Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Twenty-OneWyott

Chapter Twenty-One

Wyott

I t had been two days since Maddox’s fight with his father, and I knew I had to go check on him. He’d stormed out of the war room so quickly that day, but I hadn’t wanted to leave Cora because I knew she needed me, too.

By the time she told me to go, and I went to his suite to talk to him, he was gone. I checked the training center, wondered if he’d want to exercise his anger out of him, but still couldn’t find him.

I’d tried yesterday, too. I checked in his suite, again, but still couldn’t find him. I had checked the library and even the armory. We hadn’t been down there in ages, but it was somewhere he frequented when he was upset.

Today was a new day, and he wouldn’t be able to hide from me. I didn’t care how long it took. Two days alone after spending weeks in your own mind, was too much.

I decided to go room by room in the manor.

I hesitated in front of my old suite. There was no way that he would go there after spending so many weeks trapped inside.

But I let the door swing open anyway, to be thorough, and released a sad breath when I saw him.

He sat in that Rominium chair, elbows on his knees, leaning forward to look out of the windows at the Vasi in the waters below.

“Mads,” I said softly as I entered the room and let the door shut behind me.

He didn’t turn to face me, only kept his eyes on the sea.

I looked around the suite and realized that I hated this room now, after all those weeks of entering this door only to be dismayed by peering into red eyes.

“Is this where you’ve been the last two days?” I asked as I walked closer to him.

“Yeah,” he replied, and his voice was hoarse.

I sighed and dragged a wooden chair next to him. I sat, and stared out at the water, too.

The Vasi were barely visible at this angle. But they had brought in ships close to shore, ones that they must’ve sailed on but hidden while they taunted us from beyond the wards. More foreign boats dotted the horizon.

It was easy to see that they weren’t ours. Built of a darker wood, they were larger than the ships of our fleet.

I cut Maddox a sideways look. “Why are you in here?” I asked softly.

“I don’t know what to say to them,” he said and his voice wavered. “I don’t know how to face them all.”

I knew he meant the Kova. The entire island knew that he’d turned, and for him to turn back now, I knew he feared distrust among the island residents. Or maybe, he was just embarrassed.

“We’re all just happy to have you back. No one is going to judge you.” I wagged my head. “Maybe Foster, but he’s always been a prick.”

That got a sigh out of Maddox. “I don’t even think he liked me before.”

There was a pause of silence between us before I looked at him.

“That wasn’t what I meant, though. I meant why are you in here, in this room, in that chair?” I asked softly and saw the way his shoulders tightened.

Another stretch of silence, and I watched as his eyes filled with tears, as his hands gripped his knees.

“It’s easier to be here than to be in our bedroom.”

My eyes clenched shut at the admission, and guilt roiled through me.

I knew he’d be upset about Evaline, we all were, but he was the only one who had the constant reminder. Just as she had, when he was gone.

I let out a long breath as I turned to look out the window again.

“Yeah,” I said softly. “I can see that.”

I scoured my mind for what I could say, that would make him feel better. But there was nothing that would make any of it right.

Finally, I sighed.

“It’s a shitty situation,” I conceded, and he looked over at me, met my eyes for the first time.

“That’s it?” he asked, his brows furrowed.

I nodded. “That’s it.”

“No motivational speech? No talk about how she’s strong, and that she can handle it? Or that I can only control what I can control? Or that you’ll help me through it all?”

I cocked my head.

“Maddox you already know all of that, I don’t need to tell you.”

His body grew tense, and he shifted in his seat to face me fully. “I don’t understand. Whenever this happens, anything like this, to either of us, we always make each other feel better. We always try to get each other through it.”

I gestured to my seat.

“I’m here, with you,” I offered and tried to still the race of my heart as his soared.

He wiped a hand down his face, and I could see his fatigue.

“No, I mean that we’ll talk each other through it. We’ll explain how we’ll handle it, all of it.” He shook his head. “By now you should’ve told me that I’d already done something impossible, in coming back. You should’ve reminded me that Evaline’s magic should be impossible. That her seeing her mother should be impossible.”

I nodded as he spoke, knew he was close to the point now, and he continued.

“You should be reminding me that no matter how long the odds are, how long they’ve ever been, we’ve gotten through it. You should tell me that we need to be up, and fighting. Searching for a way to get her back, a way to get out of here.”

He scoffed, throwing a hand at the wall behind him, gesturing toward the area of the island where the training center and loft were.

“I mean Gods, Wyott, we should be at the loft searching for an answer by now.”

I smiled and straightened. “Good, are you ready to go?”

We hadn’t received any postage since before the Vasi’s arrival, and were beginning to fear that the Vasi could spot the white ravens as they descended out from the clouds and down to the loft, and had been killing them. We needed to go for that reason alone, but I knew just as well as he did that Lauden and Sage might’ve left something behind that could either help us escape, or get Evaline back.

His mouth was open, ready to continue, but his brows furrowed at my words. “What?”

I shrugged and stood, turning to face him. “You’re right. We do always build each other up, and prepare each other for what needs to be done, and we do it side by side.” I waved a hand over him. Over his frame, still curled in his chair. “But Gods, Maddox. I can’t force the will to fight into you with my words alone.”

