“Like a cousin I know,” chuckled Stephan as he smiled at her. “There is one old guard in particular that still avoids auburn-haired women like the plague because of you. What did he do to make you strike the poor man so viciously in the groin?”
Mattie’s cheeks reddened while Garin snorted. “So she’s been crippling men since she was a child?”
Stephan laughed, “There are so many stories I could tell.”
And to Mattie’s horror, share her childhood escapades he did. Garin inserted a few more of her recent antics here and there, making Mattie feel like they were ganging up on her. But after letting her indignation fade away, she smiled. Relaxed and laughing with each other, it was actually good to see these brothers getting along for once.
For the peace this moment promised, it was worth the cost of her pride.
Chapter 26
“What is it about the royal bloodlines that causes you people to always want to settle disputes in such a drastic fashion?” snarled Elita as she finished healing Garin’s neck. “I swear you all were cursed with unmanageable tempers!”
Garin’s mouth twitched as if he was trying to keep a straight face. Stephan’s snickers were heard as he lowered his head, while Mattie just snorted her response. Then they tried even harder not to laugh when the elf rolled her eyes at all three of them before moving on to her next patient.
When they had finally returned to the estate an hour or so after the incident at the cave, Elita had been waiting on the front stoop along with their respective fathers. The two men had shaken their heads at the trio’s disheveled state and told the elf to heal them if she didn’t mind dealing with stubborn children. After they had stormed into the house, Elita had hopped down the steps, growling while showing Mattie the white mark on her palm. This was the second day in the row that she had felt distress through that sisterly bond, and there was little wonder at her anger when she pointed to the stoop and demanded that everyone sit.
Stephan shook his head when Elita finally stood in front of him. “Heal Mattie first.”
“By the looks of things, you have more damage than she,” snapped Elita while waving a hand at the dried blood on his clothes, her violet eyes flashing. “Now remove that shirt so I can look at your shoulder—or I’ll cut the damn thing and more off you!”
Stephan only flashed her a winning smile before he acquiesced to her request. There was a wince when the fabric tore at the wound, but his bare and chiseled chest was soon exposed in spite of the pain. His left shoulder had been severely torn, with ragged edges of tattered skin opened wide enough to expose ripped muscle. A grimace appeared on Mattie’s face when she realized that her husband had been just shy of hitting a major artery.
Avoided on purpose, believe me. said Garin through the couple’s bond. The last thing I needed on my conscious was killing a brother, no matter my overall feelings about him.
After what he went through with blaming himself for Emory’s death, Mattie could see how that would be important to him. She reached out and gave his arm a gentle squeeze. He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
There was no sign of jealousy on Stephan’s face this time around. Whether it was because he had accepted the truth or because he was watching the elf with confusion in his eyes was tough to call. Having a healer’s expression suddenly turn troubled would cause anyone concern. Elita’s palm was over the prince’s shoulder and trembling for an unknown reason. Taking a deep breath, she clenched it into a momentary fist before beginning again.
Though the gash now swiftly healed, all three of them were disconcerted by the obvious strain on her face. Once done with that part, she begged the prince’s pardon right before she grabbed him roughly by the chin. Her eyes shifted color to the darkest of purples as she deeply inspected his blue ones. Though Mattie saw terror in his, he remained still for the examination.
“You’ve never had a wound that severe before, have you?” Elita quietly asked after letting him go.
“No,” Stephan admitted.
She kept her voice down when she released another question, “Have you ever seen a healer for the lesser ones?”
After taking a quick glance at the couple, he firmly said, “No.”
The third one had Mattie’s eyebrow rising. “And you’ve never truly been sick, not even with a common cold?”
Garin grunted his surprise after Stephan lowered his head and answered, “No, I haven’t.”
Elita leaned in close to the prince and whispered in his ear for a minute or so. Mattie was dying to know what she had said because shock slowly grew on his face. The elf then stepped back and patiently waited for him to think about her words.
A frail bit of hope hit his eyes. “You can do that?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “But I wouldn’t be able to help you here. All the items I need to possibly make this work are back at the encampment.”
Stephan brightly smiled. “I need to find a new shirt first.”
“I think we can scrounge one up for you,” said Garin as he quickly got to his feet. “I’ll tell our father Elita needs to finish healing you at her place. He’s probably wanted an excuse to have one of you visit the elves anyways.”
After giving Mattie’s shoulder a light pat, he quickly made his way into the house. Hopefully Easton wasn’t going to give his son too much grief over this whole mess. Then those violet eyes were in front of her, and they were glaring.
“Your turn, yet again,” Elita growled as she inspected the head wound. A sensation of warmth told Mattie that the elf had healed it; the smack on her shoulder also told Mattie that her friend wasn’t happy about it being there in the first place. “If you keep this up, I’ll find a tower in which to stick your ass just so you won’t hurt yourself!”
“She’ll just get hurt trying to escape,” chuckled Stephan. “Making the whole idea pointless.”
Mattie stuck her tongue out at him while Elita casually waved her hand across the woman’s belly while she asked him, “I’m guessing your family knows this from experience.”
