The Guardians of the Forest: Book Two by Kelly Napoli

CHAPTER 62

  BUILDING

  The next few days were…magical. Really, there was no other way to describe it. Kiethara was finding the new additions in her accommodations to be to her immense liking; not only did she get to live with her best friend and her true love, but she got to experience what it felt like to never be alone.

  A year ago, she was always alone—except for the limited visits she had received from Aaron—until people began to leek into the forest and her life, slowly but steadily. They were rare treats, a welcomed escape from the life she was all too used to. They were new, invigorating experiences. They had been as exciting as they had been alien. They had been spontaneous, erratic, but downright enjoyable.

  Not all of the visits she had hosted had been as nice as those had been. Some visits were feared and dreaded, each one weaving a new tale of horror and pain and leaving it inscribed in scars upon her flesh. They drove her to the extremes of her powers and her cunning, leaving her exhausted. These visits called forth her true nature and duty as a guardian.

  She always had experienced those two types of visits at different times, except for once. That one time had resulted in a death, teaching her a brutal lesson to never combine the two again.

  Now, it was as though she had not learned anything.

  For here she was, blatantly allowing two other people to risk their lives for her and her responsibilities. Kiethara feared the moment when Gandador would appear spontaneously more than she had ever feared anything else before. She knew it would be the hardest fight she would ever endure, not to mention one she would have to triumph. The fear of losing her power faded as a new, choking fear of losing her friends filled her. Their carefree laughter at her severe warnings told her that they did not appreciate the gravity of the situation. Sometimes she thought she caught a flash of understanding from Navadar—who had learned the same lesson she had been taught in her mother’s meadow—and she had a strong suspicion that he was just as fearful as she was, only too proud and courageous to leave.

  Even after all of this, Kiethara could not bring herself to send them away.

  She knew she could do it, if she attempted. They stood no chance against her. If she had the strength to, and not just physically, but mentally as well, they would already be on their way home.

  But they weren’t, and Kiethara found herself basking in the feeling of reassurance. It was as though a piece of the weight she had always carried on her shoulders had been lifted. She wasn’t alone! She did not have to fight alone and that fact seemed to ease her anxiety and slow the rapid beating of her heart.

  That was not the only source of newly found comfort, either, although her last one was rather dark. Kiethara knew that her situation was balanced on the tip of a knife. There was only two different ways this could go.

  She could do what she had been meant to do from the first time she had met her father—defeat him. But not just momentarily. She could end this permanently. And once that happened, she would relax the muscles in her body that had not unwound since he got here. If she could deal with Gandador and his faithful minions, she would have no problems. Fantasies of peaceful days and even a possible family danced in her head…

  Or she could fail. Gandador could kill her friends and disable her so he could run his insane experiments on her powers. He could spend as long as he wanted to strip away her magic until he failed—which Kiethara strongly suspected he would—and then he would resort to his original plan and kill her. Whatever happened, her world would be destroyed.

  Two completely different possibilities that made for two completely different worlds. The disparity between them was frightening, so frightening that it was almost unreal. She was having trouble wrapping her head around the concept that something was about to change.

  Even though she disliked being kept on this edge, at least she was familiar with it. No matter what it turned out to be, there would be no surprises in store for her. She had had enough of those, anyway.

  All of this ran through her mind as Kiethara lay in her hammock, trying to make out the stars between the leaves of the two trees supporting it. Besides her, Camella was snoring softly in her makeshift bedding, her nose twitching as she slept.

  Navadar was not here. At least, not in her clearing. His sleeping arrangement had been decided yesterday.

  “Could I bring my horse here?” Navadar had asked. “He’ll be able to graze, and I’ll keep him tied. I just don’t want to have to walk back and forth through the forest to water him.”

  “Of course!” Kiethara answered.

  “Whoa, hold it, now,” Camella had interrupted. “He can’t stay in this clearing.”

  “Why not?” she demanded.

  “It would be like sharing a roof before you were married!” Camella had said, shocked. Kiethara just stared at her, incomprehensive.

  “She’s right,” Navadar agreed, a bit reluctantly.

  “He’s taking advantage of your naivety,” Camella said, throwing him a stern glare. Then she had turned to smile warmly at Kiethara. “I think it’s adorable.”

  Kiethara tried to suppress a grin, rolling her eyes.

  “I’ll sleep with my horse, then,” he said.

  “You don’t deserve to go anywhere near that horse if you don’t give him a name,” Camella remarked.

