Chapter 3 — 9 Days
948 Words
I stayed awake.
Really?
I heard Kael's words again as I closed my eyes.
Why didn't anyone say that you were leaving?
I couldn't understand why I was so upset by these words.
He had died 3 years before.
It had been three years since they last saw each other.
But why did one discussion get me to feel like a kid again?
At 5 AM I abandoned all hope.
I put on my fitness equipment and went outside.
The eastern training fields were still dark when I arrived.
The warriors were at the ready.
I joined them.
One lap.
Two.
Three.
I really worked harder.
In case my lungs would burn, perhaps my thoughts would stop.
They didn't.
Kael.
His voice.
When I told him that I was going away his face.
Not anymore.
I raised my speed up.
“Elyra!”
I ignored the voice and ignored the voice,
“Elyra, wait!”
I kept running.
My shoulder was grabbed by a hand.
I stopped reluctantly.
Rowan hunched down next to me, panting.
“Trying to evade the entire pack.
I wiped the sweat off my face.
“Maybe I am.”
He studied my face.
“You didn't sleep.”
“I did.”
“No, you didn't.”
“How would you know?
“Since you've been gazing at this tree for the past three minutes.”
I looked behind me.
I was indeed looking at a tree!
Rowan laughed.
“Here.”
He gave me some water.
I accepted it.
“Thanks.”
Sat at the corner of the training platform.
I remained standing.
“You heard about Kael?” he asked, “He was a great kid, right?”
I immediately stiffened.
“Everyone heard.”
But that's not what I said!
I took a drink.
What's that you said?
“He returned yesterday.
“I noticed.”
“He knew that you were moving out.”
I picked the bottle up and lowered it.
“Apparently.”
Rowan was watching me with his gaze.
“He wasn't happy.”
I shrugged.
"But he needn't be."
"Why? You don't understand why?”
“No.”
That was a lie.
Rowan knew it.
“Elyra.”
“What?”
“You've been living there for so long, you've been waiting years to get out of Mooncrest.”
“I still am.”
“Really do you want to go?”
I gazed out at the mountains that lay beyond the training ground.
“Yes.”
It was not difficult to come up with the answer.
Perhaps it was because I said it a thousand times in my head before.
I want to be somewhere where I don't exist as an adopted girl.
Rowan didn't speak.
I want to be able to enter a room and not have to think about whether or not I should sit down.”
I gripped it tighter with my fingers around the bottle.
I want to have a life of my own.
“You'll have it.”
I looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Another reason is I may be leaving too.”
I blinked.
“What?”
My dad applied for me to transfer.
I stared at him.
“Where?”
“Blue River.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
A smile escaped me.
“Then you're going to leave Mooncrest too?”
“Looks like it.”
I shook my head.
For all these years we've been getting out,” says “All these years.”
“Well, let's celebrate maybe.
I laughed softly.
Once I beat the Frostfang Pack.
“You'll survive.”
“You have such a lot of self-assurance.”
“I know you.”
It was the simple words that warmed me more than I should have been warmed by.
I was always familiar with Rowan.
Not as the Alpha's adopted daughter.
Not as the "bad girl.Not as "the bad girl.
Just Elyra.
He stretched out his arm and removed the empty bottle from my hand.
“You're still shaking.”
“I am not.”
“You are.”
He smiled.
I rolled my eyes.
“You're annoying.”
“You can't say you're afraid, you're just bad at that.”
I looked at him.
We were silent for a few moments.
Then I saw something which I had not seen before.
He had changed too.
His hair was now longer.
He was trained to have wider shoulders.
There was this little scar that I had never seen up until this time, close to his eyebrow.
I turned my head as fast away as possible.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You were staring.”
“I wasn't.”
“You were.”
I took my training jacket.
“Let's go.”
He laughed.
“Fine.”
Back to changing rooms together we walked.
It felt easy.
Normal.
I had a few minutes of forgetting the family of the Alpha.
I never thought of Kael.
I don't remember what was in my room last night.
I could almost visualise the life that would be after Mooncrest.
No Lydia.
No servants' quarters.
No rumors about my not being one of them.
Just somewhere new.
I want to do it somewhere I can.
Perhaps Frostfang wouldn't be so kind.
Perhaps it wouldn't be better.
It would be my own though.
That's all that was needed.
I gazed again at the mountains.
I was gonna leave tomorrow.
I had no idea that I would soon lose control over the decision.
So far my knowledge was limited to a single thing.
Now it was finally time to leave Mooncrest.
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