. We were both so broken, and I couldn’t—” He cut himself off and closed his eyes. From the deep, shaky breaths he took, I was sure he was holding back tears. And that only made me feel a thousand times worse. Not only had I broken my sweet, sweet tiger, I’d made my gargoyle cry, a feat I didn’t think possible.
“I’m so sorry, Weylyn,” I whispered as tears began running down my cheeks.
He made a face I couldn’t decipher. “I know you are. I do. But sometimes being sorry isn’t enough.”
I sucked in a harsh breath. “What are you saying?”
“You broke our trust, and… I don’t really know what you’re going to have to do to earn it back, but I do know that it’s going to take a lot. Neither of us trusts easily to begin with, and you…” He trailed off with a shake of his head.
My heart felt like it had a vice around it, one that was growing tighter and tighter every time Wey opened his mouth. “I…”
“I’m not trying to hurt you, precious.”
Hearing my nickname on his tongue in that moment did more for me than it probably should have. Hope bloomed in my chest. Maybe I hadn’t broken us so wholly, so beyond repair. “I know you’re not trying to hurt me.” And I did. Wey was a lot of things, but he’d never been a cruel man for the sake of being cruel.
“I want you to understand where we’re coming from, okay?” I gave him a nod, and he continued. “For the first few months, Nica was terrified to go to sleep because he was afraid he’d wake up, and I’d be gone, too. Honestly, I was the same, afraid Nica would be gone when I opened my eyes. Neither of us got a lot of sleep, and I know I sometimes held on a little too tightly to him in the middle of the night, but he never complained. As much as I had to pull him up so he’d breathe again, he was my rock through everything. He kept me on solid ground when I felt like the world was falling apart around me. These past couple of months, we’ve finally found a new rhythm between the two of us, found some happiness together even though we both missed you terribly.”
“I’ve missed both of you so much it hurts.”
He nodded and scooted around to face me. “I know you have. I’m only telling you this for two reasons, precious, and neither are because I want to upset you.” He brushed away my tears with his thumbs. “One, so you understand just how royally you fucked up so you never, ever do anything like this to us again.”
“I won’t—”
He placed his finger over my lips and shook his head slightly. “And two, so you have hope that Nica will forgive you and trust you again one day. It’s going to take time, but if he can forgive me for being such an arrogant dumb shit—for that first fight together, and for so many other stupid things I’ve done over the years—then there’s no way he won’t forgive you.”
That made a fresh wave of tears travel down my cheeks. “You really think so?”
“I know so.” He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “I’ve hurt Nica before. In the beginning, I’d even done some of it with the purpose of hurting him because I was… scared of getting too close, I suppose. Yet, he’s forgiven me every time. It’s… taken me a long time to get here, to get to where I can admit my feelings for him—it’s taken years. But he’s waited for me all this time.” I closed my eyes, and he kissed one eyelid, then the other. “It’ll take time, and it won’t be easy, but you two will find your way back to each other.”
Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes and met his gaze, steeling myself to ask the thing I was terrified to ask. “And what about us? Will… will we find our way back to each other?”
He sent me a soft smile, one I didn’t think anyone other than Nica and I had ever seen. “Precious, we’re already on the path. We just have to keep moving forward.”
I threw my arms around his neck, burying my face there as a sob wracked my chest. He pulled me to him, then right into his lap, rocking me, rubbing my back and hair, kissing my head.
