Unstoppable (Their Shifter Academy #6) - May Dawson Page 0,27
if the high king was going to send guards to terrorize the villages until he got what he wanted, it didn’t feel like my journey here was over. I had a responsibility to these people.
“We need to deal with Faer,” I said. “Then I’m going home.”
Her lips pursed to one side ruefully.
“First, though, let’s see you and your men all straightened out,” I said optimistically.
At that, she pulled a face. “You can’t fix everything in our world, Ty.”
“Really? You think your love life is a bigger mess than the evil-dictator-who-wants-to-bind-us-with-magic-or-murder-everyone situation?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “We can kill Faer. I know what to do with situations like that.”
“But you don’t know what to do with your heart. Bad news, Raura. You can’t kill your way into romance.”
She threw me a cutting look. “I cannot believe I chose you to confide in. What to do with my heart. Gods. You’d better go back to the mortal world—someone will cut your throat here for being such a sap.”
“Is this what you call confiding?”
“Well, I’m trying, but you’re just… so mortal.”
“You’re mean when you’re insecure,” I observed.
“Gods,” she said again. We were almost to the mouth of the keep, and she turned to face me. “I kissed Arlen. He didn’t kiss me back. There, now you know. Were you lacking sufficient drama with Not Your Sister After All? So you have to live vicariously through me?”
“Why didn’t he kiss you back?”
She spread her hands out dramatically. “I don’t know!”
“You didn’t ask?”
Her lips parted in shock. “You expected me to stand there and ask?”
“You just jumped onto the back of a terrifying ten-foot monster but you couldn’t ask a follow-on question of one of your best friends?” I clarified drily.
“No,” she said. “Those are two very different things. Talking about my feelings is a thousand times scarier than killing monsters.”
“Being rejected is scarier than killing monsters,” I corrected. “But we all go through it. What did you do, anyway? Run away?”
“I punched him.”
“You kissed him, you felt he didn’t kiss you back, and so you punched him.” I had to say it out loud to confirm she’d really done such a crazy thing.
She stared back at me. “Yep.”
From shifters to Fae, I spent my life surrounded by emotional dunces.
She shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but I knew how much it did. “Can we go talk to Fenig now about stopping the carnage?”
“Yes. Absolutely. Because unlike the carnage of your love life, that I hope we can fix.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, and I grinned. I’d adopted a little brother in Penn, and Raura felt like a little sister. Apparently I had a penchant for finding the most annoying possible people to turn into a found family, whatever universe I was in.
“Fenig just buried her mother. Maybe this latest disaster can wait. Give her a day to grieve, at least, before the next spiral into—”
“You aren’t going to impose on my grief, Tyson.” Fenig walked out of the fog; she was an athletic woman despite the deep laugh lines around her eyes and gray in her hair. “My grief will last a long time, but I’ll manage to do other things at the same time.”
“Thank you,” I said. “We could really use your advice.”
She gave Raura a meaningful look. “Maybe we should keep him.”
Raura made a show of ignoring the dig, looking at Arlen. “Would you find Lake? He took the cadets on patrol but we should all discuss what will happen in my absence.”
“You’re not going,” he said.
Raura started to answer, but Fenig interrupted them both. “I am not listening to the two of you. Both of you, go find Lake and meet me in the dining hall.”
When the two of them had reluctantly left together, Fenig said, “There. Peace and quiet for ten minutes.”
As we walked into the dining hall, I asked her, “How will the next Delphin be selected?”
“Oh, one of the Delphine council will be elected to become High Delphin. Personally, I’m reluctant to see them all gather in one place until there’s some measure of peace in the land.”
“When the Delphine as a whole still receive prophecy, though?”
“Yes. Nothing stops prophecy.” Her eyes were troubled.
“Do you have any about us?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, then quickly added, “And about your friend.”
“Maddie?”
She nodded. “We’ve long had prophecy about her. Half-witch, half-shifter, more power than either.”
The description had pride heating my chest. “That’s my girl. Not that it’s made life any easier for her.”