Chapter 114
MAXIM POV–FOUR MONTHS LATER
I’ve got my head ducked down, running the fine file over the sharpened point of metal. One wrong move and it will slice my hand open. Again, My determination to not be angered by Remy’s ditching of me has seen me master a whole new skillset.
Only for Silas to bang on the side of the open wooden door. I flinch, the sharp file in my hand springing up.
“You fucking idiot!” fighting the temptation to throw the long, heavy file wedge of metal straight at him.
His green eyes size up my surroundings, alone with a series of fires slowly extinguishing for the day.
“Are you finished in there yet?” picking up a poker and shifting some embers, casting a wave of heat over me that I could do without.
“Another half an hour!” That’s a white lie. When I’ve finally finished grinding down all these pieces of metal and cleaned up, I will be sweating like a beast. So I’ll want to get cleaned up and change my clothes.
If I’m lucky enough to grab Tess on the way, that’s even more time.
Best to call it an hour and a half before I will be of any reasonable use to my pack.
“Trains arrived an hour ago, they’re going to want help with the barrels soon.”
“Just because I helped make the greatest party this pack has ever seen happen last time doesn’t mean I want to do it all over again tonight.” I huff back.
That one is an outright lie though. I really could do with a night of drinking, giving absolutely zero fucks and a tug–of–war rematch that scatters every Warden like bowling pins.
“You’re getting worse at lying,” Silas smirks, leaning against the door. “I know you’re dying for a cold beer and a chance to send Marshall flying.”
“Fine. One hour,” I concede.
“Good. Because if Kai’s in charge he’ll spend all night checking bubble quantity!”
“Just…clear out the dining hall like before. Make sure all the food has bread or pie crust involved. Get anyone who can play an instrument kitted up. Honestly it’s easy.”
Silas gives the doorframe another slap before vanishing. It doesn’t escape my attention, that had I been in Remy’s favour, I’d have been the one organising this.
It might be selfish but I really want to give Tess my gift soon and metal doesn’t like to be messed with unnecessarily. The pressing has come out perfectly this time. It’s taken me weeks to get the emblem I wanted.
Warden Buck, the grizzled keeper of the furnaces has been kind enough to teach me. It’s certainly given me a whole new appreciation of the departed Irene. Her ability to weave delicate strands of metal leayes me regretting that I presumed her shyness made her uninteresting. How I would love to pick her brains now for advice.
Still, for now, all I can do is file and shape. File and keep all my fingers intact. More footsteps approach. “Oh leave me be for fucks sake!” I snap only to hear a deep chuckle. “Your manners have gotten even more refined,”
I look up. Warden Marshall. Wearing armoured fatigues. Camouflaged in his brown and green layers, black pads of armour across his chest and shoulders. His blonde hair has grown enough to be slicked right back. A tennis–ball halo no longer.
I can’t help it. I actually smile. He was sent out with the Beta’s. It was billed as putting an end to rebellion. Bringing peace to Ravenbow. I stood in the crowd, clapping and smiling alongside Tess like the rest of the pack.
I knew the truth though. My clever, wonderful mate overheard the discussion. They were documenting exiles. Specifically the women.
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Chapter 114
“Just stay there one moment!” I snap at the Warden Marshall, continuing to roughly file. Rather than waiting, he strides in and starts slowly shutting
down the various furnaces.
“You can close up quicker,” he offers. And he’s right, he’s being helpful. So I keep my head down whilst he meanders around me, slowly prepping the spaces for tomorrow like I promised Warden Buck.
“You know what you’re doing?” I mutter.
“Did the same as you, long ago. Added to my skills. It’s good, solid work, Sharpens the mind.”
“I’ve enjoyed it. Plus Warden Buck didn’t make me lift logs like a sadist. Or make me run laps until I vomited.”
“I think you’ve missed me.”
“Not for a second,” I add a little too quickly. Only to look up and see him grinny wryly at me. “Fine. It was unnerving having nobody to tell me I’m a useless donkey.”
“Thankfully Tess hasn’t taken on that mantle,” he added, replacing pokers and tongs into their buckets.
“No. She’s doing amazing in her role though. Warden of Care they call her.”
He nods. “And you? How are you?”
I shrug, filing a little harder, getting a dangerously sharp point going. “I’m okay. Yeah. I’m here. Remy still hates the shit out of me. But he hasn’t exiled me or knocked me back down to a Beta. So I guess I’m okay.”
“You should have told me what you quarreled about.”
“You know I couldn’t.”
“I hope he sees sense soon then. Sincerely, I do. You are wasted in here, as skilled as you’ve clearly become,” looking down at my little collection of work.
“How was the tour? Mission completed?”
