City of Spells (Into the Crooked Place #2) - Alexandra Christo Page 0,48

had a reputation to uphold and being kind to Wesley might interfere with it.

“This is my father, Bastian,” Saxony said.

The man by her side stood like a fierce protector, with thick black hair pulled back into braids. He had a beard, which Wesley had never managed to grow himself, and a stern line in the center of his forehead that looked like it could be from frowning or laughing.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Wesley said.

He held out his hand and Bastian stepped forward to take it.

Wesley would have gone to him, but he was finding it hard enough to stand straight and keep himself from falling over. His body felt depleted and it required all the ego he had to keep anyone from noticing.

The trek from Tisvgen to the Uncharted Forest had not been an easy one, and Wesley had forgotten how average a swimmer he was until he had propelled himself into the Onnela Sea.

He’d also forgotten until now that he still wasn’t wearing any shoes, and the moment he remembered his feet began to throb.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Bastian said.

Wesley tried to make his voice sound breezy. “I bet none of it was good.”

“But all of it was true,” Saxony said.

Wesley only shrugged and turned to the old lady. “And you are?”

“This is my amja,” Saxony said.

“I’m not expected to call her that, am I?”

Wesley didn’t think referring to a lady he barely knew as his grandmother was the right way to go.

“Most people do,” the lady said.

“I’m not most people.”

“He says that a lot,” Tavia said. “You’ll get used to the pride. Wesley likes to think he’s special.”

Saxony’s amja looked at him strangely, her eyes soft and white enough that he could almost see his own reflection back in them. Wesley looked away, but then she took his hand in hers.

There was something to the way she looked at him that made Wesley feel unsettled, and when she clasped his hand, the trees hummed softly in the background.

“He is special,” Saxony’s amja said. “He escaped Dante Ashwood and made his way here in one piece.”

Wesley wasn’t sure he was in one piece.

“Speaking of the escape,” Saxony said.”How did Karam and the others manage to get you out so quickly? Are they getting healed somewhere else in camp?”

Wesley paused. “Karam didn’t get me out of anywhere.”

“She went to get you,” Saxony said slowly, as though perhaps Wesley had misunderstood.”A busker we questioned mentioned you were in Tisvgen and she took Arjun and Asees and a few other Crafters there to save you.”

“You mean my old bouncer tried a rescue mission?” Wesley said. “I’m flattered. That would have saved me a trip out of a window.”

And that was when any color faded from Saxony’s face.

“Are you serious?” she asked. “They left three days ago. If you’re here, then where in the fire-gates are they?”

Wesley only shrugged. “I jumped out of a building all by myself and then I just followed the sound of you sighing in my direction. I never saw anyone.”

“Maybe they just missed each other,” Tavia said to Saxony, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

For some reason, that gesture seemed to make them both stiffen.

“If anyone can take care of herself, then it’s Karam,” Tavia said. “Besides, she’s got a whole gang of Crafters at her back. She’ll probably realize Wesley is nowhere to be found, come back here looking all glum at having failed her mission, then see his smirking face and threaten to punch someone.”

“You don’t know that,” Saxony said.

“You don’t know anything either,” Tavia told her. “So let’s give it a few more days before we go panicking. Okay?”

Saxony nodded, but even Wesley could tell that all she wanted to do was run from the forest and to wherever Karam had ventured off to.

To save him.

She’d left this place to go look for him, which shouldn’t have surprised Wesley so much, but it did.Arjun, too, who Wesley had made a point of irritating at every moment he could. And Asees? A Liege who once didn’t want to give him a speck of power, now agreed that he was an ally worth saving?

Just what kind of topsy-turvy world had Wesley walked into?

“You saved my life on Ashwood’s isle,” Saxony said. “I never thanked you for that.”

A moment of silence passed before Wesley realized that she still wouldn’t.

“You’re welcome,” he said anyway.

“How was Zekia?” Saxony asked. “What happened?”

“You mean aside from the torture?”

Tavia winced and Wesley inwardly cursed himself for revealing that little