I stared at him in disbelief.
I never thought I was going to see him again, and yet here he was.
"...Cai?" was all I managed to say.
And then a flood of different emotions hit me all at once, overwhelming me.
...But there was one that ended up prevailing above any other.
I moved so quickly that I almost didn't even realise I did it… and slapped him across the cheek.
Immediately, I stared down at my own hand in astonishment, bewildered at myself as he covered his face.
"...I probably deserved that," he said, and half laughed the whole thing off. "Wow, you really pack a punch these days, Aria."
...Did I actually just hit him?
I thought I was happy to see him? That I wanted his forgiveness?
But I realised something else, something that had triggered me in the way he spoke.
"You don't write to me, you don't visit, and you left making me think you hated me," I snapped. "You can't just show up here, talkin
"...What?"I dropped my hands instantly and moved backwards out of his arms."Feelings for me? Like friendship? Because we had always been friends in my mind, Cai. It was you who denied it, remember?"My chest was beating so hard that I felt like I was about to faint.He walked towards me, immediately closing the space I'd just made between us, and cupped my face in his hand to make me look up at him. I felt frozen in place staring up into his eyes that appeared to be completely serious."You know what I meant, Aria," was all he said to clarify.I felt my mind go completely blank as he held my gaze, having been taken completely off-guard by his sudden confession. But finally, after a few moments, reality kicked in.I pushed my way backwards again, confusion slowly registering over everything he'd just said.How could that even be possible? If that was true, then why would he have waited so long to tell me? Why keep it from me f
There she was.Two years I'd been looking for her and yet it was like she had just fallen out of the sky, having been completely untraceable this entire time.And the nagging I'd been feeling inside my head? I should have met Thea months ago. Aleric first introduced us before his coming of age, so they should have already been dating at this point. I remembered that she hadn't been allowed to attend tonight's event however I couldn't recall why exactly.But she hadn't shown herself even once this entire time I'd come back. And, as far as I knew, she hadn't even shown herself to Aleric yet.And yet, here she was... staring right up at me.Like she knew who I was.My body immediately tensed up as I realised she must have found out I'd hired someone to track her down. That would explain how she had been able to avoid being found this entire time.Well, I'd already worked out she had begun orchestrating my death from possibly years
Ever since Aleric and I had been attacked by rogues at the Golden Blade pack, we had been assisting with the investigation into what had actually happened.The whole thing had seemed so weirdly targeted. Why did they decide to come out of hiding? Was it a purposeful attack on Aleric and I? And, most importantly, had someone leaked information since they knew we would be there?Needless to say, the entire Winter Mist was furious about the whole thing and had demanded answers that the Golden Blade didn't have. They were just as confused by the entire ordeal as we were. Because of that, they were forced to cooperate with us during our investigation; much to their displeasure, I was sure.It had been months since we'd had any leads though. There also hadn't been any trace of a camp on their territory, making us believe they probably had no intention of staying in the area for long when they attacked. This was news that only made the whole thing even more worrisome.
An intense fight ensued as we were quickly engaged by a group of wolves.To my surprise, Aleric had already taken two down and was on to his third before even a few minutes had passed.But there were so many more to go.The bottom line was that we weren't going to win this, and we both knew it.I had two wolves on me and I had so far been holding my own against them well. Neither of them had expected me to be able to fight so well underage and it showed. They moved as if assuming I wouldn't be able to keep up, but they were wrong."Aria!" Aleric yelled. "I can hear there's more coming. We need to go."I knew he was right. We'd vastly underestimated how large this cave system was. With the number of wolves here, it seemed plausible that it expanded out more than what we could see here. Most likely, there were hidden tunnels somewhere which would explain how they appeared to be coming out of nowhere. Our best option was to run.Suddenly
Now it was my turn to drop my cutlery, almost choking on my food."I'm sorry? No. I didnothave feelings for Cai," I said, still coughing a little. I took a sip of water to clear my throat. "It wasyouwho had feelings for Cai, remember? And Cai doesn't have feelings for me either... unless you're talking about the kind of feelings that find him inside a girl's skirt for a day.""Bullshit, Aria!"I quickly looked up to meet Myra's fiery eyes. It was the first time I'd ever heard her swear or even sound so angry. I was completely taken aback."Myra...?"She closed her eyes and composed herself for a second. "Sorry, sometimes I think you've rubbed off on me a little too much."My lip twitched in a smile. It was nice to see Myra standing up for herself so confidently for once... even if she was passionate about the wrong thing in this case."Look, I didn't have feelings for Cai," she stressed. "You
With everything set and being put into action, I went home to wait. It was now up to Myra to pull off the next part.The idea was that she would pretend to notice Thea was new in town and politely ask about her, even try to befriend her. With the two of them getting closer, I was hopeful that Thea would divulge a little about herself; information I'd literally been paying a private investigator to obtain for years now.In order for this to work though, I couldn't be anywhere in sight or else I'd risk Thea catching on.We agreed to meet again in an hour at a park down the street. It was rarely used at this time of the day and bordered on the forest. This meant we didn't need to worry about being seen together. If everything went perfect then Myra would get the information I needed before I came to pick her up, and Thea would be none the wiser to the entire plot.The time passed quickly and, with every second that passed, I could feel my own anxiety buildin
She was dead. Myra was dead. The words kept repeating themselves in my head but I was struggling to come to terms with it being real. Unfortunately, I had only remained unconscious for a few minutes before Aleric had managed to wake me up. I found myself on the couch inside and answered all of his questions as best I could, though albeit very robotically. By the time I had finished describing where Myra was and her current state, Aleric had quickly left to go get the patrol team scouring the area for rogues. I told him about my dagger that was used, the one from the cave I'd left behind, and even about Thea. What she looked like, where the two of them had been, and that I'd told Myra to talk to her. No one really listened to me after I'd mentioned the rogue knife though. They all immediately went on to high alert mainly looking for them, not Thea. Everyone had thought since my missing dagger was used, that it was the rogues trying to
Three days.It had been three days since Myra had died... and I felt suspended in time, unsure over what to do next.After that night, I had arrived home and walked straight into the shower. The process had taken a while since I had needed to peel off all the clothes that had stuck to me; their condition no longer salvageable at all and would need to be thrown out.I'd stood under the showerhead and watched as the hot water turned red all around me, washing away all the evidence of what I'd done. But it wasn't enough. Even when the water had begun to turn clear, I started to scrub at my body. I scrubbed... and scrubbed... and scrubbed... until my flesh was almost as red as the water had been.But even then, I could still see it. I could still feel it.It hadn't been enough.*I*hadn't been enough.For three days, I’d done nothing but lay in bed, barely eating or moving. It was all I could do.My parents had