She sighs. “Letting him stay here is going to cause tension. A lot of it. At the very least.”
“I know.”
She frowns. We sit in silence for several minutes after that; I feel like she’s waiting, giving me a chance to change my mind.
I don’t.
She leans back against the steps, tilting her head toward the sky that’s slowly filling with stars. “I will declare that he is a temporary member of our pack, under our protection and jurisdiction. At least until we come up with a better solution.” She glances at me with a bemused smile. “This will almost certainly go poorly.”
I nod, knowingly, and I hold my breath as she gets to her feet. I’m half expecting her to change her mind before she gets back inside. But by the time she reaches the door, she’s already lifted her head and set her shoulders in that particular determined, empress of wolves sort of stance that she faces every difficult meeting with.
“Thank you,” I call softly.
“You’re welcome,” she says, turning back. “But Elle…”
“Yeah?”
“I’m not telling your father. You can do that.” Her expression is a bit smug.
I wilt at the thought. But really, if that’s the worst she plans to do to me after everything I’ve put her through lately, I guess I got off easy.
“You should go see him. Be there when he wakes up, especially since this will be a strange place to him.”
I nod again, getting to my feet and following her inside.
Aunt Katie informs me that Soren is resting in the second floor guest bedroom. But as I reach the main hall on that second floor, I immediately catch a glimpse of Liam and Carys as they emerge from the library.
We just stare at each other for a moment.
And then it turns into one of those completely cliché dramatic runs, where we sprint and collide so hard that we practically knock each other over, and we’re lost for several moments in a mushy combination of laughter and tears and hugs.
I step back and take a deep breath, and I tell them that I was just on my way to see Soren. They nod, and there’s some awkward shuffling, and finally Liam just comes out and asks it—
“So what happens with him now?”
I explain the conversation I just had with my mom, trying to gauge their reactions when I tell them that Soren is going to be staying here for the foreseeable future. They’re basically what I expected. Carys smiles in that encouraging way that she does when I’m doing something dumb, but she thinks I’ll at least learn something from it. Liam shrugs it off, offers me an easy grin, and outright tells me I’m dumb, but that he supports my dumbness all the same.
“I know it’s going to cause trouble,” I admit. “But what else could we do? Tell him to go home?”
“We know,” Carys says, sympathetically. “You were right when you said that his mother wasn’t his family, and as for the rest…”
“Blood isn’t necessarily thicker than water, I guess, despite how the saying goes,” Liam interjects.
“Actually,” Carys says, “some interpretations of the original idiom suggest that the actual meaning is closer to the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. So in this case it would mean the opposite of what most people think.”
“Actually, you’re a total nerd for bringing that up,” Liam says. “But the point stands, uncertain idiom interpretations aside. His family relations completely suck, so he should probably stick to covenants he forms himself.”
Carys smacks him hard in the arm, and suddenly it feels like everything is almost back to normal.
“What?” Liam complains. “I was just telling the truth.”
“It’s called discretion, you cretin. He might be able to hear you!”
“I’m pretty sure he already knows what I’m saying,” Liam insists, laughing as he dodges a second swing of Carys’s fist.
They’re still arguing and playfully shoving each other as we part ways. I hear one of them tumbling down the stairs, followed by my Aunt Katie shouting at them to stop roughhousing before they break something, and a happy little sigh escapes me.
It’s nice to be home.
That same thought makes me pause in the doorway of the dimly-lit room where Soren is sleeping, and the happy bubble building in my chest deflates a little.
Home is not a subject I plan on bringing up with him any time soon.
My Uncle Eli is standing at the bedside, flipping through a notebook. It’s likely filled with the notes his wife took about the particular, magical brand of injuries Soren sustained, and the remedies and care she plans to implement. She’s the official nurse, but he spends enough time studying her notes and medical books that he could probably receive an honorary degree in medicine from most colleges at this point.
When he notices me standing in the doorway, he places the notebook on the nightstand and walks toward me.
He’s a man of few, always carefully-chosen words, but he does grip my shoulder and give it a comforting squeeze as he says, “He will be awake soon, I suspect.”
I nod. He leaves, and I walk inside, remembering my mom’s words.
Be there when he wakes up.
This will be a strange place to him.
It won’t be his home.
I’m not sure I can make it feel like it is. But as I reach his side, I take his hand, and I decide that I can at least try.
And maybe if we hold tightly enough to whatever new home we create together, then all of the chaos that’s been following us might finally fade away.
End of Book Two of The Canath Chronicles
hey readers!
Thanks for joining these characters for another adventure. I hope you enjoyed it! I tried not to leave you with a massive cliffhanger this time ;) That said, there’s more potential for this story, and I plan to write more in this universe as my schedule allows! If you want to see more books featuring these characters asap, the best way to tell me that is by leaving a review on the books in this series and letting me know that you enjoyed them and you’d like more! Reviews are an author’s best friend. Seriously. They help me prioritize which of my (way too many) book ideas I should write first :) Not to mention they also help me sell more books, which means I get to spend less time worrying about silly things like bills and more time writing things we both love!
Take care and until next time: thank you, as always, for supporting my and my stories <3
-S.M.
Join My Reader Group!
Sign up now for once-a-month mailings to keep up with all of my releases, deals, and free giveaways and such!
Click here!
Also by Eva Truesdale/S.M. Gaither
Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Syndrome
Sacrifice
Ascendant
Blood and Wolf
Silver and Shadow
Epic Fantasy
Skykeeper
Cursebreaker
Storm bringer (coming soon!)
The Queen of Cursed Things (coming soon!)
Silver and Shadow (The Canath Chronicles Book 2) Page 20
