Crown of Faeries

12 | Clemency

"Weston."

I spoke his name in a rushed breath as he pushed through double doors and pulled me behind him. I could see his jaw tighten, as if he was upset with me.

"Weston." I repeated his name and he whirled around.

"What?" He snapped as his nose brushed against mine. His warm breath shot forward, causing me to stumble back in surprise.

"Why--why are you acting like this?" My voice trembled a little on the ends and I hated how weak I sounded. But Weston made me that way, more than Kieran did.

Almost as if Weston had seen the image of Kieran pass through my mind, he growled and took a step forward, caging me in with the drop of his shoulders so he could be face to face with me.

"I told you to be careful and you run off?" His words so brusque I felt the pins and needles of tears almost erupt from my eyes.

"I didn't run off," I hissed. "I needed fresh air and I can't help that I was attacked and had to protect myself."

"You should have stayed inside my room." He countered and I felt anger bubble in my chest.

"Weston, you don't have a right to tell me what to do!" I stuck my nose deeper into his face. His lips curled into a snarl as his hands gripped me and held me in place. Testing me to see how long I would go along with the challenge I placed forth.

"I'm trying to protect you, Caelia." He whispered my name so softly at the end I almost didn't even catch it.

"I don't need protection." I jerked out of his grasp when I felt his grip loosen.

"You may have not needed it much before, but now you'll need it more than ever." His face was like stone as he took several steps back from me. "And the Reaper can't always come to your rescue after today."

"Kieran didn't come to my rescue." I started off and Weston snorted a deep chuckle.

"Of course he did. The Reaper wouldn't risk his position just to come see you before he's done what his father asked of him." He rolled his eyes.

"What do you mean?" My eyebrows raised as the questions and images of gore and pain flooded my mind. I knew Kieran was a creature of darkness, but then again, this whole realm was. Could he truly be trying to mask that darkness by defying his father in order to still have a chance with me?

You can't trust anyone, especially me. His words rung loud and clear that I was sure Weston caught them in the air when his eyebrows rose as well.

"Reapers kill Grimms and Grimms kill the enemy." Weston explained with a hint of boredom in his tone. "Kieran, as you prefer to call him--"

"That's his name." I interrupted and he waved me off.

"Don't care." He snapped irritability. "He became a Reaper after his father killed his best friend years ago. While it was an accident, Kieran never saw it that way. He searched for a way of revenge and found it through a Wielder."

Wielder.

There was that term again. "What's a Wielder?" I asked before Weston could continue on with his story.

He looked at me oddly. "Multiple things. Just like how there are multiple Seers, there are multiple Wielders. But Henrietta, the witch," he growled again as his eyes did another roll. "She's the one who uses very old magic to bond those with the earth. Kieran went to her with a way to see his father's next betrayal before it happened and she turned him into a Reaper. The Raven is the most respected animal in the Wielder society--so I've been told. But a Reapers job is to protect the old ways as well. Hence, why once he was born a Reaper he was banned from the Crown because we really need as many Grimms as we can get in the wars to come."