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After growling quietly one more time, I stared ahead of us at the long trek we had home. I didn’t know how long it had been since we had left the mountain, but the walk back seemed so much longer than the one here.
“Our friend is hurt,” Gaian said to Sina’s father.
“Our alpha,” I corrected.
“Our alpha, your daughter’s mate, is seriously injured,” Gaian continued, stuffing his hands further into his pockets and looking over at the Paragon. “He’s paralyzed. And we were hoping that maybe … you could help him.”
“Another mate?” her father exclaimed. “That’s three of you now. How many more does she have?”
“She’s strong.” Gaian laughed. “Too strong for just one. She has four altogether.”
“And that had better be it,” I growled.
Of course, they both ignored me and continued on with their conversation. I pressed my lips together and decided just to keep my mouth shut because I wanted Sina’s father to heal Calder just as much as Gaian did. If I kept being pissy to him, he might decide not to help us.
Though I couldn’t help it.
I hadn’t gone this long without Sina since she had left four years ago. Between the haunting memories of finding her house empty that day to the frigid air burning my face off, I couldn’t be nice right now. No matter how hard I tried.
“We were told that maybe … you would help us,” Gaian said to Sina’s father, testing the waters. “He’s devastated that he can’t move, and so is she. If you could do something … anything … it would really help. We know how powerful you are.”
After letting out a low sigh, Sina’s father frowned. “If there’s really a war approaching Durnbone—a war that my daughter needs to fight and a war with my people—I won’t be able to participate if I help your friend. I don’t know if I could make that sacrifice.”
“Sacrifice?” I repeated.
Gaian tore his gaze away from Sina’s father and stared down at the ground. I balled my hands into tight fists, my claws sinking into my flesh.
“We should’ve never fucking come up here,”I growled through the mind link to Gaian when nobody responded to me.
While slow to respond, Gaian stole a glance at me.“Maybe he can’t help Calder, but if he can help end this war before it starts …”Gaian trailed off because he knew that I was right.
Sina’s father didn’t know the first thing about what the enemy was capable of.
If he had truly lost a lot of strength, being bound to the mountain all these years …
“What, you’re not fucking strong enough to heal him and to fight? Aren’t Paragons supposed to be the strongest creatures in all of existence? You’re making that extremely hard to belie—”
Gaian elbowed me hard in the ribs and growled more ferociously than I had ever heard him. He wanted me to shut my mouth again, but I couldn’t. I had grown up on stories about Paragons and their strengths. Demons almostfearedthem. And demons didn’t fear much.
“It’s okay, Gaian,” her father said. “Thayer is right. But every year that I was bound to those chains, more and more of my power was sucked out of me. Every time a true Paragon dies in this world, my magic dwindles. I don’t have much left.”
I pressed my lips together, kinda feeling bad for the guy, and glared ahead of me.
“I’ll make my choice when I see my daughter.”
“You’re actually thinking about helping him?” Gaian asked.
A solemn look crossed Sina’s father’s face. “That’s right …”
I stared at him for a long time, but he didn’t say anything more. But there was more to the story, more that he wasn’t telling us. That look of pity, sorrow didn’t go away. Something was wrong.
“What aren’t you telling us?” I growled.
Her father looked over at me and widened his eyes just slightly, as if he had been caught or as if he hadn’t thought I would notice or call him out on it. That asshole had been chatting nonstop with Gaian this entire time, and now, just … silence?
“Tell us. What the fuck is it?” I urged.
“Thayer,” Gaian growled, telling me to shut my mouth again. “This is Sina’s father. You can’t just—”
