Page 19 of Storm In The Sky

“I want to come with you,” Samuel declared when he was next to Jarvis.

“It would be better if you didn’t. You don’t have a shield,” Jarvis said.

“Dallin doesn’t have one, either.”

“But he had one before. He’s been in this kind of situation before, too. It’s dangerous.”

“It’s not. You have enough dragons that it won’t be a problem if two of them have to watch two mages.”

Jarvis looked like he wanted to say no, but they didn’t have time. They needed to go before the man they’d located vanished back to wherever Carlyle was hiding.

Jarvis sighed. “Fine. But be careful. I don’t want to have to contact your clan and tell them you died.”

Samuel grinned and stepped away. Keylon wasn’t surprised when he came to a stop next to Winter. It was clear that Winter would have to split his focus between the two of them. Keylon would bet that Winter would be more focused on Samuel, but that was okay. Keylon had more experience than Samuel. He could defend himself while Winter kept an eye on his friend.

Jarvis opened a portal. When Keylon peeked through it, he could only see trees. “What the fuck is this guy doing in the middle of a forest?” he grumbled.

“He’s probably up to no good,” Winter said.

For some reason, he sounded happy. Maybe he liked being included in what was happening.

“Whatever,” Keylon said as he moved forward.

Winter followed after him. In fact, he was so close that Keylon could feel him move against his back. He was pretty sure that if he stopped suddenly, Winter would slam against him.

What was going on in Winter’s mind? Earlier, he’d almost sounded as if he’d decided he didn’t want their bond to be broken after all, but that didn’t make sense. Even though Samuel had told Keylon he wouldn’t bond with Winter, it didn’t mean Winter didn’t still want that. It certainly didn’t mean that he wanted Keylon now.

The situation was confusing, and Keylon didn’t have the bandwidth to focus on it right now. He just wanted to get his hands on the guy Ansley had located, give him a good shake, and get him to confess where Sol was. Maybe Keylon could take his anger on the guy and threaten to torture him. He couldn’t do anything to Samuel or Winter, but no one had said he couldn’t hurt the guy.

Jarvis closed the portal once everyone had crossed through. It looked like they were throwing a party in the middle of the forest, but Keylon wasn’t surprised that everyone had insisted on coming. They might be close to getting Sol back, and everyone wanted to help.

“There,” Penley said as he pointed his finger to the left.

He had a hand pressed against a tree. Keylon knew he was communing with nature. It was part of his magic, and he’d become stronger since he’d finally accepted that it didn’t make him weak.

Keylon squinted in the direction Penley had indicated. He was surprised to realize he could see the faint outline of a building. It wasn’t big, more like a cottage, but it was definitely present.

They were silent as they walked closer. The dragons were huge, but they made even less noise than the mages, which was weird. Keylon was sure they could sneak up on him and he wouldn’t notice until they were right on top of him.

“What is this place?” Winter asked in a whisper.

“If I remember right, there was a small town here once,” Jarvis answered. “Or close by, anyway. It makes sense forsomeone who wants to be alone to build a house here. It’s close enough to the town that they could go there to get food but not so close that the townspeople would bother them.”

“What does this have to do with Carlyle?”

Jarvis shrugged. “He had liked having hidey-holes. I didn’t understand why, but once he stopped being my apprentice, I couldn’t say anything about it.”

The building was definitely a house. Now that they were closer, Keylon was able to confirm that, even though one of the walls had collapsed and there was no roof anymore. He wondered if Jarvis was right and Carlyle had lived here. Was that why one of the two humans who worked for him was here? What could Carlyle have left behind that he needed so badly to send someone to retrieve it?

Something creaked inside the house. The door was hanging sideways, but the inside of the place was dark, so it was impossible to see anything. Keylon wasn’t looking forward to going into the building, but thankfully, it looked like they wouldn’t have to.

A man appeared at the door. He was looking down at something he was holding, which explained why he didn’t see them right away. There was a bag hanging from his shoulder, and he slipped it down and opened it.

Jarvis cleared his throat. The man froze and slowly looked up. Keylon had researched the brothers, so he knew this was Simon.

What he didn’t know was what Simon was going to do.

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