Twenty days until the war

“You know, no matter how many times you stare at that uniform, you’ll still be sexy,” Darius said. His feet padded against the floor as he came over to stand behind me and wrap his arms around my waist.

I rested my hands on top of his and smiled. He was right; the uniform did look really good. After the initial cropped top combined with chainmail and a tunic didn’t work out as planned, Rosie had opted for something else. The brown bodice with hard brown shoulder pads fit snugly over a long-sleeved black top. The pants were made of the same special durable leather and the boots came up over my knees.

“As much as I’d love to stay and enjoy your flattery”—I giggled as his lips nestled into my neck and his hands slipped up under the hem of my outfit—“I have to meet the others for a strategizing session.” His hands were warm against my skin.

“Mm.” Darius nodded. “Well, I certainly won’t keep you from that.”

I spun around in his arms and pressed a kiss to his lips. Pulling away a little,, I teased his bottom lip with my teeth, before diving back in and tangling my hands in his hair.

“I love you,” I whispered.

He kissed me again then let me go. “Love you too. And I know you’re worried, but we will figure this all out together.”

I gave his hand a squeeze and left the cabin. With a glance over my shoulder to make sure no one was following me, I switched directions from the lake to the Grand Cabin.

Outside was quieter than usual, so I was easily able to slip inside and walk down to the library. The door creaked open, sending an echo down the halls.

“Cae?” I whispered.

Caesaria stepped out of the shadows, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re late.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Sorry. I…got caught up with Darius. What have you found?”

The heels of her boots clacked against the wooden floor as she walked over to one of the bookshelves. She pulled out a book and opened it to show where it had been hollowed out. Inside, there was a sleek silver dagger with an engraved silver handle. The hilt was short but long enough I assumed it would still do a lot of damage.

“This. It once belonged to Randel. There’s a whole section on it in the research and I’ve been hiding it here for a while. I’m thinking it’s what whoever broke into the library was after.” She unsheathed the dagger, turning the blade. Etched beneath the handle were four runes to indicate each of the four elemental powers: earth, wind, fire, water.

“And we’re still nowhere close to finding out who that is,” I said.

“We’ve had other priorities, Ar.” Cae gave me a sideways glance. “I don’t know exactly what this dagger can tell us but, I know it’s connected to the war somehow.”

“Well, maybe Randel can tell us.”

Caesaria shook her head. “He hasn’t been around. I’ve tried.”

“We can’t just do nothing anymore, Cae. Your cabin was cleared for your return already and you’re still staying with Raydir.”

She rubbed her hands over her arms and wouldn’t meet my eyes. “It’s not that easy. I mean, I’ve lived on my own since I was ten years old in my own cabin. No one to comfort me when I had nightmares. And I never once was as scared as I am now to be in that cabin by myself.”

“Cae, I—”

“And I don’t want to make you come back and live with me. There’s not enough space even if we did make it work before.” She gave me a small smile. “I know you’re happy with Darius, so even more I don’t want to impose on you. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“What about Fletcher?” I asked.

“No.” Caesaria shook her head. “I can’t ask that of him.”

I didn’t question it, just nodded. “So, this dagger. What do you think it could mean?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. But we need to find out more.” She sheathed the dagger, hiding it in her boot so it was out of sight, then hid the empty book back in the bookshelf. “We have to go talk with Randel, even if he doesn’t want to talk to us.”

“Well, technically, he can’t talk,” I said, hurrying after her. The library door clicked closed behind us.

Caesaria laughed. “Well, he certainly communicates with you. So we just have to get him to trust me enough that he’ll do the same.”

“Wait a minute.” I blocked her with my arm. “You’re not doing this alone, Cae. We know Randel can be unstable at times. He’s a rogue. We don’t know enough to let you go to him alone.”

“Arwyn—”

“No, Cae. I won’t let you go alone. We know there’s more than one rogue out there. Strength in numbers, right? That’s not just for them. It’s for us too. I have an idea and it can’t work unless we both go to talk to him.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. “But I’m his”—she lowered her voice—“descendent. Don’t you think he should…feel something?”

“What makes you think he doesn’t?”

We stopped to grab our archery gear before continuing down to the lake. A light breeze blew through the valley, lifting the end of my braid so it danced in the wind.

“Once we get to the lake, I’ll boost us up to the top of the waterfall. It’s a lot faster than climbing. You’ve never been up there before, so a word of advice: don’t look down.”

Caesaria smirked. “Thanks.”

“Now, Randel knows me and trusts me. He might recognize you but we can’t assume—stay close and don’t show any sign of threat. If he thinks you’re a threat, this’ll end badly for all of us.”

“Arwyn, I think I can handle this.” She gave me a side glance. “You seem to have developed a…fondness for Randel. Like you’re connected or something.”

I averted my gaze, focusing on the path in front of me. “Now that I know he didn’t kill my sister, it makes me rethink how we should feel about the rogues. I mean, even before that I didn’t trust what the Council had said about the rogues. But did you ever think that maybe they attack because we’ve outcasted them? The same way the dukedoms have outcasted us? The valley is supposed to be home to all wolves. Regardless of anything else. We’re a community, a family.”

“It’s still dangerous, Ar.”

