Runebinder (The Runebinder Chronicles #1)(33)

“You have your orders,” she said, looking back to Jarrett. “I don’t expect you to return until they’ve been fulfilled.”

He nodded.

She walked toward the door and put her hand on the knob. Before opening it, however, she turned around.

“More than you know is riding on your shoulders. If you fail, there will be no point in coming back. You’ll have already damned us.”

Then she opened the door and was gone.

They stood there in the silence for a good minute before Jarrett finally spoke.

“Right. We’ll meet at the south tower at five to midnight, right before the guard changes. We’ll have to fly out.”

That got Tenn’s attention. He’d always heard that non-Air users couldn’t fly, but neither of the twins seemed to catch what he said. Dreya was still slumped against the wall, watching her brother with wary eyes. Devon stared at Jarrett, his blue eyes intense and his hands knuckled white in his lap.

“You should not have told her,” Devon finally said. “We trusted you.”

“We need your help,” Jarrett said. “Things are... Things are changing. The world is changing. And if we don’t find a way to fight back, we’re going to be destroyed. I know what I’m asking you, but it’s nothing I wouldn’t do myself. We have to protect what’s important. No matter the cost.”

Tenn could have sworn Jarrett’s gaze flicked to him when he said it.

Devon closed his eyes and took a deep, ragged breath. Fire burned out, and a little more tension bled from the room.

“We will see you before midnight,” Dreya said. She pushed herself from the wall and put a hand on Devon’s shoulder. Without another word, Devon stood and followed her from the room. They didn’t even seem to care that they were leaving Jarrett and Tenn alone in their space.

Jarrett walked over to the bed and sat. Tenn hesitated, then sank down next to him.

“What was that all about?” Tenn asked.

“Politics,” Jarrett said with a sigh. “The joys of being in command. Sometimes the good of humanity means fucking over the ones you care about. Here’s hoping it wasn’t a total loss.” He looked at Tenn. “As I said, easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”

Tenn’s heart stuttered. Jarrett remembered that night of studying together. Did that mean he reminisced about Tenn, too?

“But who are the Witches?” Tenn asked, trying to focus on the matter at hand. “Why are we going after them?”

“They’re a group. A religion, maybe. Honestly, I don’t really know. I’d barely heard of them before this. They pretty much avoid the outside world. But rumor has it they’re the ones who discovered how to use runes and magic. If they know about these—” he brushed Tenn’s tattoo, flooding heat through Tenn’s veins “—maybe they know about the ones the necromancers use. Maybe they know enough to reverse them.”

Jarrett shifted, and suddenly Tenn felt the heat of Jarrett’s arm near his back, reaching out behind Tenn, in an almost-embrace. Heat flared in Tenn’s chest as he glanced over, and Jarrett looked back, not breaking his gaze.

“Tell me a story,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m about to head out into the field with you again. I also just lied through my teeth to keep you from being imprisoned. I need a distraction.” He gave a small smile. “Besides, you once told me you were good with words.”

Despite the compliment, fire turned to fear.

“What do you mean, you lied? About what?”

“Cassandra didn’t know about you specifically, only that the Prophets needed us to investigate. If she’d found out that your magic was acting up, she’d probably have you stuck in a cell for testing. So, tell me a story. Consider it repayment.”

Tenn could only think about Cassandra, and the curious looks she gave him. Did she believe he was the cause of this? And if so...would he actually make it out of there tonight?

He tried to shake the questions from his head and focus on Jarrett. Jarrett, who inspired an altogether different sort of anxiety.

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything. But we can start with where you’re from. I don’t think you ever told me.”

“What’s it matter?” Tenn asked, his walls instantly slamming back up. “Everyone from there’s dead.”

Jarrett went silent. He didn’t try to negate Tenn’s statement or push him into answering.

“Then tell me what you dreamed of being when you were a kid,” he said after a few moments had passed. “What did you want your life to be, before all this?”

“I try not to think about it. Not when I know it can’t be.”

Jarrett brought his arm closer, touched the small of Tenn’s back.

“Why else do you think we’re fighting?” Jarrett asked. “I believe it can be. Someday. We can rebuild. But you have to have a dream to get there.”

Tenn looked to Jarrett. In all the years of fighting and fear, there’d never been a discussion like this—the question of what might come next. Of what the world could look like. Could it ever go back to the way it had been, to the way he’d dreamed? Getting a job and having a husband and living in a cabin in the woods, making art and raising kids and having a herd of golden Labs? Those were dreams he’d kept tightly locked away. They hurt too much to think about. They suffocated in the gray and the rain of this reality.