Awakening (Born From Shadows #1)
Chapter Twenty-Nine

With Nik’s help, Tatianna placed Riley’s unconscious body down onto the floor of the forest. They were far enough away from Faithorn to be able to spare the time to make sure Riley was ok. Tatianna placed her fingers against his neck, his heart still beat strong, they were just waiting for him to wake up. She hoped there was a healer in Bellin, or at least someone with basic medical supplies. She couldn’t believe how she forgot to buy some in Faithorn, and it wasn’t like they could go back.

Nylif placed her large body at Tatianna’s feet as if she could feel the pain within her heart, trying to provide comfort. “When did you meet it?” Freya asked, averting her eyes from Riley for the first time since they were attacked.

“I met her the night we all had to huddle up together. Thank gods the temperature is warming up, so we never have to go through that again,” she replied.

“Yeah, at that time I was slightly attracted to you, and my brother was sleeping on my other side as well, so it was extremely awkward,” Freya confessed. She looked over to Nik who was tending the horses, seeing if he was out of earshot and remembering that night. It was really the first time they were intimate, even if it was in a messed-up situation. To replace out that she did that next to Freya who apparently liked her…it made her feel awful.

“Do you…still feel that way?” she asked.

Freya shook her head, “no. I was able to move on, so was Riley. We both got past your pretty face and realised that Nik is the only person for you, even if you don’t fully realise it.”

She was starting to see it, the more time she spent with him.

“Wait, Riley liked me too?” she asked just catching onto what Freya said.

“Yep,” Freya confirmed, looking down towards her sleeping brother. “You had a lot of people going for you, and you didn’t even realise.”

“Wow…I used to think I was observant…now I am not so sure,” she replied with a slight chuckle. She was feeling kind of awkward knowing this but she guessed it didn’t matter, as long as they were still friends.

“He’s stirring,” Freya said in excitement pulling her from her thoughts. She looked down towards the blonde man whose eyes started to twitch as he woke up. A small groan of pain escaped his mouth as he became fully conscious.

“Riley,” Freya called to him. “Can you speak? Are you alright?”

“My ankle feels like someone decided to light it on fire,” he grumbled, his face was scrunched up in pain.

“It looks like it, the blade may have cut through some tendons or something,” Freya told him. “We need a healer to tell what’s actually happened, for now, we are just trying to keep the wound clean.”

“Nik finally healed and can walk, now you’ve gone and got yourself hurt,” she said, knowing how much the injury will slow them down. She was grateful he saved Freya’s life, wouldn’t have it any other way, but she couldn’t deny the true fact that it would be much more difficult to travel now. The Hunt may not have killed them, but they hindered their progress severely.

“Sorry,” Riley replied.

“If anyone should be sorry it’s me. You were hurt defending me. If I hadn’t been such a useless–”

“No,” Riley cut Freya off. “It isn’t your fault father never taught you how to fight.”

“But I could have learned. I could have snuck out and practised,” Freya replied.

“You had no reason to learn,” Tatianna said. “Someone of your wealth had no more reason to wield a sword than they did to sleep on the street. You could never have known what would happen to your family that led you here.”

“I should’ve,” Riley replied.

“What do you mean?” Freya asked.

“I should’ve known father would try and kill Tatianna. He was sadistic and strongly against her staying,” he replied.

“He never showed such murderous tendencies before. Neither of us could’ve predicted it,” Freya reassured him. Tatianna thought back to the night of the incident, how surprised Freya and her mother had been of their family’s actions…but Riley wasn’t surprised. He accepted it, then lashed out.

“You were young. Too young to remember but we had an older sister,” Riley started, he was unable to look Freya in the eye whilst talking. “I was six, you were three and she was eight. She had a habit of disobeying our father, a very cheeky and adventurous nature. One night she went exploring in father’s study and he didn’t like that. Mother had left to see one of her friends and it left just us and father in the house. I couldn’t do anything except cry and yell. When mother came home father said there had been a tragic accident, our sister was climbing a tree when she fell down onto her head. Had mother not been so distraught she would have been able to see that the bruises left on our sister did not come from a fall, but rather the end of a stick.”

“Oh my…” Freya was speechless, she was speechless. What do you say to someone who lost their sister because their father beat her to death? Riley had tears coming out of his eyes and Freya immediately hugged her brother.

“I would have said something…but he threatened me. I was terrified of him, I couldn’t…I am sorry,” he said in Freya’s arms.

“You couldn’t have done anything, you were six,” Freya replied.

“But I wasn’t six when Tatianna came, and he tried to kill her. Had I spoken out then none of this would have happened.”

“I don’t blame you,” Tatianna told him. “If none of this happened, I wouldn’t have made friends for the first time in my life. Yeah, the whole ‘running from psychos’ is a bit tedious but if it’s the price I have to pay for making friends then it’s worth the cost.”

“How about instead of dwelling on the past we look forward from now on,” Freya told Riley with a smile on her face, although that did not hide the tears on her cheeks.

“Yeah,” he mumbled.

Nylif moved her body away from Tatianna, causing Tatianna to pay attention to Nik who was still with the horses. She got up and walked over to him, realising he had been alone for quite some time now.

“How is he?” Nik asked as she approached.

“Good. He can’t walk but he is no longer unconscious,” she replied and stroked her hand alone Ida’s back. She wouldn’t get into the talk they just had. If Riley wished to share that information with Nik he could. It was not her place to say anything.

“Bellin…I’ve been told weird things about Bellin,” Nik said referring to their course of direction.

“You’ve never been?” she asked surprised. Everywhere they had travelled, so far he had already been before.

“The furthest I’ve been from Avalla is Tarca, and that route doesn’t pass through Bellin,” he answered.

“I am just going to pretend I know where that is…or where we are,” she replied.

“Remind me to draw you up a map one day,” he said with a smile on his symmetrical face. “Bellin…not many travellers go through there and it is kind of ignored by the rest of the kingdom considering it’s right near the border.”

“So, you’re saying we need to be cautious entering?” she asked trying to work out why he was telling her this.

“I just don’t want another Cainva,” he replied.

“We will stick together this time. No more splitting up,” she decided.

“Good. The trip is long, we need to start moving again as quickly as possible,” he told her. She looked back towards Riley, still lying on the ground.

“Tomorrow morning then,” she said. “In the meantime, I am going to change out of this dress and into the clothes we bought in Faithorn.”

She reached into the bags that were attached to Ida’s saddle. “I like that dress,” Nik said in dismay. She looked down; the colour had turned from aqua to brown from the amount of dirt that covered it.

“There’s not much dress left to like,” she replied.

Nik’s eyes scanned down her body in a way that made her want to hide behind Ida but also take off her clothes at the same time. His eyes lingered on certain aspects of her body.

“Keep it, we might replace a place to wash it then you can wear it again,” he told her.

“Fine,” she agreed, knowing there was no point arguing about it. She walked to the other side of Ida allowing her some privacy from the others.

“Are you going to just stand there?” she asked, taking off her cloak revealing her bare shoulders that Nik’s eyes immediately latched onto.

“I would like to, but if you wish for me not to then just say the words,” he said moving his eyes to look into her own peculiar eyes. Tatianna thought of the choice he was giving her. Did she want him to stay? Did she want to be so exposed to him? Her heart seemed to want to say yes, but her mind kept repeating the words that one day he will betray her.

For once she decided to tell her mind to shut up and listened to her heart. “You can stay, but all I am doing is getting dressed so don’t have any weird ideas,” she firmly told him.

“I would never,” he replied with a sly smile. “You’re still going to wear the cloak, right?” he asked.

“Of course,” she replied and took off the straps of her dress.