The laugh he barked at Mattie’s expense was a little too merry. “We’re still trying to figure out how she managed to sneak out and make friends with the creatures in the moat. A couple of their young even tried to follow her back into the castle once.”
Elita’s smile was one of relief, confirming that Isabelle was fine. Then she shook her head. “You were born trouble, weren’t you?”
“She has certainly made things in my life a little more interesting,” teased Easton while he opened the door.
Stephan immediately jumped up and got out of his father’s way. Mattie’s attempt to do the same was met with a kind but insistent hand on her shoulder. She froze and looked up at the man who had a clean white shirt draped over his arm.
“Don’t move on my account,” said the king with a smile. “I need to talk some things over with my son anyways.”
After Mattie nodded, he stepped off the stoop and grabbed Stephan’s arm. Halfway out of earshot, the king handed the shirt to the prince. Without missing a step, the auburn-haired one quickly put it on while his father began to speak in low, gruff tones.
Mattie’s glance returned to the elf, whose brow was furrowed in consternation while she twirled a loose strand of her blond hair. Something about Stephan’s examination had obviously worried her. Mattie knew why she was concerned about her old friend, but why was the elf?
“So what did you say to him anyways?” Mattie finally asked, the curiosity getting the better of her at last.
Unfortunately, it was not going to be satisfied this day. Elita gave Mattie a stern look while wagging a finger at her. “Nice try, but a healer loses credibility if they expose their patients’ secrets. It’s his story to tell, not mine.”
Though upset that Elita was keeping her mouth closed, Mattie had to admit that she did have a point. The woman apologized for putting the elf in that uncomfortable position of choosing between her convictions and their fri
endship. Elita accepted it with a nod of her head.
The elf then kept staring at the king and the prince for so long that Mattie’s gaze soon followed. Stephan was obviously upset about something, pounding a fist against an open palm. The muscles in his neck were tighter than a pulled cord as he was somehow keeping his angry voice down. Easton only glared and was shaking his head in response. When the prince finally threw his arms up as in defeat, Mattie knew his father had won the argument.
“Poor man will have his work cut out for him,” Elita said with a sigh.
“The king?”
“No, the prince. The most I can tell you is that he’s got a lot of particularly nasty demons to overcome, especially the one that kept him from fighting the compulsion to attack Garin.”
Assuming that it was the loss of control about which Stephan had told them, Mattie nodded, “He’ll get there, hopefully with your help.”
Elita chuckled and softly said, “My blood sister is an idiot.”
“Thanks for that,” snapped Mattie as she crossed her arms.
“In this case,” she said kindly. “It’s a good thing.”
“Care to enlighten me on what you mean by that?”
“No.”
Mattie’s growl at the flat answer was only met with a raised eyebrow. The elf could be just as stubborn as she was. “Fine. Keep the secrets of the universe to yourself.”
Elita’s reply was merry, “Don’t I always?”
Truth was in that jovial statement. She had figured out many of Mattie’s secrets along the way without saying a peep to anyone. The woman’s last retaliation was to stick her tongue out at the elf, causing her friend to laugh. Then Elita sat next to Mattie and bumped her shoulder playfully. Turning to her and smiling, Mattie watched as the elf began playing with a strand of hair again.
Elita’s violet eyes softened when she saw the attention on her nervous tic. She lowered her hand and tried to be reassuring, “Don’t let what I said worry you. As long as the prince uses all the tools I plan on giving him, he should be just fine.”
Mattie’s gaze landed on her childhood friend as his father clapped his back, and she could only pray that Elita was right.
***
By the time Easton and Stephan returned from their talk, the shadows of the day were beginning to lengthen. As if the noticeable passage of time had summoned them, Gregory and Garin came around the corner leading two unfamiliar horses. It appeared that this strange visit was about to end, and for once Mattie felt remorse at the thought.
The king offered Mattie a hand up. Taking it, she inquired, “Leaving so soon?”
He solemnly nodded. “Our respective journeys begin early in the morning. Besides, there might be just enough light left for one of my men to scout out that path of yours.”
“May Adonai watch over you,” Mattie said as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.
His eyes widened in surprise before he smiled. “Stay out of trouble,” he said with a chuckle before moving on to speak with Garin.
Stephan let out a snort as he came to stand in front of Mattie, “He asks the impossible of you,” he said jovially.
“Yet the same thing he said to me I now say to you: stay out of trouble.”
“I think that you too are asking for the impossible,” he quietly chuckled.
The smile didn’t reach those eyes of his, the soft sorrow almost making them appear even bluer. Before she could say anything, he gently placed a hand on each of her cheeks and planted a tender kiss on her forehead. “At least be careful, Mattie, and open those eyes of yours even wider,” he whispered as he hesitantly pulled away. “After all, the world would be a much darker place without you in it.”
His soft words made a confused feeling hit the pit of her stomach. While it seemed as if he had given her a vague warning, it also sounded like he was saying goodbye to something more than just this time and place. Not sure what any of that meant, Mattie didn’t know what to say. Though she remembered at the last minute to be polite. “May Adonai watch and keep you.”
The responding smile was half-hearted. “One can only hope.”
