Page 91 of Feathers and Thorns

“Try to look at it in a positive light,” Jai said calmly.

“What is positive about this?” Rook snapped at him, his eyes like icicles—sharp and deadly.

“I think what he means to say is that you two have more in common than you realize. I know all of this is … a lot. But maybe you can find some comfort in the fact that you both have been given a second chance at having a family. Your fathers did not cherish what they had with you, but we do. We”—Soren gestured to the group of them—“are your guys’ family.”

Enara huffed and rolled her eyes, and Rook frowned.

“Look,” Soren went on, “I don’t expect you two to be best friends—siblings bicker all the time—but I think we can all agree we are bound together by whatever the Maker planned for us. We can waste our time fighting amongst ourselves and spending energy on past hurts, or we can choose to move forward. All of us … together.”

Rook and Enara eyed each other skeptically, and Soren held her breath.

“I mean, I don’t completely hate you,” Enara said.

“Yeah, fine, you’re all right, I guess,” Rook replied.

“Group hug?” Baz suggested.

“Not a fucking chance in hell,” Enara scoffed.

“Absolutely not,” Rook said, grimacing at the thought.

“Well, kids,” Jai concluded, “now that we have that sorted, how about we get us some dinner?”

* * *

They were one week out from battle, and the last few days had been awkward, to say the least. Rook and Enara had agreed to spend some time together to put aside their differences. They went into their conversations hesitantly but ended up sharing a mutual understanding of each other. They both knew what it was like to grow up feeling unloved and uncared for, and they both knew the sting of weapons and fists.

It was heartbreaking to Soren that their largest connection was the fact that they both had suffered extreme abuse from those who should have taken care of them, but she was happy that they were finally starting to get along.

She watched as Rook and Enara took a lap around the training grounds and couldn’t help but let herself feel a little twinge of hope. If they got out of this, maybe they could eventually call themselves friends.

She scarfed down the rest of her jarred peaches before returning to her hand-to-hand combat session with Baztien. Her skills had improved, and she was feeling a little more confident about takedowns. Her joints were sore and aching at the end of each day, but she attributed it to the muscle she was building.

Her and Baz readied themselves for another bout just as Jai walked up, halting them.

“You two, come with me, and gather the rest of the group leaders,” he said in his no-nonsense voice. “We have news.”

“No problem,” Baz replied, straightening.

“We will be right behind you,” Soren confirmed.

The two split off in opposite directions, each taking a brisk jog to their half of the grounds.

A few minutes later, the leaders gathered in the war tent and took seats at the large table. Jai sat at the far end, flanked by Erick and King Elias. Their expressions were grave, and worry buried itself deep in the pit of Soren’s stomach. She knew that whatever news they had to share would not be good.

Jai cleared his throat to silence the last of the chatter before speaking. “We have received intelligence early this morning from a resistance within the Xian-Dao dynasty. Bao-Ren’s forces are on the move and will be upon us in two days’ time.”

The silence was deafening, and it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room as the last words escaped his mouth.

“I understand this will come as a shock to all of you, but we have no time for weakness. We must relay this message to our ranks and ensure they are ready to fight. We should also assume Adriel’s forces will be joining them. We need to be ready for anything.”

Soren’s voice broke through the silence, “When should we let everyone know?”

“As soon as possible,” Jai replied. “We just lost a few days of what could be left of the rest of our lives. They deserve to decide how they will spend their final moments before battle.”

There were muttered agreements throughout the small space, and then Jai dismissed them to gather everyone in the training grounds. He then ran to the mess tent in search of Adaryn, who could tell by the look on his face as he burst into the tent that something was terribly wrong.

“What is it?” she asked, her doe eyes as wide as the dinner plates she was scrubbing.

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