A Guardian's Fate (Book #2)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Gentle knocks came at his door.

Henry opened his sore eyes, having not been asleep at all. The sound he'd been dreading the entire night—a night filled with pacing and silent pleas to the Goddesses—had finally arrived. And he rose into a seated position, preparing himself for his fate.

There was no running away from this now.

Another three knocks. Henry stood and dragged his feet. His heart kept thrashing as if it wanted to burst free and leave him for dead. He almost wished it would. His breaths were quick and shallow, making him sound like he'd genuinely gone running.

Was it a servant coming to tell him that Victor was ready to leave? Or was it Victor himself, coming to drag him back to Caelum where he would spend the next weeks or months locked away in a tower meant for prisoners awaiting their beheading?

Henry's hand trembled uncontrollably as he reached for the doorknob. Inhaling sharply—painfully—he threw open the door. And he was almost knocked over as Ivy leaped forward and embraced him.

"I cannot believe it!" she squeaked, suffocating him within her grasp. For someone so small, she had quite the strength.

Henry blinked hard, trying to comprehend what she could possibly be so excited about. Finding his voice, he frantically asked, "What- Ivy, what is going on?"

His cousin pulled back, grinning up at him. She squeezed his arms and said, "He left! He's gone! We are staying, Henry!" Then she hugged him again, lighter this time.

Henry widened his eyes, baffled by a statement that should have made him burst into the same happiness Ivy felt.

Victor had left? Without him?

But... how? Why? It didn't make any sense. Victor wasn't one to turn down an opportunity to punish him, especially not after boldly threatening to do so. Henry recalled, three years prior, Victor threatening to give him ten lashes if he did not start taking his training seriously. And even though Henry practiced harder with his bow that day than he ever had in his entire life, ten lashes were still given. As Victor had put it, Henry wouldn't have pushed himself if he hadn't been told to.

So why would Victor suddenly show mercy?

The answer was simple: he wouldn't.

Yet when Ivy released him this time, Henry smiled for her sake. "That is incredible!"

But as soon as she left to inform others of the news, he frowned, nausea creeping its way in. And he despised himself for thinking what he did. Because the only plausible solution to him was Elouise.

She could do... things. He'd seen it for himself. He'd told her not to explain it to him until she was ready, and he wasn't going to go back on his word now. However, could she had done something to Victor? Was she capable of that? How would that even work?

Henry quickly got himself dressed into fresh clothes and left to seek out Elouise.

He found her by the barracks, watching the trainees and cheering them on whenever one of them accomplished a difficult task. She turned to him as he approached, and her smile faltered slightly. She tried and failed to fully redeem it, and his suspicions were heightened.

"H-Henry!" she greeted. Then she glanced down at her hands. "I-Ivy told me the fantastic news! I do not, ah, have your coin with me, but I can—"

"No, keep it," he told her, forcefully raising the corners of his lips when she met his eyes. "My reasoning for giving it to you last night still holds true."

Elouise said nothing in response as she turned her attention back to the trainees.

He considered his next words carefully. "It is strange, isn't it? How someone like Victor would change his mind when he already came all this way?"

Elouise simply nodded.

"Did he say anything to you?" he asked, though his mind was screaming at him to end the conversation before it got any worse. Elouise side-eyed him, and he noted how she fiddled with the lace flowers sewn into her gown.

"N-No," she answered softly. Her distress made him regret this pathetic attempt of an interrogation. She was his best friend. And if she had anything to do with Victor's decision, she'd done it with good intentions.

Perhaps she would explain herself one day—if it had been her doing.

Henry stared out at the trainees, spotting Eldon besting a scrawny boy. Elouise briefly perked up as she shouted praises at Eldon. Henry joined her, clapping for their friend. Eldon whirled around, except he was quickly pulled away by another trainee before he could say anything or even smile at them.

"The weather is getting warmer, isn't it?" Elouise asked. Henry hadn't noticed. The morning spring air was wondrous against his warm skin. By now, in Caelum, it would have already started feeling like halcyon.

"Yes, it is," he answered anyway, figuring Elouise merely wanted to move on from their previous conversation. He glanced down as she released her skirts and took hold of the railing. He placed a hand over one of hers.

He then saw a faint smile form and he returned it once she faced him.

Do you believe in miracles?

That had been the question he'd asked Ivy a few weeks earlier. She'd said yes and then asked him if he did. In the moment, he hadn't had an answer and simply told Ivy he would let her know once he'd figured it out.

But as he stared at Elouise now, knowing that tomorrow he and Ivy would wake here—safe and sound—he was certain the answer had finally come to him.

Yes.