1585

~Tove

Keo stands beside me as I stare out across the swampy landscape.

"Here is where you are going to want to go," he tells me, pointing down at the map.

I squint, examining it closely. It's imperative I get this right, otherwise I may end up in an unknown place with no hopes of getting back. Not to mention Wren is going to be with me, and if I screw this up, she won't let to let me know.

Today is the first time I'm going to be transporting her. She wants to see my powers for herself.

"What's there?" I ask warily.

"A waterfall. It will be a nice place for you to rest for a bit before you return."

I swallow tightly. This time there will be no Keo to bail me out of this goes poorly. I'm going to need to get Wren to the agreed upon place and back as soon as possible.

"So by bringing Wren, I'm encouraged to return as fast as I can so I don't have to be around her for too long," I say, plastering a sardonic smile on my face.

Wren's insufferable nature will have me straining my magic to its furthest limits to reduce the amount of time I have to spend with her.

I glance over at her, watching her roll her eyes.

"You two have a lot more in common than you think," Keo says, laughing under his breath.

"Oh really?" I narrow my eyes.

He smirks. "Yeah. You both like me."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Wren exclaims, brushing the large map out of her way as she approaches me. "Come on Tove, let's get this over with."

I take one last long look at the map, memorising where I need to go. Once I'm satisfied, I turn to an impatient Wren.

"Keep the snide remarks to a minimum. She needs to be able to concentrate," Keo says in her ear before pushing her closer to me.

Wren's lips curve into a sly smirk. "I better be impressed. There is a lot riding on this."

"Whatever," I grumble, grabbing her forearm.

She keeps silent as I close my eyes, concentrating on the coordinates I have in my head. This is the first time transporting without visualising an actual place in my head, so I'm surprised when it starts to work.

Wren remains still as we topple through space and time, clearly used to this feeling.

Soon enough our feet hit the ground. Tentatively I peek my eyes open, greeting by the sight of a tall waterfall that rears up toward the clouds.

I sigh with relief. That sight is as beautiful as Keo described, although the river the waterfall connects to churns wildly, surging off through the trees.

If Wren gets in my nerves, I'm going to shove her into the water.

"Well. We made it alive," Wren muses, brushing a stray leaf off her shoulder that has fallen from the trees that loom over us.

"What did you think was going to happen?" I mutter, resting back against a strong tree trunk, looking at the droplets of water that glisten in the sunlight as they fall through the air.

Wren laughs. "Honestly? Nothing."

"You know I have power. Why do you keep pretending like I don't?" I snap.

She glares at me with her dark, disapproving eyes. She hates me so much she blinding herself from the truth. I shouldn't care...there is nothing she can do to stop what is happening.

"Because you're an Angel-blood, and I don't particularly like them." She turns to stare up at the waterfall, some tension seeming to deflate from her shoulders just by being in its presence.

"If Keo can learn to like me, so can you." I don't need her approval, but she's Keo's best friend, which means I need to try be amicable.

And even though her sneering remarks and cold glances hurt sometimes, I understand why she hates me. To her, I am the enemy, one of the people who has caused her and her friends a lot of pain.

And Vail...he was killed by an Angel-blood.

"Keo is being decieved by a mate bond," she exclaims. "There is nothing influencing me to like you."

I roll my eyes. "Except the fact that I am willingly saving you and your people. Keo isn't forcing me to do anything anymore. I'm doing this by choice," I remind her coldly.

She turns back to look at me, something softening in her eyes.

Grimacing, I rest my palm against my forehead, dizziness taking a strong hold of me. I exerted myself a lot, and my desperation to get back quickly isn't helping the situation.

Wren is suddenly by my side, taking my arm in her hand before she guides me me toward the edge of the river. I nearly fall to my knees but she keeps me from being too abrupt, from hurting myself.

"Come. Drink," she encourages. She is speaking far gentler than I've heard before.

Cupping my hands, I drink from the flowing water until some of the haze over my minds begins to subside.

"I hate this feeling," I mutter.

"You have to be punished somehow for having so much power," Wren says, sitting down on the grass next to me. "You'll get used to it."

I stare at her. "You're telling me I have to deal with this forever?"

"The more you practice the better it will get. But there will always be limits," she muses, laying back.

I look down at her. She has assumed a very casual, vulnerable position, like she is lounging under the sun with a friend. I'm not sure why make of this shift in her.

Is she finally seeing the sacrifice I'm making to save her people?

"What's your power?" I wuaesidon.

She waves her hand about dismissively. "Nothing that interesting. I just have the ability to nullify the trace of magic. I've been doing it for Keo for years."

I straighten. "Really?"

"It's how no one has been able to track him over the years. Magic is very easy to follow, but I've made it impossible," she says, a proud smirk touching her lips.

So that's how Keo has managed it. When I spoke to Dax he couldn't seem to understand why Keo was so difficult to find, which must be why he got so frustrated when he was close, and yet still failed his task.

"Ah, so that's why he keeps you around." Their relationship always perplexed me, but now I know why he gave her a chance at being his friend in the first place.

Her magic may not be powerful on an individual level. But for someone like Keo, it is priceless.

"We have been friends for a long time. I'm the only person he has confided in," she tells me. Her eyes are closed, resting as the sun glides over her skin.

"That remains to be true," I mumble, gazing off down the river.

"He will open up to you." Wren sits up, frowning. "He's been burned before, and because you're his mate you're special to him."

I know that's likely true, but I still feel as though I know nothing about Keo. Small things pop up here and there, but for the most part, he's a total mystery to me. I want to ask, but I'm unsure if I'm pushing anything with him.

"Has he spoken to you about me?" I ask hopefully.

"Not much. He's still trying to figure you out." I feel as though she is just trying to appease me.

"He said he's going to try, but how can I trust him?" I ask.

"I've never known do to anything to harm someone he cares about. He has been a loyal friend to me since I met him."

When I twist to look at Wren, I'm reminded that she has no reason to lie to me. Just because are having a civil conversation now doesn't mean that she feels obliged to comfort me. Even if we were friends, she doesn't seem like a liar.

"You may not like me, but I don't hate you," I tell her softly.

She sighs, picking grass from her hair.

"I don't hate you. I just hate Angel-blood's."

"I'm starting to hate them too at this point." I've heard more horror stories about Angel-bloods in the last few months than I have in my life.

For a moment there is just silence and the sound of the waterfall. I can feel my strength returning, my magic buzzing under my skin, begging to be used once again.

"Thank you, Tove. For saving my people," Wren says tightly.

I push myself up, holding my hand out to her. I'm not going to press this conversation...not when it has clearly taken her a lot to say that.

"Come, let's get back before Keo starts to think we are plotting against him," I say, smiling at her.

She laughs a little, taking my hand.

Thankfully I manage to scrounge together enough magic to get us back. Wren doesn't make a sly comment, although she doesn't wish me a goodbye when she departs.

I don't know where I stand with her, but it's better than where I was yesterday.

🤍••🤍

~Midika 💜🐼