Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Thirty-OneWyott

Chapter Thirty-One

Wyott

T he marina was a tizzy of movement. Kova flitted around back and forth, mostly at Cora’s direction. She was shouting instructions from a banister.

Three days had passed since we sat with the Sorcerers, since they offered no help and no recourse. Cora was worried both over what they’d said, and that Kovarrin hadn’t invited her to the meeting in the first place, but the latter concern had seemed to slip from her mind after we realized how shackled we really were in this predicament.

So she dedicated her time and mental energy to what she could do—prepare the ships for war. She directed the Navy to prepare to ferry troops from Rominia, through the Srotian sea, to Widow Maker Plains.

“Patch up the hull gash on unit eighteen!” she called, gesturing to a redheaded Kova whose face was flushed from the heat of the day. “Mitch, take all the sails in the storage room to Jeanette, she needs to sew up the tears,” she said, swinging a hand in the opposite direction.

For a moment I forgot that we were locked inside our kingdom, forgot that she was preparing for war. Because when I looked up at her and saw the way her crimson curls danced in the wind that swept through the marina, saw the way the sunlight reflected off the sea lit up her golden skin, all thoughts of grief and worry and war dissipated from my mind and I was struck by her grace, her beauty, her strength.

She felt my gaze, or maybe felt my awe for her down the bond, and turned to meet my eyes in an instant.

What are you doing here? she asked down the bond. Is something wrong?

I shook my head. Not at all. I just came to help. Put me to work.

A small smile tugged at her lips before her eyes flicked over my shoulder and I watched as her eyes widened the slightest bit.

Maddox’s hand clapped on my shoulder a moment later and I turned to look at him.

“You didn’t have to come, Mads,” I told him.

We’d been at training this morning, trying to ensure Maddox felt comfortable maintaining his control over the Vasi while under battle conditions, and I wanted to distract him from absolutely everything else going on. Of course, we couldn’t perfectly replicate a war, but we tried. And considering he was already worried sick over Evaline, I’d say it was closer to the real thing than anything else we could’ve done. Especially with the heat. We left both large doors on each end of the training center shut so that the Vasi outside couldn’t hear what was happening. We didn’t want them to have any idea that Maddox was back to being himself, but that only meant that the heat inside became nearly unbearable.

He shrugged as if to feign nonchalance, but I could see the tightness in his eyes. He’d been steadily on edge, tense, and I knew it wouldn’t end until the moment he had Evaline back in his arms, safe again.

“It was come here and help, or lose my mind worrying away in the manor.”

My jaw tightened as I realized he didn’t specify where in the manor, and I worried that he had been going back to the Rominium chair.

Cora was at our side in an instant, likely having heard Maddox, and we both turned to face her.

“What do you need?” I asked.

She glanced down to the logbook she held in her hands. She took it everywhere she went in the marina and her finger coasted down a page now as her eyes scrolled over it.

“I still need someone to go pick up a few bundles of rope in town from Cliff, and someone else to help do inventory of our food supply for the ships.” She nodded to a doorless room behind us, where rows and rows of barrels sat.

I turned to Maddox and could see the slight pinch in his brows, he didn’t want to go into town. He hated all the eyes on him.

“I can go get the ropes. Mads, stay here and take inventory. Is that okay?”

He nodded and tried to hide the breath of relief he took. “I’d love to,” he agreed.

I stepped forward to kiss Cora goodbye, and as I made my way out of the marina I heard her shuffling some papers and explaining to him how her inventory tracker worked, and how to update it.

Cora had ordered several custom rope bundles from Cliff, so it took a few trips to get them all. I tried not to dawdle when I dropped the ropes off in the marina, mostly because I didn’t want her to stress about any more tasks or how quickly they were getting done. But each time I’d quietly throw glances at Cora and Maddox, to check in on them.

Cora was doing something different at each drop-off. First, it was checking a sail for rips. Second, she was adjusting knots, and the third time she was standing next to a ship that had been hoisted up and out of the water, examining a wound in its hull. She was a tall woman but standing below the looming boat made her look miniscule.

Maddox didn’t stray from his task, just moved further into the cove while he counted barrels. His brows were furrowed and his finger worked quickly in the air, and he paused to bend and find the label of each of them to confirm what was supplied within each. He seemed focused, and I was happy to see that his shoulders seemed looser. I hoped that this was a decent enough distraction away from all of our other troubles right now.

I made my final trip into town to grab the last bundle of ropes for Cora, and on the way back I was pulled from my thoughts by a man’s voice.

