Page 133 of Oath of Rebellion

The wall of trees began to revert back to normal. Her fingers laced with his, she followed him just off the southern side of the road. There lay two giant boulders about the size of a bench. The symbols of three gods were neatly carved into both of them. Behind the boulders stood an old tree, blooming with familiar purple blue flowers.

A heaviness pressed on her chest as she stared at the boulders.

His voice was deep and reverent. "This is where your parents died."

She sucked in a breath.

"I was ten when Olive and I went on the annual pilgrimage to the southern ruins. We came upon the carriage accident in the forest. Olive fought the vampire assassin, her magic pushing him away from you."

Her eyes misted, and she looked up at him. "You were there?"

He nodded, not looking away from the stone. "Until then, Olive had kept me away from the Lone Road. I'd never seen anything like that accident before. You were crying. Olive used her magic to sneak you out of the carriage and away from the vampire as he finished draining your parents."

She choked, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He kissed the top of her head.

"I held you as a tiny babe and didn't even know what you'd mean to me someday."

The tears ran down her cheeks, and she turned her head to bury it into his chest. Someone had given him a shirt, so sadly he hadn't gone around bare chested all day.

When her tears slowed, she stepped forward and laid a palm on each of the boulders.

"You put these stones here?"

He nodded, then he grew wiggled his fingers. The tree by the boulders lowered a branch. He reached up with his other hand and snapped off the purple blue flowers.

"I recognize these. You've given me these before."

She looked up, the scent flooding her nose as she inhaled deeply, the wind blowing through the leaves.

"This was the perfume she had on that day. The closest I could find in nature, anyway. She was so beautiful. You take after her."

Eirwyn closed her eyes, another tear rolling down her cheek as she turned to face him. "Thank you for saving me."

He ran a hand over the side of his head and looked away. "I couldn't just leave you there."

She stepped closer but paused, not touching him. "Not just for saving me back then. But for saving me from my brother too. I would've been dead by now if not for you."

He looked down with his glittering emerald eyes, and he reached for her waist. "I will always save you, Eirwyn."

He kissed her forehead softly, then he pulled her into a hug. "But you saved me too. Holding you as a baby made me feel the need to protect you. You lit a fire in my soul that day, Eirwyn. If I hadn't met you, I wouldn't have transferred those feelings to the forest. I wouldn't have become the master warden of the druids. I wouldn't have saved the wounded soldiers from the war. I wouldn't have stopped your brother from trying to invade the forest."

He trailed off, and Eirwyn let the peace wash over her. She longed for a nap under a tree in the late summer sun.

He kissed her cheek and stepped back, looking at her with a frown. "You're tired. I can feel it."

She yawned and nodded. "I've been feeling your emotions too. It's the mate bond."

They'd talked about losing his third in command Robin last night when he'd finally crawled into the hammock beside her. Then she'd held him as she'd felt his heart breaking.

Knox looked up and frowned. "I can shift and fly you to Vidrland. I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner."

She shrugged and stretched. "I can fly myself too, remember? I just haven't felt like I had the strength back to do it."

He tugged on her hand, and they went back to the Lone Road. She gave one last look behind her before stepping through the forest. The boulders and tree were completely hidden from the road.

Even if she and Helga would've made it all the way to this spot of the road all those weeks ago, they never would've found it.

Knox shifted into his hulking green dragon, but he was smaller than he'd been in the battle. Now he was just slightly larger than a horse.

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