Page 14 of Forgotten Arcane

“Great, thank you, Mabel,” Doc says.

“We’ll just grab our bags and then head home,” Evander tells her.

Mabel smiles, and then her expression becomes more serious, “The Draconian team has already departed and gone back.”

Reed nods, “Thank you. It’s probably best that they aren’t still around. Kylen may be gone, but we have no idea how the rest of them would react.”

“Those were our thoughts as well,” Mabel agrees.

“Thanks, Mabel, you’re awesome,” Griff says.

“Have you seen Ribit?” I ask as the guys start to walk off up the stairs.

Mabel shakes her head, “No, I’m afraid I haven’t.”

“Oh, okay, can you tell her that I said goodbye and that I will come back and visit you all when I can?” I ask her.

Mabel’s eyes light up, “You’re going to come and visit?”

“Of course I am,” I reply with a smile.

Mabel grins, “Of course, I’ll tell her.”

“Thanks, Mabel, I’ll see you in a minute.”

She waves me off, and I jog to catch up to the guys. On the way to our room, several members of staff stop us to congratulate us, and we smile and thank them.

I can’t believe that this is over.

To be honest, I can’t believe that it’s only been a week that we’ve been here, it feels like so much longer than that, but then that’s probably because so much has happened.

When we step into our rooms, well, the guy’s room, we all sort of just stand there for a moment, absorbing what has happened.

River pulls a surprised Coen into his arms, “Dude, I am so fucking glad that you’re back where you belong.”

Coen grins, “Thanks, man.”

Evander grins, “Welcome back to the team man, I’m so fucking glad you’re back.”

Surprise filters through Coen’s expression before he grins, “I can’t believe it. I’ve been stuck in that fucking nightmare for so fucking long that I think it’s going to take me a while before I really believe that I’m free.”

“I’m so fucking sorry man, we should have realized that there was no way that you would actually want to be a part of Kylen’s team,” River apologizes.

Coen nods, “There was no way that you could have known, not really. Kylen had me acting and behaving like I wanted to be on his team.”

“Neith knew,” Doc points out.

“That’s different,” Coen replies. “You all know Neith is different. Even the magic in Kylen’s necklace couldn’t control that. Besides, by the time that Neith showed up at the Training Academy Kylen’s hold over a few of his long-standing commands was slipping. He hadn’t renewed a couple of the older ones as soon as he should have, which was why I was able to talk to you guys when I could and why I could warn Neith that I couldn’t stop, when I was made to fight her.”

“Still,” Reed starts with a heavy frown.

It’s understandably weighing heavily on all of them that Coen was in that situation.

Coen nods, “There was nothing that you could have done, and nothing that could have changed it, so let’s leave it where it deserves to be, and that’s in the past.”

Understanding crosses all of the guys’ faces, and they all nod in agreement.

Coen doesn’t want to carry on talking about it.

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