Abandoned (Born From Shadows #2)

Throwing our hope into the sky, the gods, hoping that they will send a shooting star back to ignite our path.

That’s how Riley felt, like he had no control over the chaos that was his life. Just watching as one thing after another got ruined. Every time he tried to plan something it was yanked out of his grip. He still had Freya and that damn horse that Tatianna was attached to.

But this plan would work. He had to believe it would.

He didn’t speak to either of them, their journey towards the south of Lyracris was almost deadly silent.

He liked the silence. He spent most of his childhood not saying more than a few words, so to him the silence was familiar. It was peaceful. However, it was unusual for Freya’s tongue to not flow with a river of words.

Riley could see the guilt in her eyes. He knew she was replying Kayter’s death over and over in her head just as he replayed their mother’s, sister’s and Nik’s death every night. He wanted to comfort her, but he couldn’t even begin to know what to say, so the silence ruled over the both of them.

Vivian walked ahead of them. Freya was yet to forgive the Elf and so was he.

Only at night when the warm spring breeze blew over them from the south would there be soft muttering between him and his sister.

“Are you ok?” He asked her.

“Are any of us?” she replied lacking the optimism she would usually possess.

“That doesn’t mean it should be ignored,” he replied and leaned back against the tree trunk he was sitting in front of.

Freya sighed and turned away from her brother staring at Vivian who sat away from them and was fascinated by a butterfly.

“You know how father constantly tried to marry me off once I turned sixteen. It was the whole reason he held the banquet at our house that night, to help find me a suitable suitor. I hated it. When we got here, I thought finally, I could be me. I could choose someone that I wanted, who I thought was good. She wanted to leave me to die. How do I look past that?”

Riley didn’t know what to say. He wouldn’t look past it, he wouldn’t forgive. But he wasn’t Freya. Freya who had a trusting heart. Freya who loved uncontrollably.

He could see that she cared deeply for the Elf, and wanted so desperately to be with her even after everything. “Follow your heart Freya,” was all he replied with.

“I get where she was coming from you know? She didn’t want you or herself to die as well. She could smell the amount of blood, she thought we were already gone.”

“She still should have tried,” Riley replied.

“She did though. When you went in, she followed.”

“Freya, you are defending her. And if your defending her that means you still care for her,” he replied.

“I guess I am,” she whispered. “I am going to sleep.”

Riley nodded his head. “I’ll take first watch,” he replied. He didn’t end up falling asleep until roughly midnight when he woke Vivian to replace his duty.

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“Dévellie is to the left of us. I purposely have gone around it, but I recommend sneaking in and stealing some food for the next week’s trip down to Liella where we will cross the Pass to Zarenda,” Vivian stated.

“Are we going to steal a boat?” Riley wondered.

“Unless you can think of another way across,” Vivian replied.

Riley nodded his head. “You’re going in, me and Freya will wait with Ida. If you don’t return by midday we go on without you. Eye for an eye and all.”

“No, we will go in after you,” Freya dismissed his words. Riley gave his sister a sidewards glance.

“Seriously?” He asked.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” she replied repeating their mother’s words to them when they were just children.

“I won’t be long. See you soon Sunshine,” Vivian said then ran off into Lyracris’s forest.

“If I have a choice between saving you or her. I will pick you without hesitation, even if you hate me for it,” he told Freya.

“I know,” his sister replied and ran a hand down Ida’s neck.

After a moment of silence, Freya then said. “I have no idea how we are going to steal that boat.”