“That wasn’t my doing, the girl ran off on her own.”
“Mia,” Mia blurted, taking everyone, including herself, by surprise. Maybe it was the way they were talking about her like she wasn’t even there that made her speak up. “The girl’s name is Mia. And I’d like them both to stay.”
“Well then,” Breahn said, sinking into the chair to Mia’s left, “what the Guardian wants, the Guardian gets,” She flashed Mia a grin, oblivious to Orden’s withering gaze from down the table. Hanna removed her hand and took the chair to Mia’s right, effectively putting herself between the girl and her husband. Orden glared at the three of them, a muscle jumping in his cheek. Mia could practically see the process of his thoughts go from wanting to argue, to deciding that it wasn’t worth the headache.
“Aye, fine then.” He sighed, resting an arm on the table top. “I’ll have no interruptions from ye. This will be hard enough to get through without you adding yer two cents. Understood?” No one said a word, “Good.” Mia swallowed loudly as Orden looked at her. Her hands were icy cold; she clasped them together in her lap and started tracing circles into the back of her right hand with the thumb of her left. “Where shall we begin?” He asked her.
Chapter 22
What a great question, if only Mia had an answer. She had so many questions, most of them sparked by her conversation with Breahn earlier that morning. And then there was the logical part of her brain demanding that she cut through the fantasy and demand the real truth.
Mia was still holding on to the hope that they were lying and that she was here for some sick reason. Crazy, she realized but the alternative- that they were telling the truth, and she was in a different world- was too strange and terrifying to think about. “Why am I here?” Mia’s voice shook, but she didn’t have it in her to be annoyed. It was as good a place as any to start.
Orden took his time answering. Mia wished she knew what he was thinking. Those impenetrable grey eyes remained cold and unreadable, they pierced her to the bone. She felt vulnerable and afraid and desperately missed the anger that had given her courage before. Orden spoke, “You are here to take up the mantle of Guardian and assume the responsibilities of the post.” Mia clamped down on the urge to scream, digging her thumb into the soft triangle of flesh between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand. She kept her face neutral. “It is my appointed task to help you develop the skills you will need to perform your duties.”
“And what would those be exactly?” Mia asked, keeping a firm hold on her tone. The ridiculousness of their conversation wasn’t lost on her, but she’d told herself she would hear him out.
“Guardians defend the people and keep the peace.”
“Oh is that all?” Hanna inhaled sharply, a warning that Mia had overstepped some invisible line. Orden’s eyes flashed dangerously, and Mia felt a stab of real fear shiver down her spine. She didn’t care if he had carried her in from outside last night, this man was hugely intimidating, and right now he looked like he wanted to snap her in half. “I’m sorry.” She murmured, looking down at the table. “I’m trying to keep an open mind here, but it’s hard. You’re asking me to believe you even though what you’re saying goes against everything I know.” Mia lifted her chin, “It’s a lot.” Her honesty surprised him. The mask shattered and she watched a series of emotions pass over his face, the most prevalent of those being a deep sadness. It was his turn to look away. Orden drew a hand over his bare head, sighing deeply. His hand found its way to his chin and stayed there.
“I know.” He said finally and the tension in the room deflated. “I know how badly you want to believe that I am lying to you. I know ye are scared and confused. I know this because you are not the first child chosen for this fate.”
Not the first... Mia realized she’d already put that together on her own. What she couldn’t make sense of was the weight associated with that word: Chosen. A simple word that seemed to hold so much meaning. What did it mean? What was the criteria? Why was she chosen? Orden seemed to know what she was thinking without her needing to put voice to the questions flying around inside her head. “You, like the others, were chosen because you possess Power.”
“Power?” Mia scrunched her face, testing the word, “What are you talking about? What does that mean?”
Orden grimaced, “There is so much you don’t know.” He sighed in a defeated manner, dropping his hand to the table with a dull thump. “There is so much I need to tell you before you can even begin to understand.”
Her heart started to pound a little faster. Was it too much for her to hope that Orden would drop this story and tell her he meant to ransom her? That she’d be able to go home once his demands were met? What Orden had said about her being a Guardian- whatever that meant- and having responsibilities sounded like it might have lengthy implications.
