Page 117 of Enchanted Heir
And my father. He was never coming back. I finally knew how he had died, which Enchanted had killed him and why, but I wondered what he would think of the place I now found myself in. Living in the castle, sleeping next to a prince, surrounded by Enchanted who I actually gave a damn about.
My father had hated the Enchanted because he worked with them on the wall. Now knowing what they were ordered to do at the wall, I couldn’t blame him. So how could he approve of his own daughter dating one?
Then again, the more I thought on it, the more I knew in my gut that my father would not have wanted me to settle for someone like Will and stay in Nerede living an unhappy life. So would he care?
I didn’t know. I would have loved to ask him, yet I couldn’t. It was a feeling I was well acquainted with in the five years since he’d been gone. I just wished I could stop all these emotions from consuming me.
“Hey,” Owen said as he wrapped his arms around me. “Breathe, please. Let it all out. Cry all you want, just breathe for me, okay?”
I nodded, unable to speak.
“You want to talk about it? You want me to go knock around Easton? Just tell me what to do here.”
I wanted to ask where Easton was, but then again, I didn’t really know if I wanted to know. I placed my bare hand on the forest ground as tears and snot continued making their way down my face. “Why,” I shook my head and managed to choke out, “why is everything so hard?”
He shook his head as he moved to wrap the blanket tighter around me. “I don’t know, honey. I only know you are not alone in it.”
That made me cry harder.. . if that were even possible.
Minutes later, voice hoarse, I whispered, “It’s not just my father, either. He’s been gone for over five years. I know he’s not coming back.” I paused. “It’s Krew. He’s going to die on me too, Owen. He’s going to be yanked away from me just like my dad was.”
Owen let out a sigh. “Jorah, you don’t know that.”
“He thinks he’s going to die, Owen! And Easton was supposed to be one of the good Enchanted. Like you. And maybe he even still is. I don’t know. Why couldn’t I have just hated you all? Maybe that would have made this easier.”
“But then you would have missed out on how exceedingly charming I am,” Owen offered gently.
For the first time in a full day, I wanted to laugh. I didn’t, but at least I wanted to. I leaned my head on Owen’s shoulder and repeated, “Why is everythingsohard?”
We sat on the meadow ground like that for so long that my hands started to go numb. The rest of me was warm under the blanket, but my hands and face were freezing. And I finally, finally felt tired.
“Jorah,” Owen whispered.
The tone in his voice had my eyes snapping awake from where I sat with my head still resting on his shoulder.
Off in the trees, the wolves had arrived. And by the looks of the different colors of fur hiding behind multiple trees, it was most of them too.
Rafe marched toward me, head down and paws cautiously striding forward, then stopped and sat down.
I reached my hand out like I always did even though he was far from it. “Just me, buddy. Under a blanket that is probably freaking you out. Just me.”
Rafe cocked his head and just stared at me for the longest moment.
“We should go,” I whispered to Owen. “So they can eat the food.”
Owen slowly stood and reached a hand down to me.
We started making our way back to the castle, careful to not make any sudden movements around the wolves. I was already dreading the stairs up, contemplating whether I was dreading it enough to ask Owen if we could take the elevator instead.
“They’re following us,” Owen said softly.
“Rafe?” I asked, trying to turn my head slightly and look over my shoulder.
“No. All of them.”
I didn’t know quite what to do with that.
As soon as we got to the back hedge, I spun back around. Rafe was there, keeping his distance.
