Page 54 of Tisak

At the party, I’d followed Weylyn around the entire night. I’d thought he’d get annoyed at me, but he hadn’t. He’d seemed just as anxious about keeping me in his sights as I had him, at least when he was working.

He seemed to know everyone in the camp, and I hardly knew anyone. Which was my own fault, really, but for weeks, I hadn’t been in the mood to be friendly. Not that Wey was friendly, exactly, but he’d at least remembered people’s names.

Maybe Wey was right. Maybe I should try making some friends.

As soon as I had the thought, a sharp pain pierced my heart. I didn’t want to make new friends. I wanted my old ones to come back.

With a sigh of frustration, I rubbed my eyes and left my tent. Wey had left hours ago for his morning meeting with Kasper. Wey shared with me the things they spoke about, so I had a good idea of what was going on out in the three kingdoms.

Reports kept coming in from Enos. The new king—King Linus Mydon, Theon’s half-brother—was crueler than we’d given him credit for. He continued to buy new slaves because he killed so many without cause or hesitation. He’d even begun sending soldiers out to capture humans and shifters. His kingdom was in danger of a food shortage because his men had mistakenly enslaved a few humans from their farms. The king was mad, and that madness was spreading throughout his kingdom.

We needed to find a way to help the slaves there, but that kingdom would be the most difficult to travel through with its harsh cold winds and snowy mountains. Most of us had never been exposed to such severe winter, so Kasper, with good reason, was concerned about taking our people there.

Still, even knowing all of this, I really hated waking up alone, but that had become commonplace. Every morning, I woke, thinking that Wey had finally left me, too, before I realized he’d gone to help Kasper. I woke in a panic each morning, which didn’t put me in the best of moods for training.

Shaking off the negative thoughts, I headed for the training field.

Wey was already there, helping a few bear shifters with their sword work, so I headed that way. It was early, so the field wasn’t very crowded yet.

Weylyn shot me a smile when he saw me approach, but he made sure he wiped it from his face before he turned back to the bear shifters. Because, of course, he’d want them to think he was a tough, macho gargoyle that wouldn’t take any shit. I internally rolled my eyes at him. He had nothing to prove to any of these people. His skills were obvious to anyone with eyes.

“Finally got out of bed, I see,” he said quietly after he’d set the bears to spar each other.

“Alone,” I murmured, then cringed. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“Nica.” He sighed.

Shaking my head because I really didn’t want to talk about it, especially here, I walked over to the weapons rack and pulled off two short swords. Since these bears could use a little help, I jumped in the fray, ignoring Wey’s stare as he bore holes in the side of my head.

Later that morning, Wey and I were helping train a different group of wolf shifters. They were good, but not on par with Wey and me. But I could admit to having fun sparring with them.

Maybe this whole wanting to make a friend thing could happen. Maybe Icouldstart talking to some of these people.

A whistle filled the air, and everyone around me froze. The sound came from the guards walking the perimeter of our camp, which meant they’d found someone wandering in the trees.

Tensing, I followed my gargoyle to the other side of the training field where Kasper was standing. He’d been sparring a group of shifters, and even I could admit the leader of the Resistance was a damn good fighter.

A group of us lined up in front of and around Kasper, keeping him in the center so he was protected while we waited. It took some time, and I was itching with tension, but finally, a group of guards came out of the trees. Walking in the center of them was a creature I’d never seen before.

He had huge horns on top of his head, curling back. It reminded me of a goat, which was odd. His hair was darker than any I’d ever seen, and his bare chest was covered in strange blue tattoos, although he had enough weapons strapped over his chest that it was hard to see what the markings were. He was probably as tall as I was, and nearly as muscular—okay, he was probably just as muscly as me, but I wouldn’t admit that out loud. I glanced at his trousers, and my eyes caught on his feet. Hisbarefeet.What the hell’s up with that?

The guards walked him over to us so Kasper could speak to the newcomer, and when he was right in front of me, his dark purple eyes that looked black met mine for a moment. His stare made me hold back a shiver, and I took a deep breath.

The scent of what I now knew was fae filled my nose, and I tensed further.

He was fae.

Had he seen Theon?

“Hello, friend,” Kasper said, stepping forward and making all of us tense. “I’m Kasper Denholm. Welcome to our camp.”

The fae’s gaze ran up the length of Kasper’s body, and from the gleam in the fae’s eyes, he liked what he saw. When he finished eye-fucking Kasper in front of half the camp, he put his arm over his chest with a closed fist and dipped his head ever so slightly. “I thank you for your welcome, Kasper Denholm, and I’d like to assure you I’m here as a friend. My name is Jedrek Wranrel. I have been sent here by my elders to seek a tiger and a gargoyle.”

“Holy crap,” I said—accidentally out loud.Whoops.

The fae—Jedrek or whatever his name was—turned to me with a raised brow, but Kasper interceded by saying, “Do you have the names of those you seek?”

Jedrek tore his gaze away from mine and said, “Nica and Weylyn. I was told it’s likely they’d be together.”

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