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“Merlin?” she gasps. “Like from the Arthurian legends? That can't be possible.”
Kade scans her face for her reaction. He should have known she wouldn't believe him. It's been the main reason he’s been pushing her to figure it out for herself. The more he tells her, the less she'll believe. She's smart enough to question things, which is the only reason he feels safe at all leaving her with Denzel and Shadowgrace. There's some kind of instinct in her that will tell her to keep some things under wraps.
Elara shakes her head. "You have to be kidding. Please tell me you're kidding."
Kade takes one look behind him at the woods, the place he’s supposed to be disappearing to. Being around her for too long is hard. Really hard. But she's not wrong in needing answers. She’s deserved them from the beginning.
Since he dragged her into this.
"I'm not. I've studied my bloodline thoroughly.” He shifts his weight. “I can stay a little longer if you'd like to hear more?"
It has to be her choice. All of it does.
"You’re offering me...answers?"
Her voice is so soft and fragile that Kade’s afraid it might break. He hates hearing her like that, so desperate and shattered. He’s done that to her. He’s responsible, but he also had no choice in the matter. It would have happened one way or another. This way, there's control in it. She'll know who she is slowly and have time before her destiny has to be fulfilled.
Hers and Laith’s.
Kade’s heart spasms. "I don't think it’s the answers you might be seeking. I don't know as much as you think I do. But I can tell you my story. It's the best I can offer."
Excitement rages in Kade’s blood at the prospect of getting to share with another soul what he’s been through. He’s been entirely alone in this from the start. Why he was the one chosen, he can only guess. He has to bear the burden the others don’t.
He knows he needs to be careful, sharing this with Elara. Not only does he not want to scare her, but he can't let them get so close as to get careless. He’s slipped up once before and that kiss has been forever branded in his blood. She deserves better than him, the monster who's killed many for the sake of this quest.
Someone like Laith.
"Yes, tell me,” she breathes. She sits down on the forest floor, shocking even Kade.
Being a wolf has changed her. Being in the pack even more.
He winces at the thought. Shadowgrace aren't as valiant as Elara thinks they are, and he hates to say that of his own kind, but it’s the truth. They serve their own means, no matter their role in the grand scheme, which they will need to assume at some point.
He sits down across from her, their knees almost touching as he begins his story.
"After my foster parents…died, I was approached by an elderly woman. I don't remember her name, but it was likely fake. She told me I should seek out my destiny."
Elara's hanging on every word, and Kade closes his eyes, pulling from his memories. He was wandering aimlessly at the time, not knowing what to do with himself. It's like fate. Always alone, it seems.
"She told me about a bloodline, my bloodline, which got me researching. The proof she left me with was irrefutable."
Kade’s gut clenches, remembering the crone and the way she spoke to him. How she enticed him, pulled him in, only to show him the dark side, the cons to what and who he was.
“She went on and on about how lucky I was to have acquired my genes.” His lips twist. “I'm a trueborn wolf, descended from Merlin.”
He looks up at the sky, the late afternoon sun beating down on the ground just on the other side of Elara.
"So, you had foster parents? And they’re gone?" Elara asks quietly.
That’s what she got from everything he said so far?
Kade gulps and nods, trying to push away the awful memories. The flashes of fear-soaked eyes. The scent of coppery blood. The confusion and terror and nausea.
Elara's hand slides over his knee, sending shocks through his body. His gaze snaps to connect with hers, and he clears his throat and wills himself to continue as if nothing's happening.
"I didn't believe her at first, just like you don’t believe me." Kade smiles at her teasingly. "But she grabbed me, and next thing I know we were in a dungeon underneath one of the oldest cathedrals in Rome. There was a huge block of stone with a glittering sword embedded inside it."
Kade stops, waiting to see if Elara knows the story he's about to tell, or at least part of it. There are few children who don't hear some version of the legend of King Arthur. And the story itself could be the very key to who she is and what she's meant to do.
