a few feet away, holding a steaming mug of tea in his hands. He’s fully dressed too, but just in his regular clothes. Not a uniform like the rest of my guys.
He grumbles something to the others, and Reule shakes his head solemnly. Mal sighs and sets the mug down on a side table beside the sofa, and he walks over to stand in front of me.
“Isla,” he says gruffly. He rubs his hand through his hair, seeming to struggle with what to say next. He gestures between me and him, his eyes full of guilt. “Zůstaneme.”
When he keeps gesturing between us, and pointing to the floor, my shoulders relax. He’s staying with me, so at least I won’t be alone. I take a shaky breath and turn to face my other mates. Caelan meets my eyes first, and he looks fucking miserable.
“When will you be back?” I ask pitifully, pointing at the clock they have hanging above the fireplace. I had no idea what it was until a couple days ago. It doesn’t look like a clock, and I still have no clue how to read it. There are all these weird lines and constellations that may or may not be decorations, and I’m pretty sure it runs on some kind of magic. There aren’t even any symbols that look like numbers. Audun and Reule spent a long time explaining its purpose to me when I asked about it.
Caelan flinches and shakes his head. From his reaction, I’m pretty sure he knows what I’m asking. He just doesn’t want to answer.
“Tři dny,” Audun whispers, holding up three fingers.
Three days!? I’ve been doing my best to learn their language all week, and I’ve probably been driving them crazy with the flashcards I made that I carry around the house with me constantly. I’m getting better with basics, and I thought I had numbers one through ten down. But there’s no way I understood Audun correctly, right?
Audun furrows his eyebrows and rushes over to the kitchen table where I left my flash cards and notebooks. He flips through them for a moment and looks up at me again sadly. “Tři day? Tři day a Caelan se vrátí.”
They’ve been trying to learn English too, which has been really sweet. It’s getting both easier and more frustrating to talk to them every day I’m here. The more I learn about them and this place, the more questions I have. And the more I like them.
Audun’s words catch up to my brain and I gasp. Does he mean only Caelan is coming back in three days!? “What? Ne!”
They spend a few more minutes pantomiming to help me understand that Audun, Caelan, and Reule are leaving, and Caelan will come back in three days. Three days after that, Audun will return, and then Reule. I’ll always have one of them with me, but it will be almost two weeks before I have them all home again. By the time I fully understand, the sun is beginning to peek through the windows, and I’m about a second from bawling my eyes out.
I guess I should have expected them to go back to their regular everyday life at some point. They’ve spent the last week I’ve been in Briya here at home with me. Other than our trips to the village down the mountain and to the bigger city near the castle, we haven’t left the cabin. I’ve been getting to know them, painting with Audun, learning their language, working on my closet, and fucking Audun, Reule, and Caelan damn near constantly. But I knew they were important in this realm. They must have jobs and other obligations aside from babying me.
But still. I didn’t realize I’d be saying goodbye so soon, and for such a long time. What about the wedding-slash-mate-ceremony thing at the castle? Is that not happening? I figured Dushan was still working on my dress. Can’t my guys wait to go back to work until after that, at least?
It’s obvious they don’t want to leave me either, and I force myself to keep my tears at bay. I don’t want them to feel worse about it or make it harder for them. I kiss them all about a million times, hoping I can tell them without words how much I’ll miss them.
All too soon, they pull away and shuffle out the front door. Maalik keeps his hand on my shoulder as we walk out behind them, but he stops me on the front