He didn’t speak, so I continued. “You need to find the heart to continue, past all these losses. Past all these obstacles. Just like she had to.” I pursed my lips. “Just like she’s doing right now, Gods willing.”

That got him up and out of his seat. “So you manipulated me,” he said, his eyes half-lidded.

I waved my hands in innocence. “I prefer to use the term guided .”

He shook his head, and as we turned for the door, pushed my shoulder so I stumbled a few steps.

“Fucker,” he breathed, letting out a small laugh.

I laughed, too. “A fucker who got you up after two days of sulking.”

As we made our way out of the room, and downstairs, I looked at him.

“You seem to be doing better,” I said. “Better than the last time she was abducted.”

He’d been inconsolable back then. Now, he just seemed to be buzzing with a constant low hum of anxiety and the slow churn of grief. Not doing anything rash, just ruminating.

He took a deep breath as we jogged down the steps.

“I learned my lesson. Nothing can be accomplished by risking my own life or acting before I think. I have to be able to control my own actions if I want to be helpful in the effort to find her.” He said as we went down the staircase to the main entrance of the estate. “Besides, she is powerful. And after everything you told me about her Gods gifted powers, I know she can handle herself.”

We silenced ourselves as we exited the home. Since the manor was on the coast, being outside allowed the Vasi to hear what we were saying. While they wouldn’t be able to hear conversations that happened a little more inland, they’d hear us.

Maddox kept his head down as we walked, hoping the Vasi wouldn’t recognize him, and made our way down the hill to the loft.

We entered the loft and I looked to make sure all the windows were closed, that the greenhouse door was closed. The greenhouse was where we kept the ravens, so a window always had to be open in there. But there were wooden doors, reinforced with Rominium, that could slide to cover the greenhouse and render the loft completely soundproof. I pulled them shut and turned to Maddox.

“She can handle herself, trust me. She almost brought the ballroom to the seafloor after she saw you’d turned.”

He nodded, then cast his glance down.

Guilt filled my gut. I’d said it to make him feel better, that day was the most brilliant display of her magic I’d seen, but I understood my mistake immediately.

Maddox felt profound guilt over what had happened, and I only reminded him of that.

Before I could speak, he did.

“I imagine I’ll owe her quite the apology when we see each other again,” he said quietly.

The door to the loft opened, and Saxon, Grant, Nash, Fredrik, and Dean filed in, along with an energetic Oscar who pranced around their feet. They must’ve seen us pass the training center.

“Hi, guys,” he said with a smile before he was enveloped in a fumbling, stumbling, hug.

He turned to Saxon and must’ve noticed his gray eyes because his smile grew.

“You turned!”

Saxon nodded almost sheepishly. “I did. Right after you lot left.”

“I’m happy for you,” he said, patting Saxon’s shoulder.

Saxon smiled at him and then I finally spoke up. “We’re searching for some sign, clue, something that Lauden and Sage may have left that will give us a way to get Evaline back,” I explained.

Dean nodded firmly, and his shoulders tightened. I couldn’t imagine how he felt, but he spoke up and said, “We’ll help look.”

We looked upstairs, and downstairs, scouring the shelves and desks. Hours passed and the heat rose with all of our bodies crammed into the tiny building, and nothing turned up.

When I moved to check the greenhouse, shoving the door back and out of the way, a shrill sound slid in through the window.

Screams.

We all looked to each other and then ran for the door.

It took half a second to locate the source from the water, and when we turned, we could see ships anchored behind where the Vasi stood. And on top of the decks, some of the Vasi must’ve been taking a break from their shift at the boundary.

It was clear they were off shift because they were feeding.

Humans screamed on the decks, and the screams were amplified, the sound carrying loud and high over the water.

The Vasi had shipped in humans to feed from, humans to kill.

Maddox, I realized, shouldn’t be out here, facing the Vasi.

“Close in,” I instructed softly to the other Kova, and they seemed to understand right away. We all moved to stand in front of Maddox, and while the others looked out at the Vasi, I turned to my brother.

His eyes were heated, his head was shaking, and his hands were ripping through his hair.

I knew he was angered by the Vasi, by the way they could kill so easily and carelessly. I knew he was hyper-emotional over it, because of his own stint as a Vasi and the guilt he still harbored.

But I also knew that part of him saw this horror, and feared for Evaline.

This was only a fraction of what we feared the Vasi must do in their own kingdom.

I put a hand on his arm, to try and comfort him. I tried to ignore the screams behind us, but it was hard. To know that innocent humans were suffering just outside of our reach was gut-wrenching.

Kovarrin’s archers around the island stood atop cliffs near the manor and shot at the Vasi. We knew it wouldn’t kill them, but it wasn’t as if we could do nothing.

But it was no use. The Sorcerers only batted the arrows away with the water or with the air, while the Vasi fed.

All we could do was witness the human’s pain. We would give them that respect, at least. Someone had to mourn them. Someone had to care.

It didn’t make it any easier, though, to know that soon, their bodies would be dumped into the water, and ultimately, wash up on our shores.