by Rosie Scott
“We are friends, Cal. You can tell me whatever you wish to, and I will listen.”
Calder swallowed hard, before he reached up to Koby's necklace. “Don't take this the wrong way. Please? The last thing I need is for you to rush out of here in anger on the last day I see you.”
I frowned. “I won't. I can't think of anything you could possibly say that would cause that.”
He exhaled heavily, before his red eyes stuck to the ground, anxious. “I told you, once, that I envied the other races for their ability to love. I saw the relationship between you and Cerin, and I envied it. I have been flirtatious with you before, because you are beautiful, but that is not why I am telling you this. I...” he trailed off, embarrassed with revealing so much to me. “I never thought about how love is more than just romance. I realized this because I see how you love Nyx, and Jakan, and Anto. It is hard for the Alderi to love, even when it is in friendship. We were cursed by the gods—” He hesitated, glancing knowingly to me “—or the Ancients, or whoever made the races as they are. Even the most humble Alderi rarely love. But Nyx does. She loves you and the others, as hard as it is for her to say. And throughout all this, I've realized that I have loved, too. It is rare for me. I guard myself from most people, but there have been two who have shone through the darkness of everything else, and I love them both dearly.”
I couldn't really help it. My eyes swelled with tears, because I knew who those two people were, even before he said it.
“I loved Koby, Kai. He had always been there. I thought, at one point, that he would always be there. It felt like we would conquer the world together. When he died, I felt like I was a newborn, lost in this world with no direction or goal. And then...” he paused, breathing shakily. “You came along.”
I reached over, pulling Calder in for a hug, letting the emotion I held in come out. I cried not only because his words meant so much to me, but also because he'd found someone else like his deceased Koby, and that someone was once again leaving him alone.
“I'm glad this is your response,” he admitted softly, before a thick chuckle. “I am so green to the ways of romance, I thought perhaps you would think I was disrespecting what you have with Cerin.”
“No, Cal. This means a lot to me. I love you, too. You've become a wonderful friend.”
“I love you, Kai, and you know what?” He chuckled. “I tried so hard to hate you there, for awhile.”
I laughed through my tears. “I am so sorry, Cal. For everything you've been through. For having to leave.”
Calder shook his head. “Don't you dare apologize for that. It feels like we've conquered the world together, love, but you have quite a ways to go. I would not be a true friend if I kept you from it.”
We pulled apart, and Calder immediately put his fingers back to the copper ring on his hand, though this time, he pulled the jewelry off. He reached over, taking my hand in his, carefully moving the ring over one of my bare fingers.
“It does fit,” he mused softly.
“You are giving me this?” I asked, swallowing hard as I felt the warmth of the ring on my skin. It had been Calder's pinky ring, though my fingers were small enough that it fit on my middle finger.
“Until we meet again, love. Carry this with you,” he pleaded, holding my hand in his.
My eyes found Koby's key that laid softly against the fabric of his shirt. Calder was one of the most sentimental people I'd ever had the pleasure of meeting. I turned my attention back to my hands, removing a silver ring I'd bought for myself in Sera many years ago. I took Calder's hand, putting my own ring on his newly bare finger.
“Here, then,” I murmured. “Let it calm you and remind you that you are never alone.”
“I don't wish to force you to part with your things, love,” he said. “It was only a gesture from me to you. You owe me nothing.”
“It was my cheapest ring,” I jested. “I will not miss it.”
Calder chuckled at the joke. “All right, then. You owe me for the gold, anyway.”
I shook the coin purse at my side, calling attention to it. “Even more so, now.”
Calder walked with me to the bottom of his tower, until the others came into view, sitting with all of their things on the front steps. We would finally be leaving for Eteri today. It would take us a long while to make it, yet, but our visit was already going to be over a year later than originally planned.
“Goodbye, love,” Calder called after me, as my friends and I made our way down the steps away from him. My heart felt as if it were stretching painfully, never wanting to let go of someone important. “Remember: anything you need, just say the word! I will prepare the underground for your aid.”
I waved back to him, even as his features grew smaller. “You as well, Cal!”
I had spent so long fighting in this underground civil war, but turning away from Calder was the hardest thing I'd done here yet. I held the copper ring he'd given me between the fingers of my other hand, feeling the hum of a good friend's residual energies, hoping the comfort it brought me could somehow dull the pain of leaving him behind.
As my friends and I made our way through the newly liberated Quellden to the northern tunnel over the next few weeks, Nyx pointed out the places she'd known as a little girl, and as always, she added her own flair to the stories, making us laugh with her memories. I hoped that one day, with Calder's leadership, the underground could become a place for the other races to visit in peace. It was beautiful here in such an other-worldly way. Other races probably couldn't move here to live forever, though. With another glance toward my hands, I remembered why we needed to leave this place before it could wear us down. The skin on my palms had started to turn yellow with a lack of the sun's nutrients, proving that the underground would always belong to the Alderi. Even Jakan, Anto, and Cerin's skin had started to yellow. Nyx, on the other hand, was more comfortable than she'd ever been. She hadn't needed to use lotions for so long, that I'd nearly forgotten she usually needed them.