“Maybe so, but that doesn’t give us any right to just assume what we don’t know. And what we do know is that there is more than one rogue out here. Perhaps the goal shouldn’t be to figure out a way to fight them—they were once human like us. Perhaps the goal should be to make them our ally. Strength in numbers, right?”

Caesaria sighed and shielded her eyes from the sun with one hand while the other sat on her hip. “You’re right. So how are we going to do this?”

We were at the edge of the lake by this point. My gaze traveled to the top. How was it possible the waterfall had gotten taller since the last time I was here?

“Um, I’m going to have to improvise a bit. Just…don’t scream, ok?”

“Arwyn…”

“Cae, trust me on this.” I slowly raised my hands to hover over the water. It formed into a cone-like shape and moved in a squiggle toward Caesaria.

Her eyes widened and locked on me. I nodded. The water enveloped around her and lifted her up. With my hands staggered, I willed the cone to rise up into the air and take Caesaria to the top of the waterfall.

“Cae?” I called out but the roar of the water was too much for her to hear me or vice versa.

Taking a deep breath, I created a new cocoon of water around myself and pushed myself up to the top. Caesaria was ringing out her hair from the water.

“So, how was that?” I asked.

“I’ll let you know once my heart has dropped back from my throat.” She placed her hands on her hips and let out a large puff of air. “Wow, is it just me or did the air get really thin up here?”

I rubbed her back. “You’ll feel better once we’re away from the edge. C’mon.”

I led her away from the waterfall toward the rest of the area. Truthfully, I hadn’t explored much except for the rogue’s cave, but I wanted to see more. The top of the falls had even more trees and foliage, even different arrays of colors than what we knew in the valley.

“So do we just wait for them to seek us out or how do we do this?” Cae asked.

I brushed away a low-hanging branch so we could walk further along the path. “The cave is where Randel lives, but the other rogues…we still don’t know where they are. They’ll sense us and—”

“Wait a minute, you’re using us as bait?” Caesaria whirled on me, her blue eyes fill with some emotion I couldn’t quite decipher,

“Not as bait. We’re technically on their territory up here but we’re all wolves. So, we have to show them that we have the same goal.”

A twig snapped behind us and we turned around slowly. We were met with black fur and piercing blue eyes. Randel.

“Arwyn,” Cae murmured. “Is that…?”

“Yeah.” I nodded at her. I inched forward, facing him, and kept my voice as steady as possible. “Randel, do you recognize me?”

He cocked his head to the side and scratched something in the dirt: ᚨᛚᛟᚾᛖ (alone).

“Um.” I glanced at Caesaria.

She sighed. “See what I mean? He doesn’t want me here.” She started to walk away but I grabbed her arm.

“Cae, give him a chance.” Turning back to Randel, I said, “I’m not talking to you without her, Randel, so either you accept that or we leave.”

Randel let out a low growl of resistance.

“Randel…” I warned him, lifting my fingers to scratch behind his ears. His fur was soft and silky to the touch.

He whimpered and leaned his head forward, giving in to the affection. He lifted his gaze ever so slightly to lock on Caesaria.

“I think he wants you to, um, touch foreheads,” I said.

Cae crouched down so they were at the same height then leaned forward. She placed her hands on either side of his head.

The wind began to blow around them, drawing up bits of the earth and water droplets from the falls into a cyclone around them. Lightning crackled in the sky yet the air had a sudden chill to it.

Caesaria and Randel broke away from each other, and the sky cleared up as if nothing had happened.

But the look on Caesaria’s face told me that something indeed had happened.

“Cae?” I asked softly.

Her gaze snapped to me. “We should go.”

I glanced at Randel who pawed at the ground before bounding away in the other direction.

She didn’t say another word until we were back on the grassy bank by the lake and she was completely certain no one else was lurking around.

“Caesaria, what the hell happened up there?” I asked. “One minute everything was fine, then you touched heads and then everything just—”

“The dagger,” she said.

“What about the dagger?”

She glanced over her shoulder again. “The dagger is the key. You were right before—we need the rogues on our side. But Randel…he can explain it better than I can. What do you know about the Flower Moon?”

“Um, not much. Just what Fletcher told me about the situation with his ex.”

Cae nodded. “Well, that’s the next Alignment. And when it happens we need to be prepared.”

I raised an eyebrow. “We always have to be prepared. How is this one any different?”

“The Flower Moon can be very dangerous for those who have not fully solidified their mates. Or, as it was for Lacey, for those who have regrets or second thoughts. There’s a whole section on it in one of Jasper’s journals.”

I nodded, remembering what Fletcher had told me about that. “Right. The Flower Moon connects you more with your mate. So how does that help us?”

“What I saw…Randel was human. And not just for a few seconds like you said happened the last time. He was human for longer than that. And we were…” she closed her eyes. “I don’t quite have the image in my head. But we were somewhere at the top of the falls. A-a patch of some sort with leaves and berries and flowers.”

“We’ll find it,” I assured her. “But I still don’t understand something. If the Flower Moon connects us to our mates, how does that affect Randel? We know his mate, Delia, rejected his cousin to be with him but we don’t know what happened to her.”

Caesaria’s expression turned grim. “I think that’s what we’re going to find out.”