“Habit of showing up?” I ask, confused, my eyes bouncing from Zeph’s indignant glare back to Wekun.
“Zeph,” Wekun chides like he’s scolding a naughty toddler. For some reason, it makes me like him already.
“You know each other?” I ask, trying and failing at figuring out what the hell is going on.
“I don’t know about know each other, but we’ve met him before,” Ryn explains, getting to his feet. He looks just as pissed as Zeph, and I’m trying to understand why.
Maybe the lack of oxygen fried the last of my working brain cells. “Can someone just fucking tell me what the hell is going on?” I croak, reaching my limit for near-death experiences and cryptic half-stories.
“He showed up back at the cave. Lazza tried to go after Treno and us through his Vow mark. This Ouphe walked in out of nowhere and stopped it,” Ryn explains.
Me, standing outside of my body as pain washed through me, surfaces in my mind. I remember Ryn and Zeph scrambling, and then I saw a flare of light—not unlike the one that occurred right before Wekun showed up just now. I recall the faint image of a figure appearing in the cave, awash in that bright light, and I make the connection to what Ryn is talking about.
“You helped us before? Why?” I ask, turning back to Wekun.
His eyes light up with affection, making the pale gold color sparkle in an incredibly enticing way. “Like I said, I’m here to help. I should have seen that, at some point, their family would have put another connecting rune somewhere, although I’m sure they never thought one brother would use it to try and kill the other,” he tells me, like that should make complete sense to me.
I stare at him for a moment. “Am I supposed to know what any of that means?” I finally ask when my brain doesn’t catch what he’s throwing at all. Nope, I fumble that shit like my name is butterfingers, because I am not receiving anything he’s sending my way.
“We told you last time that we didn’t need your help. We also told you what would happen if you ever showed up again,” Zeph growls and takes a threatening step toward Wekun.
He just chuckles like he’s not about to face down the big scary asshole Syta of the Hidden and then tsks when Ryn also moves to join Zeph against him.
“No appreciation ever from the mates,” Wekun sighs, exasperated.
I scramble to my feet and intercept the ungrateful mates Pigeon has stuck me with. “Are you guys kidding? This guy shows up and saves our asses not once, but twice, and your response isn’t to thank him, but to threaten him?” I demand.
“You can’t trust anything the Ouphe say; they always have ulterior motives and schemes going on,” Zeph defends.
I dismiss the sting I feel from that comment. I don’t know why I’m shocked to hear it. I’m part Ouphe, and Zeph has always been clear in how he feels about me because of it. I know his and Ryn’s prejudices run deep. Being irritated with their current reaction of judging Wekun based off of what he is instead of the fact that he’s helped us is probably a waste of my time, but I can’t help it.
“Are you both forgetting that we’re trying to get to the Ouphe so that we can ask them for help?” I remind them, as though somehow the predicament that we’re all in just slipped their minds.
“No, you are going to the Ouphe to ask for help. We are just making sure you aren’t used against us,” Zeph clips.
I stare at him blankly for a moment. Did he really just say that to me? I know I heard the words, but my heart and mind don’t seem to want to let them take root. During my time in Kestrel City, I saw peeks of Zeph that showed me parts of him that were so much more than the angry, vicious, knife-tongued male who’s staring down at me right now. I’ve tried to understand where his vitriol comes from. Empathized with him and hated the awful things he’d experienced that shaped him into who he is today.
But right now as he stares down at me with taunting, hate-filled, honey eyes, I can’t for the life of me remember why I’ve ever bothered to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hurt and anger unfurl in my chest and slowly claim everything that I am.
I look at Ryn as I try to breathe through the swell of emotion, but he says nothing to counter the words that just slipped out of Zeph’s mouth. I shake my head; of course he’d stand up for his Syta over me. He always just goes along with what he’s told, such a good little puppy.
I’m an idiot wasting my time with these fools.
“Falon,” Wekun speaks up, his face filled with pity and concern.
“Don’t you speak to her. You’re not going to taint her mind, we won’t allow it,” Zeph snaps at Wekun, and Ryn puts a hand up to keep Zeph from moving any closer, nodding silently at me and where I’m standing in proximity to Wekun.
I look over at Treno, too disgusted by Zeph and Ryn to stare at them for a second longer. He’s quiet and still, lying on the ground, but the color is back in his face, and I can see that he’s alive and breathing. His eyes are far away and filled with pain, and my throat grows tight as I take him in.
“Treno, are you okay?” I ask, moving closer to him, the drive to comfort him overtaking the logic that he probably doesn’t want me near him.
My voice seems to snap him out of whatever he’s thinking about, and his eyes fill with anger and fix on me. “Lazza just tried to kill me,” he snaps out, and