“That was my last view of Quellden,” Nyx announced, as we finally neared the split between the northern tunnel to Eteri and the other path to its right, which led to the Seran Peaks exit. She pointed to the exit, of course, which led to the surface of one of the mountains behind my home city. “That's the tunnel I used to come and kill you.”
I chuckled at the jovial tone with which she'd said it. Nyx had been extra happy since our army had dethroned her mother. Despite how she rarely spoke of her past here, liberating the underground had seemed to put her mind at ease. Perhaps, like Calder, she'd been ashamed of her background. Now, there was little to be ashamed of. After all that Nyx had done for me and my quest of vengeance and war, I was happy to have been a part of this personal quest of hers.
We approached the tunnel which would lead us under the Servis Ocean and back toward Hazarmaveth and Eteri. It was a large entrance, much like the southeastern entrance my own army had come through for our battle here long ago. Businesses and assassin's guilds rose along both sides of the street here, many of the buildings still broken from the war. Some of the Alderi in the streets were working on repairing the structures, and some of the businesses here were being remodeled, probably as a result of the owners having been casualties. It appeared that the people rebuilding it were hopeful for a new beginning. Men and women were working together. Some relationships had been formed between the sexes here, though many still avoided each other, reluctant of change. I decided not to be concerned. No empires had ever been built in a day.
“Kai.” The voice sounded out from behind us, just as we entered the tunnel which would take us to Eteri. I turned, my mind racking for the face of the man who spoke. I'd worked with so many people since taking Quellden, that voices and faces were starting to run together in my head.
An Alderi man with slick black hair tentatively approached us from the edge of the tunnel, as if his presence would be unwelcome to us. A quiver of black arrows hung at his right hip, and just behind his
head, I could see the edges of a beautifully carved bow.
Azazel stopped a few feet from me, looking a little embarrassed that he'd called out for me at all. He seemed to fight for words, but I ran to him, grabbing him into a hug. I never thought I'd see him again.
“Azazel, you fucking liar,” I blurted, squeezing onto him tightly.
“I didn't lie,” he said softly, allowing his arms to surround me, returning the friendly gesture. “I left. I made it a ways down the tunnel before I turned back.”
I pulled back from him, finding his black eyes beneath his shaggy bangs. “You turned back? You were free.”
“What is the point of freedom without anyone to share it with?” He questioned, glancing up to the others behind me. Then, he grimaced, finding his words too forward. “I suppose I should ask you, first, if you mind adding one to your party here. I don't wish to intrude on a group of friends.”
“Don't be ridiculous,” I scoffed.
“Add the best archer of Hazarmaveth to our little group of rejects?” Jakan teased from behind me. “Oh, no, why would we ever want to do that?”
The sides of Azazel's lips lifted at the Vhiri's jest. “I no longer belong to Hazarmaveth,” he replied, looking off into the depths of the tunnel. “You will have to refer to me from now on as the best archer on Arrayis.”
I laughed at the archer's jest, having not expected it.
“Careful, Azazel, or that ego will give Kai's a run for her gold,” Nyx teased.
“Both egos are deserving,” he replied, smiling over at me.
We started our venture back into the tunnels of the underground with a new friend in tow. Eteri was last on our list of possible allies for our war, and I hoped our talks would go well. With any luck, we wouldn't come across any more of my fickle golden-eyed friends, or other extreme difficulties. Perhaps, soon, my final goal of marching into Chairel could be realized. I knew things wouldn't go that smoothly, of course, because life was complicated and war was unpredictable. But it was always nice to hope.
As we made small talk, I told Azazel of Calder's words of apologies to me after he'd left the battle all that time ago. I thought it would be good for Azazel to know that Calder had, in fact, expressed sincere regrets for his role in the archer's difficulties, both from their mutual past and the recent events.
“I appreciate you telling me,” Azazel said, his black eyes on the depths ahead, searching for enemies as he always did. “I can't say that makes me want to befriend him, even if he were here. Still, I'm sure it was hard of him to say and admit. Perhaps Alastor actually has a chance of rebuilding this wretched place, as much as I hate to admit it.” He hesitated, before he wrinkled his nose, realizing he'd once again used Calder's other name. “Calder,” he corrected.
I thought back to my last conversation with Calder. “He said he might take your advice, Azazel. Of keeping the other name.”
“...oh?”
“Yes. He changed it because he felt he didn't deserve it. He said he felt he'd grown into it.”
Azazel nodded slowly, though he said nothing.
“He told me you knew what the name means,” I added. “Alastor. What does it mean?”
Azazel exhaled slowly as he stared into the abyss ahead. “It means he was born to avenge evil deeds, Kai,” he told me. “The name Alastor means avenger.”
***
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this book and would like to see more like it, please consider leaving a review to support the author's future work. Thank you for your support!
Click here to sign up for Rosie Scott's mailing list to receive updates on book releases, including for Air (The Six Elements Book 4): http://eepurl.com/c6SRB9
Click here to check out more books, maps, fun facts, fan art, and more: www.rosiescottbooks.wordpress.com
Don't forget to check out maps, glossaries, and more in the beginning of the book! Kindle versions sometimes skip this important information and direct readers immediately to the first page of story.