“It’s not natural,” he sneered. I recognized the unmistakable voice of Foster, an Elder of our community. He hated Vasi more than anyone I’d ever met, which was telling, considering how much all of us—especially me—hated them.

“I don’t know what Kovarrin’s thinking,” he said, and just as I walked further away and his voice almost faded out of earshot, he continued. “He can’t allow him to stay here, to remain so close to the Keepers of Rominia and all our secrets. For all we know he’s spying for Vasier right now, giving instructions to all the scum surrounding the island.”

My feet stalled, but I forced myself not to react. Wondered if he was talking about Lauden, if he was unaware that he’d never come back and, too, had discovered his deceit. But the old fuck couldn’t stop there.

“There’s no excuse. Not even for his own son—”

The bundles of rope that were looped over each of my arms, settled on each shoulder, hit the stone beneath me as I spun.

My eyes pinpointed his location, and I ran for him.

I pushed through the few men who stood around him, nodding along with his disgusting sentiments, grabbed the collar of his shirt, and shoved him so hard against the building behind him that it shuddered from the impact.

“Gods!” he hissed, but my face was already pressed to his, one hand keeping him pushed up against the wall as the other grasped at his jaw to turn it to me.

“Shut your fucking mouth before I do it for you,” I growled at him, vision blurring from my rage.

He rolled his eyes. “You don’t scare me, boy. Don’t forget yourself. I’m an Elder.”

“And one would think that you’d have the sense not to irritate me when you’re the one pinned to a building, Elder or not.”

He tried to squirm out of my grip, to yank his jaw from my hand, which only resulted in his fair skin flushing from the attempt. “You know it’s true. It was already bad enough with how little action Kovarrin has taken against the Vasi, but this,” he snapped back, his long black hair falling in his face. “Now they’re at our doors and still he does nothing.”

I pushed him harder into the wall. “And that has nothing to do with Maddox,” I snarled. I knew we were too far inland for any of the Vasi on the perimeter to hear us, but I whispered it all the same.

Foster laughed and the sound reverberated through my hands. “You’re naive if you think he’s not involved with the Vasi.”

I slid my hand from his jaw to his throat, and his eyes widened. “And you’re ignorant. So do us all a favor and stop preaching on shit you don’t understand. You weren’t there. You didn’t see what he survived. You didn’t see what he beat .”

“And you don’t know if it’s truly gone,” he said, pressing himself against my hand, lunging for me. “None of us do. You can’t possibly agree that keeping him here, and allowing them to stay out there,” he said throwing his head toward the coast. “Is safe. I don’t know what’s happened to Kovarrin, but between this and the lies he told us regarding the creation of our kind, of his relation to Vasier, have proved that he isn’t the leader we all thought he was. It’s time someone told him, or time for him to step down.”

I shook my head. “Then you go ahead and do that. But don’t ever presume to speak about my brother again,” I said ripping myself away from him. I stood there a moment as he gathered his bearings.

“If I hear you talk about him again, we’ll have a far more coarse discussion.”

I turned to walk away but hadn’t stepped through the group of men he’d been talking to before he spoke again.

“We have to keep the Kova strong. Rick understood that,” he said, naming my father.

I gritted my teeth and stormed away from him.

I tried to settle my breathing as I bent to pick up the bundles of ropes I’d left on the stone when a shadow fell over them.

My eyes squinted as I looked up, the sun blinding me before I straightened to face the young Sorcerer.

I didn’t know his name, but knew he was around Evaline’s age, maybe a little younger.

“Wyott?” he asked.

“Yes?” I asked, smiling in hopes of diffusing some of the tension in his shoulders. I wasn’t sure if he’d just seen my interaction with Foster, but if he did, I understood why he seemed almost afraid of me.

“I wanted to talk to you about the Sorcerers, and the war,” he said, lowering his voice as if to stop others from overhearing.

I nodded, dropping the ropes again and gently laying them against the side of the building we stood in front of.

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at him. “No problem. What’s going on?”

He took a deep breath, his eyes flashed around us, and then he met mine again. “We heard what happened with the meeting Kovarrin held with the Sorcerer Council, about the Vasi in the water, about the impending war.”

I nodded, following along.

He chewed on his lip, then continued. “The Council didn’t represent all the Sorcerers,” he said softly, and my attention spiked. “There are some of us who want to fight for Rominia. We just need to be taught how to.”

The smile was breaking out over my face before I could help it. “That’s the best fucking news I’ve heard all day,” I said, reaching out to shake his hand. “What’s your name?”

He took it, and I saw the color start to return back to his face, his fair skin wasn’t as pale as it was when he was ramping up to confide in me.

He smiled. “Cameron.”