Page 109 of Renegade Kings

Alyssa

The second day of walking was as uneventful as the first. Suspiciously so. Dean was keeping his distance from Damon, and the nightmare hadn’t caused any trouble for hours. Ryder was right. It was getting harder to tell when the nightmare was in control if it didn’t want to make it obvious to us. The only time we knew for sure was when Damon seemed to be in a pit of depression and muttering about how we were all about to die.

I wanted to tell him about our plans so much, it physically hurt. Thankfully, I had enough sense in me to not trust him just yet. Not when we were in such a precarious position as we were. I wasn’t even sure Rhidian was right about this trail not being used. There was a tree further down that something had completely obliterated, and I was thinking this area wasn’t quite as free of the creatures of Nymeria as Rhidian had led us to believe.

Thankfully, we’d found a relatively sheltered spot to camp down for our second night, which was about an hour away from where we were expecting the fight to happen. It meant our fighters could get some rest, even if it would be a tense night waiting to see if we were discovered.

Tomorrow was going to be horrific. I wasn’t naïve enough to think we’d walk away from this without casualties. We didn’t really have sound intel on the numbers we were going to face, but if we could pull this off, it would deal a hard enough blow to Arik that it could give hope to the people of Nymeria. There would be harder battles to come, but this felt like a turning point. One where we finally showed everyone that Arik wasn’t as powerful as we’d all believed.

Of course, we had to pull it off first.

The guys had already set up our camp for the night, and Dean had secured Damon in a way that meant we didn’t really need to worry about the nightmare getting away and giving away our position.

That didn’t mean I wanted to sit there all evening and watch Damon chained to the ground. Especially not when the whole point of coming here in the first place had been to save him. Seeing him now made me feel like nothing but an epic failure. It wasn’t exactly the best headspace to be in before what we faced tomorrow.

The chatter around the camp was all just a bit much, and I wandered to a quiet patch of grass and I sat down, tipping my head back to soak in the moonlight. I’d never done this in Nymeria before. Back in the human realm, this was the closest I could get to home, but now I was back, I could feel the buzz of magic like a vibration across my skin.

I felt my mates come and join me as they quietly sat down in the grass around me. The bond was filled with a sense of peace and relief that made me smile.

“I can actually feel it,” Tank whispered. “After all this time, I finally understand what you were talking about.”

A smile lit across my lips, and I opened my eyes only to find him sitting in the same position I had been, eyes closed, with his face tipped towards the moon.

It was nice to share this with them. To sit here and be able to witness the wonder unfold on their faces while they felt the touch of pure Nymerian magic directly from the source.

“What are you guys doing?” Rhidian asked from behind me.

I’d been so engrossed in watching the quiet awe on Tank’s face I hadn’t even heard him approach.

“Can’t you find something else to do?” Dean snapped. It was rude, uncalled for, and evidence of how much it was bothering him having to deal with Damon all day.

The alpha was stressed, and I should have been taking better care of him than to let Dean get to this stage.

“We’re bathing in the moonlight and soaking up the magic of Nymeria,” Ryder cut in, happily diverting Rhidian’s attention away from Dean’s foul mood.

As I glanced over my shoulder at the man in question, though, I realised Ryder hadn’t achieved what he’d thought he had.

Rhidian looked up at the moon in confusion and then down at me. He looked like Ryder’s words had utterly destroyed him and he finally said, “I’ve never felt that from the moon.”

Then he turned and walked away.

“You know he’s in love with you, right?” Dean pointed out.

The anger was gone from his voice, but I could tell he still wasn’t in the best mood. I couldn’t blame him. This was something I should have dealt with long before now. It wasn’t fair on Rhidian and it wasn’t fair on my mates. I just didn’t want to hurt him, though. But in the long run, that was exactly what I’d done.

“I think I’ve always known, but I never wanted to hurt him by rejecting him or…”

“It’s okay,” Maddox said quietly. “You’re not responsible for how he feels, and it’s not like you’ve encouraged him. He deserves a conversation, though. Even if you think it’s going to hurt. He needs to know where he stands.”

I nodded sadly because Maddox was right and I knew this would change the relationship I had with Rhidian forever.

“You don’t have to do anything now,” Tank pointed out. “This isn’t where your head needs to be the night before a battle. Try to put it out of your mind for now.”

That was definitely easier said than done, but he was right that I didn’t need the distraction right now. I shouldn’t have let it go on this long.

“Why don’t we practise filtering our magic through the bond?” Maddox suggested suddenly. “I know you’re anxious about it, and maybe it will help tomorrow.”

I slowly nodded my head, seeing the sense in what Maddox was saying but not really wanting to do it, anyway. I couldn’t help but think Fizzle had a point and there was something to be said about just letting the magic do its thing. We needed to think about guiding it, rather than seizing it with some kind of iron grip, and forcing the magic to do what we wanted. There was a delicate balance between the two. But maybe trying to achieve that for the first time in a fight for your life wasn’t exactly the best idea.

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