“Maybe none, given what we’re up against, but what choice did she really have either?” Treno volleys back.
“She was shoved into this world, and we all demanded that she make a choice before her wings ever caught the current. We did the best that we could, but so did she,” Zeph states, and the tent goes quiet.
“So what now?” Treno asks.
“We do better,” Ryn answers simply. “She doesn’t want to listen, but the bond works in our favor: she physically responds when we’re close. It’s natural for mates to crave one another, and she gives into it instinctively when she forgets to fight it.”
I shoot an incredulous look at the tent. I’m going to punch Ryn in the dick the next time I see him, giving my weaknesses away like that to the others.
“She still wants to sever the bonds,” Treno informs them, and deep growls bleed out through the tent.
“That tree rutting Ouphe told her he couldn’t do it,” Ryn supplies.
Well, well, well. I suddenly don’t feel so bad about eavesdropping, when they’ve obviously been doing the same thing.
“He’s going to ask someone else about other ways to do it, but some female Ouphe threatened to hit me with a pot if I didn’t get out of their camp, so I didn’t catch who. We need to keep an eye on him,” Ryn adds. “I told her we were all going to fight for her, that we were all working to show her that the mating matters to us.”
“And what was her response?” Treno presses, like he’s a kid at a sleepover hanging on every word his friend is delivering about his crush. It would be kind of cute if the foundation between us wasn’t layered in fucked up.
“I think, despite everything that’s happened, she wants to believe it, but she’s going to think that all we are is what she’s seen so far.”
“We’ll just have to show her more then,” Treno declares, and Ryn grunts in agreement.
I’m so floored by what they’re saying, and the fact that the Altern of the Avowed and the Altern of the Hidden are the ones saying it, that I don’t even feel the person behind me until their huge hand is covering my mouth, and their other arm is holding me tightly against them. My feet lift off the ground, and I try to kick out as I’m pulled away from the tent and whatever the guys are saying now.
“It’s not nice to listen to conversations that you weren’t invited to be a part of, little sparrow,” Zeph whispers in my ear. He nips at my lobe as he holds me even tighter against him, and my fear is quickly replaced by irritation.
I try to bite the hand that’s pressed over my mouth and squirm out of his hold, but all of a sudden, my stomach drops and we’re no longer standing in front of a tent, but inside a cool dust-covered room.
We both tense, Zeph still holding on to me tightly, and I mumble fuck against his palm. I think I slipped us somewhere, only this place doesn’t look familiar at all.
“Cum on a tree sprite,” Zeph whispers quietly, his hold on my mouth and waist weakening slightly. I look behind me and see recognition in his eyes, and I immediately realize that I didn’t slip us anywhere...he did.
16
I swear, as soon as I figure out how to slip from one place to another on purpose, I’m never going to walk again, but until that happens, this shit is annoying. I look around the unfamiliar room, taking in the lumpy mattress and the handmade wooden frame. There’s an armoire in the corner, and the walls and floor are made of old wooden planks.
The place has a distinct cabin vibe, but more rustic and handmade than anything I’ve seen before. There’s a large window to my left that’s letting moonlight trickle in to kiss the dusty surfaces, but when I look out, all I see are...tree branches.
“Where are we?” I ask, pushing out of Zeph’s hold.
He lets me go, but when the floor creaks ominously underneath me, I instantly wish he hadn’t.
“It’s safe,” Zeph reassures me. “My father laid the floor himself; it will hold us.”
“Your father?” I question, turning from the branch-hindered view back to Zeph.
“I lived here until…” he trails off, but I can fill in the blanks on my own. He lived here until they were murdered.
I look around the room and wonder if this was Zeph’s or if it was his parents’. When Dri told me about what happened to Zeph and his brother, I assumed it happened in Kestrel City, but I’m starting to grasp that might not be the case.
“Are we in a tree?” I ask, as the branches on the other side of the window catch my attention again.
“We are.”
Zeph’s voice crackles with emotion as he walks to the bed and runs his hand over the comforter that’s covering it. The air in here is stale, and everything looks like it has surrendered to disuse and age. Leaves are prying their way into the room at one corner, like the tree this place is nestled in decided to start to reclaim it.
I suspect there’s more house on the other side of the closed door, but I suspect cracking it open to see would force Zeph to deal with more than just stagnant air and dust bunnies. His whole world started to crumble inside of these walls.
Dri said that after Zeph’s parents were killed, he and his brother were forced to go live with Lazza and Treno’s family. I look out through the window and spot other houses in the branches of colossal trees, and wonder which house belonged to his betrayers.
“My brother and I used to sleep in this room,” Zeph tells me as he sits on the bed, a plume of dust rising up to greet him.
“He was older, right?” I question gently, my tone telling him he’s
