Heir To The Iron Crown: Dyrith

11 - Ellefta

I opened my eyes to find familiar streets and a darker sky. The feeling of content that rushed through me at the sight of familiarity was calming.

I looked at Valente who was still at the wheel, but I realized now that he looked terribly exhausted.

I touched his shoulder gently.

"Hey," I called out to him.

"Hey," he said, smiling. "Good thing you're up. We're almost there."

I nodded my head as I sat a little straighter, adjusting the seat belt to get a little more comfortable.

"I'm glad you met Sterkur. He's been wanting to meet you for so long," he said.

"He's so different from you, but I could still resonate with him the way I do with you," I told him.

"He's a part of me. Different, but a part of me still. We're mates Rayne. You'll always resonate with us both," he said.

He reached out to hold my hand.

"I'm taking you home to Fathilagt with me and I'll keep you safe. Don't worry about a thing," he said through our link, his tone reassuring.

I squeezed his hand in mine a little to show him that I trusted him. The little reservations I had about returning were now slowly slipping away.

"Now when do I get to meet Valente?" Ima instantly said, her tone complaining.

"Not now Imadis," I scolded her.

Valente chuckled.

"When will you learn to control your mindlink? All these years and it's still wide open," he said.

"Well, it's not like I was around people who could sneak into my mind," I told him, looking out the window. "My friends were either human or from a different pack."

"Your friends?" he asked.

I turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him back.

"Sven's told me about your friends Rayne. I guess you carried your amazing popularity to college huh?" he said, in obvious sarcasm.

He had to bring that up? He's probably the reason I grew up anti-social.

"Shut up. I didn't even need friends," I told him, folding my arms.

He continued to smile as he kept his eyes on the road.

"Speaking of your friends," he said, turning to a street that was most definitely not in the direction of my apartment.

He handed me his phone with the GPS application open. It was directing us towards a locality, the name of which seemed familiar, but it wasn't mine.

"Where are we going Valente?" I asked him.

He smirked without looking at me.

"To pay your friends a visit."

...

We had parked outside the last place I expected to be tonight.

I looked at Starke's house in front of me and felt like it had been decades since I was last here, when in all honesty it had been just a few weeks.

"Why are we here?" I asked Valente, as I got out of the car, looking at my reflection in the side view mirror. I'd tried to fix my hair and face but it didn't help too much.