Mia wrung her hands beneath the table, her fingers were icy and clammy at the same time. Something in those strange grey eyes was making it difficult to keep telling herself this was all a cover-up. Orden believed that what he was saying was true. And that would mean that she was in another world, chosen for something she didn’t understand. Mia couldn’t believe that. “Um,” She said a bit awkwardly. “I-I um-” Mia got to her feet, fighting the weight of three pairs of eyes as she straightened. “I’m gonna go now.”
The dismayed turn of Orden’s mouth was the last thing Mia saw before she calmly walked across the kitchen, opened the door and stepped out into the sunlit yard. “Ye’re just going to let her go?” Breahn’s voice was only slightly dampened by the walls between them.
“There is nowhere for her to go.” Orden’s low rumble reached Mia despite the distance she’d already put between herself and the house. She picked her feet up a little faster, not sure where she was headed but needing to get there fast. Orden was right, there was nowhere for her to go, he knew it, and she knew it, and what was worse, he knew she knew it. Mia almost screamed.
She retraced her steps of the previous night, moving through the neat farmyard without seeing her surroundings. It may as well have been dark for all the attention Mia paid to the huge barn standing sentinel over the yard. Fluffy white and brown chickens pecked and scratched at the dirt. Their self-absorbed clucking so different from the sounds of the city; sounds she felt the absence of more and more with each passing minute. Dirt gave way to spongy grass beneath Mia’s boots as she struggled with the numbness cloaking her body like a second skin. Here she was again, running away with nowhere to go. No closer to understanding why she was here at all. Mia wanted to go home but was that even a possibility anymore?
Where was home? A couple hundred miles away? Or was Orden right and home was in another world entirely? How could it be? That was the stuff of books and movies, it didn’t happen, couldn’t happen in real life. Mia sighed heavily and stopped, her hands fisted at her sides. Before her, a field of grass rolled toward the tree line, an ominous shadow on the horizon. Daisies and little blue flowers swayed on the cool breeze. Her hair lifted and a shiver raced through her body. Mia wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the scene laid out before her. Her thoughts fell silent, and in their place, she heard the rustling of grass, long blades rubbing against one another. There was an unidentifiable smell on the air, something warm and musky. Mia sniffed experimentally, pulling up her nose at the strange, unpleasant scent.
Peta-peta-peta. Mia blinked slowly at the familiar sound. Hadn’t she left the damn bird in the woods? Peta-peta-peta. “Shut up.” Mia grumbled, glaring at a patch of tall grass only to have the bird sound from somewhere to her left. Mia looked skyward.
Light footsteps approached, almost tentatively from behind. Mia continued her vigil, tracking the wispy tails of clouds across the pale blue sky until Breahn stopped beside her. She didn’t say anything, and Mia was grateful to be left in silence a moment longer.
“It’s so quiet here.” Mia murmured when she was ready.
“Aye.” Mia looked over at the other girl. Bre
ahn cocked her head to the side, waiting. Mia puffed through her nose. The sun was warm on the back of her head; its heat contrasting with the chill in the air.
“I want to go home.” Mia’s eyes prickled, and she bit down hard on the inside of her cheek.
“What is it like, your home?”
Mia closed her eyes and heard the honking of car horns; she saw the outline of soaring buildings and inhaled the smell of vendor food, beef hotdogs, and cheese pizza. With her eyes still closed she said, “It’s very different from this place.”
Mercifully Breahn didn’t ask any more questions. “Perhaps ye will tell me about it one day.” She turned toward Mia, “But for now ye can help me feed the chickens.” Mia blinked. A second passed and then she nodded. Breahn smiled a small upward turn of her lips and started back toward the house.
Chapter 23
“What’s that smell?” Mia asked, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
Breahn looked up from tossing grains to the hens at her feet. “What smell?” She asked, smoothing a few strands of hair from her face.
“That smell.” How couldn’t she smell that musky animal stink?
Breahn sniffed the air, frowning prettily, then her face cleared, “Oh,” she said and grinned. “Horse shit. Remember I told ye we farm horses here.”
