Page 71 of Renegade Kings
“I owe you an apology,” I started. When Maddox tried to say something, I raised my hand to stop him. “No, I appreciate the sentiment, but I do. Last night, I should have spoken to you about what I wanted to do. I should have trusted you enough to know that I could tell you what I needed to do and that you’d let me do it.”
“There’s no way we’d have let you do it,” Maddox cut in.
I opened my mouth to continue, but stuttered and coughed instead. “What?”
“There’s no way we’d have let you walk out into that forest alone, without a plan, with no back-up and essentially with no weapons,” Maddox elaborated.
Okay, now this was just getting insulting.
“I am a weapon, Maddox. I know how to protect myself in this world. You’ve even seen me do it!”
Maddox raised his hands in surrender this time, and for some reason, that pissed me off even more. I was just about to enter into a Fizzle level tirade when Tank cut in by wrapping an arm around my shoulders.
“Maddox isn’t using his words very well right now.” He gave Maddox a look like he was a naughty child and it made me snigger from the sheer shock of it. “What he’s trying to say is that we would have been concerned enough about you to not want you to do that on your own. Whatever life throws at us, we face it together. So, no, we wouldn’t have let you go into the forest on your own, but only because we’re a family, Lys. We stick together. Always.”
I leaned into him, soaking up the comfort of my mate. Tank gave the best hugs and since we’d bonded, they’d only got better.
“So, moving forward, we hold hands more, we talk about our feelings and we have each other’s backs,” Ryder said, nodding as he did.
“You know you’ve always been weird, right?” Maddox quipped, and Ryder just shrugged it off.
Tank laughed at the pair of them. It was nice to see them all getting along. I just wished Dean was here with us. It didn’t feel right without him.
“Soooo… when are we going to ask Fizzle for his help?” Ryder asked, changing the subject. “That’s the plan, right? We ask him for his help and get our magical freak on?”
“I… sometimes I don’t know what to do with you,” I said, shaking my head. This man. He always had a way to make you smile.
“I am a man of many mysteries. Some might say an enigma,” Ryder quipped.
“Everyone else just says idiot,” Maddox added.
“I would be inclined to agree.” Fizzle landed on the sand at my side, and I caught the way he passive aggressively flicked some sand in my direction as he did. “It’s about time you came to me for help. I’ve been waiting for you to grow some sense. I’m starting to think I should have tutored you better growing up, Alyssandra. Plus, I’m not entirely sure these mates of yours are worthy of you.”
Even though he’d insulted me at the same time, the sentiment was appreciated. I knew he loved me deep down. This was just his weird way of showing it.
Fizzle paced the sand in a circle at our centre, giving us the stink eye as he did. It took me back to the old days and was weirdly comforting in a way.
“We need to talk…” I started.
“About your magic,” Fizzle butted in. “And the magic your mates are trying to hide. I suspect the only reason they’re fairly good at it is because they have no idea how to use it.”
I rolled my eyes, resisting the urge to just sink back into the sand and let the world pass me by for a while.
Of course, Fizzle knew. He seemed to know everything. It helped that he was working with a prophecy he didn’t feel the need to share with everyone else. Basically, the big fat cheater was lording it over us when he already knew how this was all about to go down.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re amazing and the rest of us don’t deserve the air we breathe. Can I take it we can move straight past the part where we ask you for help and you tell us what the training plan is?” I asked, lifted an eyebrow in question as I spoke.
Fizzle clacked his beak in annoyance and I knew he was mentally debating walking away and letting us stew for a bit. He was that much of a brat when he didn’t get to do things the way he wanted. When he shook out his feathers and sat down, I knew he was going to just get down to business.
“Fine. You’re no fun.” If he could pout, he would have.
Thank Nymeria for that one saving grace!
“You should also tell him about last night,” Tank added. “He needs to be fully apprised of the situation if he’s going to help us to the best of his ability.”
This was something we hadn’t discussed, and I glanced at Tank out of the side of my eye, trying to figure out if I was annoyed about him pushing the issue. I could refuse, of course, but then I’d have a pissed off petulant owl gryphon to deal with and no one wanted that.
“Fine.” I sighed, getting up off the sand and dusting myself down. My body was itching to move. It was because I had a lot to unpack and I still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the whole situation. It made me want to pace as I figured out if what had happened was a good or bad thing.