Garin came up to them at that moment, his hard expression softening when Mattie smiled at him. Once Stephan saw where her attention had gone, he turned to his half-brother with an outstretched hand. It wasn’t too long before they had grasped each other’s wrists in a companionable manner.
“Brother,” said Stephan warmly. “Though it was rather painful to get to this point, I’m glad we resolved at least some of our differences.”
“So am I,” agreed Garin with a grin.
Stephan tilted his head at Mattie. “And I meant what I said earlier. You are the luckiest man in the kingdom. Try to keep an eye on her.”
Garin’s response was a chuckle. “It hasn’t been easy, but I do my best.”
“Your best seems to be working so far,” said Stephan with a bright smile.
They then embraced in that brotherly way that was more like patting each other on the back. Whispers of “Safe travels.” and “Stay safe yourself.” were exchanged before they separated. After one last nod to Mattie, Stephan then headed for his horse.
Garin wrapped his arm around her shoulders, giving Mattie a chance to lean her head against his chest. The couple stood like that while they watched both the king and the prince mount their respective horses, with Elita soon being seated behind her patient. Gregory backed away from them, holding his right palm out as a sign of farewell. Garin and Mattie followed suit, and soon both Easton and Stephan returned the gesture.
As the two men made their way through the front gate, Mattie could only think that this had been the strangest birthday of her life.
Chapter 27
A scarf covered Garin’s face while he helped an equally swathed Emory muck out the stalls. Fresh bales of hay were waiting to be laid out after the smelly first part was thoroughly completed. It was dirty work, but somebody had to do it. Frost on the window this morning had reminded everyone that winter wouldn’t stay away forever, so various tasks of last-minute preparation had been meted out. The two brothers had been reluctantly volunteered for this job because it was the simplest on the list. As his muscles began to ache from the continued action of using a pitchfork in a fashion similar to a shovel, he wondered how something so disgusting could also be satisfying.
Garin stopped for a moment, leaning on the implement’s handle and using the scarf to wipe the sweat off his brow. Having grown up surrounded by servants, neither he nor Emory had ever done manual labor quite like this before. It still amazed him that the Hawksthorne Estate ran so well without the help of others. Even more extraordinary was the fact that it felt more natural to do things for oneself.
“This is worse than the old man’s training sessions,” groused Emory as he joined his brother in taking a break. “If I could, I would sleep like a rock tonight.”
“I hope that I at least will,” said Garin as his gaze fell on the nearby corral. The horses had plenty of space to graze within the enclosure. It was a good thing too because Goldenrod had nipped Blackheart more than once to keep him away from her. He frowned because one familiar animal was missing from the milling group.
A grunt came from Garin’s mouth when his brother slapped him hard on the shoulder. “It’s only for the day; she’ll be back tonight.”
“I know,” he said with a sigh.
Mattie had taken off after breakfast to go and spend some time with Belladonna. For their baby’s sake, his wife had to find out how to fix the power in her that Annabelle Hawksthorne had broken. Naturally, Firestorm had gone with her. Those two went together like a bow and an arrow.
Placing his chin on the top of the handle, Garin felt a soft smile grow as his thoughts turned towards last night. Despite all the craziness surrounding his wife’s birthday, they had still managed to have a private celebration of their own after everyone else had fallen asleep. She had absolutely loved the carving he had given her, placing it on her nightsta
nd so she could see it first thing every morning. And her eagerness to show her appreciation afterwards, the way she had explored his body, went a long way in reassuring him of her love. Especially since he would hate to have to rend Stephan apart now that they were finally getting along.
Garin shook his head at that thought, still not believing the circumstances that had helped to further mend the brothers’ relationship. At least the story had interested Leto enough that the Draconian had gone back to investigate the cave. There was little hope the ancient being would discover anything useful, but it had gotten the creature out of everyone’s hair for a day.
Lord Gregory’s sudden shout soon had both Garin and Emory dropping the pitchforks and heading towards the other end of the stable: “Dougal! Get back here!”
By the time they reached the door, the black-haired youth was running past the structure. There was an expression on the kid’s face that was all too familiar to Garin, because he himself had worn that enraged and hurt look for many years. Lord Gregory then shouted for Dougal again. Instead of answering the man’s call, the youth shook his head and changed into a panther. Then the animal became nothing but a streak of black as he raced for the woods.
“Damn, I’ve seen only one other person with that look on his face,” said Emory as his head remained turned to where Dougal had disappeared. “Something earth-shattering is going on with that kid.”
Garin cringed, knowing he was that other person about whom his brother referred. Then he made a noise of frustration. Mattie had told him Dougal’s memories were coming back in spurts and how the kid knew Lord Gregory was his father. She had hoped the boy would talk to the man about the whole mess today, but that appeared to have been optimistic thinking on her part.
Lord Gregory finally stormed up, muttering angrily to himself. Because the brothers were standing there and watching, his pursuit of the renegade stalled in their presence. He leaned against the doorframe, crossed his arms, and let out a breath.
“Getting older is a curse, let me tell you,” he said pointedly to Garin. “Used to be not even you could get that far out of reach so quickly.”
Unraveled Homecoming Page 19