“Uh- yeah,” That detail had completely slipped Mia’s mind. “So uh-” She dipped a hand into the hard leather pouch looped over her shoulder and scooped out some grain, “how many horses do you have on the farm?” Mia didn’t know why she asked, maybe it was to fill the silence, or perhaps it was a distraction from her thoughts.
Breahn tapped a toe thoughtfully, “About thirty-six right now, but once the planting season arrives, we’ll sell the yearlings. Not all of them mind, we usually keep five or so for new stock.” The other girl was content to go on talking without much contribution from Mia, save for the occasional grunt of interest. “We have the two studs, Ecobar and Reis, they’re in the pasture out back. The pregnant mares are in the big field. There’s one mother and her little lad in the barn right now, poor wee one might have pneumonia. We can go see him if ye like?”
“What?” Mia looked up from the fluffy white chicken pecking at the dirt, “Oh, sure.”
“Da usually takes a few of the yearlings to Keswick at the beginning of the Grower’s season. Now ye’re here I imagine he’ll send Vander on his own.”
“Vander?” A spark of genuine interest ignited within Mia and the thick fog shrouding her mind cleared, “The guy who’s supposed to be a dragon?”
“He’s not supposed to be anything. He is a Dragon.”
Mia pressed her lips together to stop from saying something offensive. She tossed more grain to the chickens, watching as the rooster marched through the smaller hens, his golden feathers gleaming in the sun. “I think your definition of dragons is different from mine,” Mia muttered, dragging the scuffed toe of her boot across the dirt in an absent line. “What do ye know about Dragons?” Breahn asked sharply. Mia looked up pinned by the intensity in those blue eyes Breahn turned on her. “Do they live in your world?”
Mia would have laughed had it not been for the way Breahn’s eyes seemed to shine from within. “No,” A cloud of disappointment settled over the other girl’s features and Mia’s stomach twisted with guilt. “We have stories about them.” She was quick to add, “I’ve seen pictures of them and movies. But they’re not real. They’re make-believe.”
“Folk here are beginning to believe the same,” Breahn murmured, returning her attention to the chickens eagerly waiting for more food, “It has only been twelve years since the Great Sacrifice, but with every passing day it gets easier to believe they never existed at all.” Mia didn’t know what to say to that. What was Breahn talking about with such sadness in her voice? Some important event, Mia understood from the weight behind Breahn’s words. An event that had wiped out dragons? Mia went rigid, her blood turning to ice. What was she thinking? Did she actually believe that she was in a world where dragons existed? Hadn’t she said as much upon answering Breahn’s question?
“I can’t talk about this anymore.” Mia walked toward the chicken coop, removing the grain pouch as she went and deposited it on the roof of the little lean-to.
“Wait.”
She heard Breahn’s footsteps behind her, the swirl of her dress as the hem brushed across the ground. Mia turned on the other girl, her lip curled in a snarl. “No!” Mia barked. A flicker of doubt crossed Breahn’s face. “I don’t want to hear any more of your lies. Just leave me alone!” Mia turned her back as the last word cracked out of her and stormed blindly toward the house, running away again.
“You shouldn’t be telling her things you have no right to.” He said, leaning against the aged pine boards of the barn.
“And you shouldn’t be anywhere near the girl.” Breahn hissed, sweeping around to fix him with a would-be terrifying glare had he not been a Dragon and immune to intimidation. “Da would box yer ears if he found out.”
Vander caught the insinuated threat, but he let it roll off him like rain on his scales. “He won’t.” He drawled, pushing away from the barn.
“Don’t think ye scare me for one second.” Breahn snorted and tossed another handful of grain.
Vander stopped, after a second he crossed his arms and lifted his gaze to the house. “You’re wasting your time with her.” He shook his head and almost choked on his disappointment. “She doesn’t believe any of it.”
“And that is where ye’re wrong.” Breahn didn’t look at him but raised her face to their home, burnt amber and squares of shining glass in the sun.
Vander sucked his teeth, fighting against his impatience when she didn’t offer more in the way of explanation. He chewed and spat the words out, “Enlighten me.”
