Page 81 of The Last Hunt
Maeve just looks at him, her green eyes solemn. “I don’t know your parents, artrenn. But I know you. And I wonder if you’ve been punishing yourself for something that was never your fault. You never needed to prove that you deserve to be alive even though your brother is gone. You’re enough. Just how you are.”
Sudden, hot tears brim in Aethon’s eyes. No one had ever told him that he was enough. But he had also never confided that fear to anyone. Hearing those words from Maeve means more than if they came from anyone else.
“And if your parents believe differently,” Maeve continues, her tone haughty now. “Fuck them. But I doubt they think that at all. I’m sure they miss their son.”
“I haven’t seen them in fifteen years,” Aethon says.
“And I’ll never see my parents again, Aethon,” Maeve says, narrowing her gaze. “Don’t let that happen to you.”
She’s right. Aethon swipes the tears away from his face and takes a deep breath. “Ok. Let’s go to Freehail.”
Chapter 21
Home
Maeve
Maeve and Aethon arrive at Freehail, exhausted, battered and low on credits. From orbit, Freehail looks similar to other habitable planets - if a little rougher. Dark green forests blanket almost every continent, edged in unique, black sand beaches. The oceans and lakes are prevalent across the globe, but Maeve can see barren patches of land in the southern hemisphere where Brimstone mined. The planet is scarred. But it looks like it’s recovering.
Aethon is sitting in the co-captain’s chair, a blanket wrapped carefully around his shoulders. He stares out at the planet below, his eyes hooded, his jaw hard.
“Hailing the Freehail landing system,” CAL says.
“My parents live just outside the capital,” Aethon says. “It’s called Rendar.” He points to a sparkling city along the shore of a vast beach. Maeve recognizes the curving lines of the shore as those from Aethon’s tattoos.
They had contacted the Trells, and Liadan and Nikair were ecstatic that Aethon was coming home for a while. They were also eager to meet Maeve.
Maeve had decided to take a sabbatical from Two Roses, wanting to help Aethon recover, and figure out what she wants to do next. She still has her guild membership, but it’s on hold for a while. She was already ahead on guild dues, so she isn’t worried about losing her membership.
“Landing approved at the following coordinates,” TAI chirps before rattling off a set of numbers.
An hour later after parking the Archer in a long-term bay on the outer edge of Rendar, Maeve pushes Aethon out of the landing port in a wheelchair they rented.
“I can walk, you know,” he grumbles, shifting irritably in the wheelchair.
“I know, but you shouldn’t be overexerting yourself,” Maeve says, patting him gently on the shoulder.
He glances up and back at her, his eyes narrow. “Mother hen.”
Maeve shrugs. “When you’re fully recovered sooner than expected, you can thank me.”
Outside the bay, the sky is a light, almost cornflower blue. Big, puffy white clouds float overhead, and the sun is bright, making Maeve squint at the crowd around them. There are a lot of people outside the bay, hailing vehicles for rides, or waiting for the mag-rail. Maeve keeps a careful eye on the crowd, watching for anything suspicious. She can see some of Rendar’s skyline from here, the silver spired buildings tall and beautiful.
“The air is better now,” Aethon remarks, staring up at the sky. “When I left, the sun was usually shaded orange or red, depending on how bad the pollution was that day.”
As they wait for the mag-rail, Maeve moves to stand at Aethon’s side, her hand never leaving his shoulder. She watches each person that walks past them, her gaze flicking over their bodies, searching for the telltale signs of hidden weapons.
“You’re freaking people out,” Aethon murmurs to her.
Maeve looks down at him, narrowing her gaze. “So what?”
Aethon smiles, his hair falling over his forehead, and takes her hand. “You can relax,” he says. “Rendar’s crime levels are low.”
She shrugs and looks down the street, the mag-rail turning a corner in the distance. “So people wouldn’t be expecting it.”
The mag-rail stops and they board. Maeve puts Aethon’s chair in a spot next to the window so that she can sit on the other side of him, creating a barrier between him and anyone else.
As they travel out of the main area of the city, Maeve’s anxiety grows. Her knee starts to bounce as she watches the view outside shift from buildings to dense forest. Every few minutes, the forests thin enough so that she can get a glimpse of the ocean. They’re almost to their stop. Aethon’s parents will meet them at a station close to their house. Maeve swallows hard and she clenches a hand around the armrest of Aethon’s wheelchair.