  “He used to belong to my father’s brother, who had originally named him. One day my uncle had come to my house, white as a sheet and shaking, handing over the reins to me as a present. I later found out that he had stolen the horse a long time ago, and the previous owner was seeking revenge. I tried to rename him, but he won’t respond. But I keep his true name a secret, just in case.”

  Both of the girls had stared at him with their mouths open.

  Kiethara smiled at the memory, rocking herself back and forth. For some reason, she could not fall asleep. It was very warm, with not a single breeze to ruffle the leaves. It was also unnaturally quiet, as though every animal had fallen asleep with her two friends.

  It was kind of ironic, because not a week ago Kiethara had been well acclimated to silence. Now, however, she was used to the noise that came from living with two other people. It made her wonder how crazy she would go if she was ever alone again.

  Frustrated, she pulled herself up out of her hammock. She could not just sit there in the hot silence, waiting for sleep she knew would not come. She set off to the east, slowly putting one foot in front of the other as she paced her way through the trees.

  After a couple of minutes, though, she found it to be quite the opposite of helpful. Not only did she feel more awake, but it got her thinking of things that would certainly get her in trouble…

  Camella seemed to be on two different sides of the world when it came to Navadar. As soon as the two girls got some alone time, they gushed over every aspect of him, reviewing every conversation and facial expression that Kiethara was willing to describe. Camella made no attempt to hide her envy, sighing dreamily whenever Kiethara descried how he held her sometimes. But on the other hand, she was being annoyingly strict on what she called “appropriate boundaries.”

  “I understand that you don’t understand,” she had said. “But in the kingdoms, we girls don’t just give our love away for free, nor do we hand ourselves over this easily! What has he promised you? Nothing! He could walk away right now without the shame of unfinished obligation! You have to make it a little harder for him, Kiethara. Make him beg, hold yourself back a little. Make sure he knows he can’t just take what he wants!”

  With that speech, she had declared she would limit the amount of alone time Kiethara could have with him. Kiethara had not really believed her at first, but she was surprised at how Camella proved herself true to her word. The moment she got a free moment with him, Camella would appear, fabricating a task to be completed or a discussion that had to be had. Navadar was good natured about it, but Kiethara never missed an opportunity to scowl at her friend from behind his back. She always received a sly wink in re
turn.

  Now, however…

  Kiethara did not know exactly where Navadar was sleeping, but equipped with her connection, she figured it shouldn’t be too hard. Once she found him, she promised herself, she wouldn’t disturb him.

  With that thought in mind, she pushed herself off the ground and glided above the trees. The breeze that her flight created did wonders to cool the sweat that kissed at her neck and forehead. The moon above her was bright and the stars were numerous. A cloudless night.

  She moved slowly, not wanting to miss him. It was so unfortunate his presence was so—

  Wait! She froze in the air, as still as the leaves before her. She sensed a light presence moving below her. Moving in the direction she had been coming from. She ducked beneath the canopy.

  There it was, a shadowed figure weaving slowly through the trees. His boots made soft thuds against the soil, his hands quietly beating away the lower limbs of the trees. Kiethara’s heart raced ahead, but it had nothing to do with fear. She knew that stature.

  Quietly, she eased herself lower until she was hovering just an inch above the grass. She inched forward, toward his back.

  “Hello,” she murmured into his ear, making him jump. She laughed quietly.

  “Kiethara!” he exclaimed in a breathless voice. “Can you please stop doing that?”

  “It’s too much fun.”

  “Not for me,” he grinned.

  “What are you doing up so late?” she asked.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” he admitted. “So I was just walking…”

  “Me, too,” she whispered. “Well, flying, actually.”

  “Flying would be nice. It would be cool, at least.”

  “Oh, it’s lovely. You should try it.”

  “I don’t think flying would suit me very well,” he told her, eyes sparking handsomely. “I wouldn’t be as graceful as you.”

  Kiethara hoped the dark would hide her burning cheeks.

  “Besides,” he continued. “Some of us like to walk. Would you, perhaps, honor me with a walk?”

  He held out his elbow. Kiethara had seen couples walking in this manner when she had been in Redawn, so she was hesitate as she placed her hand in what she hoped to be the proper position. When Navadar smiled his approval, she beamed back, pleased.

  “Why, I’d be happy to.”

  They began their moonlit walk at a leisurely pace. No one said anything for a moment, but it was a pleasant silence. She used the time to focus on slowing the rapid thumping of her heart.

  “So why can’t you sleep?” he asked easily.