Breahn half-turned, regarding him with a solitary sapphire eye. “She knows it’s the truth. She’s just not ready to accept it yet.” Whether she accepted it or not, she was still a girl. A weak, fragile girl who didn’t have the sense not to run away in the dark. A coward who couldn’t see it through. As if she could read his thoughts Breahn said, “You and Da are wrong about her. She needs time. When she’s ready, I think all your fears will be for nothing.”
“What time?” Vander snapped, his hands falling to his sides where they turned to fists. “We don’t have time. Nethea doesn’t have time!” A well of hopelessness opened beneath his feet, threatening to swallow him whole.
Breahn turned with a sigh, looping the strap of the grain pouch over her head as she brushed past him. “The two of ye are one and the same.” She muttered, throwing the empty pouch onto the slanted roof of the chicken coop. Vander twisted after her, his mouth open to ask who she was referring to. She couldn’t mean the girl. “This can’t be rushed, Vander.” Breahn was looking at him, her blue eyes pleading, willing him to listen. She took his hand in both of hers, and Vander found that he didn’t have it in him to pull away. “When she is ready she will be all we’ve hoped and waited for. Don’t be so quick to underestimate her.”
“How can you be so sure?” Vander asked. Asked, because some part of him wanted to believe her. A part that fought against the hopeless despair that had plagued him since he’d found the girl in the woods. Could he dare hope? Would he? A small smile formed on Breahn’s lips, “Because she has strength in her. She doesn’t know it, but I can see it. When she’s ready, she will find it.”
He wanted to argue, Vander practically shook with the urge to dismiss Breahn’s words. Eldhor help him, but he couldn’t believe anything good would come from the girl. He looked deep into Breahn’s eyes, saw the sureness she felt and said, “You are a fool.” Vander pulled his hand free of her grasp and turned for the forest, avoiding the disappointment in his step-sister’s eyes.
He hadn’t taken more than a handful of steps before Breahn called after him, “Her name is Mia.” Vander made no indication he’d heard her as he picked up his pace. The name would echo in his head thro
ugh the day and well into the night, accompanied by the image of the girl’s unconscious face.
Chapter 24
It was pitch black when Mia finally rolled onto her back, the aching in her empty stomach impossible to ignore any longer. Using her elbows as supports, she raised herself into a half-sitting position. Her eyes were heavy and swollen; Mia rubbed at them with the palm of one hand. She’d run up to this room, her room, storming through the house before slamming the door on anyone who might have followed. It was a small mercy that no one had.
Mia had fallen back against the door, eyes closed, with her hands fisted in her hair as huge gasping breaths had torn through her body. Blood had hummed in her veins, hot and volatile as she’d teetered on the edge of losing control and fallen over with a scream that seemed to go on forever, stretching and expanding to fill the room. Then Mia had moved, stalking through the room looking for something, anything to break or rip apart. The bed had been too heavy to budge so she’d ripped the sheets and pillows from the mattress and thrown them on the ground with a furious snarl. The window drapes came next, torn from the wall with the heavy wooden rod and its moorings. Mia hadn’t bothered to try with the giant, solid looking wardrobe standing against the wall but the ceramic bowl on the washstand had shattered spectacularly when she’d raised it high overhead and smashed it on the floor. Utterly spent, Mia had then thrown herself face first onto the bare mattress and cried herself into oblivion.
The gurgle that came from her empty stomach was loud in the silent room. Shit. She couldn’t put it off, she needed food. Mia made herself sit up all the way and grimaced at the stiffness in her limbs. She rolled her right shoulder, bearing the twinge of pain as punishment for her behavior. The thought of putting a single toe out of the bedroom made her want to curl into a ball and stay right there. The last thing she wanted right now was to talk to one of them. It wasn’t so much that she was scared of what they had to say. No, what terrified Mia was that she might start to believe them. What if it wasn’t nonsense? What if-? No. Mia clamped down on the thought before it could send her spiraling into the same despair that had made her cry so much the mattress was still wet with her tears. She wouldn’t think about it, couldn’t, not right now anyway.
Chosen (The Last Guardians Book 1) Page 13