Now Marshall shrugs nonchalantly. “As best as we could in the time given. He’s reviewing the information now. He might miss the start of the party but I think the men need a good one. It’s been hard going. Lot of sleeping outside, a lot of questioning, searching. Blood needlessly spilled when people got the wrong impression of our aims,” and for once I see how tired the man is.
The summer sun has long since faded since the men left. Autumn is now yielding towards winter. The wind whips with a vicious chill that I know feels like shit to try and find shelter in.
His pale blue eyes normally fizzed with what I assumed was wicked vengeance. Four months away and a softer, exhausted version has returned. The brown and green infantry uniform takes away that severe aura that surrounds a Warden, Now, he is simply a man with crinkles at the eyes and a jawline that’s threatening to jowl into old age.
Asking the question I never thought I’d care to ask. “So how are you? Are you okay?”
Our eyes meet. Fiery embers gently flutter down, the crackling sound of dying fires filling the air. I’m asking because I care. It’s taken four months without my mentor. But I dislike him looking that tired. Vulnerable.
I despise how Remy has made him risk his life for nothing. He deserves better. One of the only Wardens to made me.
nge the wrong decisions. The man who
His lips thin, not with annoyance, but possibly a similar emotion to myself. “I’m not great,” his head tilting to the side slightly.
“No?” slips from my lips, along with a frown, the file dropping away from the lump of metal. I’d normally make a joke about him always looking like shit.
But I can’t.
“No. But I will be fine after a few days rest.”
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Chapter 114
“Are you coming to this party?”
“Of course. We spent a month practicing tug–of–war,” he smirks. Just like the falling embers swirling to the ground, that little moment where i felt just libe
a son who has discovered his father home from war disappears back into the depths of my chest. Back under lock and key.
“Well I’m almost done here.”
Marshall strides over, sticking out his hand in friendship. “Keep going Maxim.”
“You too,” I reply sincerely, his hand warm and rough to the touch.
I place Tess’s finished gift in a red velvet bag and shut up the armoury doors. With the colder weather, there is less drinking outside. Everyone piles into the packhouse, already chanting and siging songs. The band starts up, brassy, bouncing music outweighing the chiming bells for once
The first years who will be kept to complete their training into Beta’s are being honoured alongside the returning soldiers. After a couple of hours, the sun has set and the party is flying high. Silas‘ look of permanent panic has ebbed away. Kai has abandoned his post, monitoring the fine wines to chat to a pretty Healer girl. About time. I grab a bottle and pour a lovely large goblet full. All the while checking the air for that orange scent that makes my spine tingle.
The successful first years wear a makeshift medat around their necks, all bursting with pride. To make the cut down from up to fifty others to the final four or five is a serious achievement. Only three made it from the blades, Allette’s spot nailed down before she even left, so vast was her superiority.
Not that anyone has heard from the adventurers. If Remy is getting letters from Hazel he’s keeping it to himself. When a dizzy, bouncing Industrial zone song starts up I head out for some of that freezingly cold fresh air.
Only to find my beautiful mate stands waiting by the packhouse’s large, open double doors.
Wearing a shawl over her Warden’s gown she looks utterly regal. Her copper hair exceeds the glow the huge fires burning in the packhouse can produce. She holds me rapt every single time. Pinning her off–white shawl to her chest is her gift from Irene.
A delicate brooch of the finest entwined metals. The same idea as Allette’s claw clip but grander. It shone just at her collarbone, coloured glass adding
sparkle.
“Sorry I’m late, someone came to talk to me. They got cut and didn’t know where to go.”
“You’re here,” I smile and take her hand in mine. “Ready for some fun?” I wink and feel my heart expand. “Always,” she whispers kissing me, exploring the wine taste left upon mine with enough daring to make my cock twitch with need.
“Come on little Heathen,” I growl, running back inside with her hand in mine.
her tongue
By the end of another couple of hours, her shawl is abandoned, her long copper hair has escaped it’s braid and flows down to her waist in rich, dazzling curls. Neither of us have drunk as much as last time, but we are laughing all the same.
Our dancing remains appalling, some lunatic has started a limbo competition and Kai is flapping about how much vodka ruins a punch. Laughter fills the hall. It’s almost enough to make four months on the sidelines worth it when I see my mates happy, content face.
Almost.
Attempting to waltz together, standing on toes and clipping her shoulder into a column she giggled into my chest, her forehead on my bite. “I think I’m going to have to do it. Tell him. The consequences–“/
“-Go for it,” Tess urges. I squeeze her slender waist, unable to give her any other indication of just how much I fucking love her to the ends of the earth.
“But you’re doing so well here? You’re a legend I add softly, kissing the top of her head whilst watching Kai and his healer girl take to the floor, raising an eyebrow at Silas and nodding at the pair.
“We both need to be happy. Ravenbow won’t ever mean more than you.”
“Then come outside with me, there’s something I want to give you first.”
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Chapter 115