  “I was just…thinking,” she said slowly. “I couldn’t seem to stop thinking. Worrying, actually…”

  “What are you worried about?” he asked gently.

  She took a deep breath and tried to make her tone as light as possible. “Gandador, naturally.”

  “I won’t let him hurt you,” Navadar promised a bit fiercely.

  “That’s not what I’m worried about,” Kiethara replied, rolling her eyes. “Another scar or two can’t make that much of a difference.”

  “They’re fading,” he comforted her.

  It was true. The scars on her right arm and upper thigh were fading. They had slowly transitioned from a bright pink to an inconspicuous white, which was becoming less noticeable with each passing day.

  “Yes, you’re right,” she said in an unconvincing tone.

  “But you’re still worried,” he continued.

  “I don’t know what will happen,” she whispered into the night. “I don’t know when it will happen. I don’t know how he’ll come, or who he’ll bring, or what he’ll do. I don’t know if we’ll be able to win, or if we even have a chance at escaping with our lives. I don’t know what losses I’ll manage to inflict on him, or what losses he will inflict on us. We’ll suffer, he’ll suffer…the point is, I just don’t know!”

  Kiethara had not expected to say that much, but once she had started, she had not been able to stop herself. She took a deep, slow breath and focused her eyes on the trees above.

  They paced forward at an even slower rate. She could tell Navadar was doing some very heavy thinking.

  “You have a lot on your shoulders,” he said softly. “You take on such a great accountability—willingly, too—that sometimes I fear it will crush you.”

  “It won’t,” she replied fiercely.

  Navadar smiled.

  “What?”

  He continued to smile.

  Kiethara’s eyebrows furrowed over as she went over the past few moments in her head. What had him grinning like he was indulging a small child?

  “Oh,” she mumbled sheepishly.

  “So it won’t crush you,” he said simply. “There’s no reason to worry, then.”

  Kiethara shook her head. “If you think I’m only worried about myself, then you’re sadly mistaken.”

  “Don’t you be worrying about anything else. As I said, you have to carry a major responsibility as it is. You do not have any room to add on two other lives to that burden.”

  “These two lives are very important!” she argued. “When did my battles become yours?”

  “The moment you told me you loved me,” he answered austerely, stopping and spinning her around to face him. “When your love is my love, when your home becomes my home, then your battles become my battles.”

  Kiethara’s lips parted and her navy blue eyes widened. She had an odd, tingling sensation that ran through the course of her body.

  “But what if that is one burden I cannot bear?” she asked him softly.

  “Then I’ll bear it for you,” he smiled. “Like I said, you need not worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

  She could see that he would allow no further argument on the subject. “Promise me.”

  “I promise,” he smirked.

  Feeling considerably better, she and he continued to walk.

  “So why couldn’t you sleep?” she asked.

  “I was…worrying, too,” he admitted with a sheepish grin.

  “Oh?” she smiled.

  “I suppose it’s about the same thing you were,” he said, sounding as though he was having a hard time putting his thoughts into words. “I understand what we have to do and I understand what you have to do. Even though I understand, though, that doesn’t mean I care for it.”

  Kiethara was confused. “You don’t care for killing Gandador?”

  “No, no! I want him dead, cold, and disgraced, but I want to be the one to do it. What I mean is…I can’t stand the idea of you…fighting him…”

  He trailed off and his eyes became distant. Kiethara knew what he was remembering and opened her mouth to sooth his worries, but he began again.

  “I’ve seen it before; I’ve seen the aftermath of his visits in your eyes. I know how intense it gets, and I just can’t see you hurt again…”

  This time it was him who had to take a deep breath and it was her who had to stop their momentum and turn him towards her. She had never felt more loved, more cared for, and she had never felt such a love for another human being in her life. Was it possible?

  “I can’t promise you that I won’t get hurt,” she murmured. “But I can promise that I will do everything within my power to end this as quickly and as painlessly as possible.”

  “I don’t want you to try, though! I can’t bear it…” he shuddered, unable to finish the thought.

  “I’ll bear it,” she whispered. “I have to. You should know this. If you do love me, you must let me be a guardian, because that’s exactly with whom you have fallen in love with.”

  Her words seemed to do the trick. He nodded, the bleakness in his eyes lifting.

  “I know,” he sighed. “I understand…you are unlike any woman I have ever met before, and I’m still trying to accept that.”

  “You were the first man I met who didn’t want to kill me,” she told him lightly, smiling. “I’m still trying to accept that.”

  He lau
ghed. “Don’t worry, I have your back.”

  “I’m counting on that,” she grinned.