Heir To The Iron Crown: Butterfly ✓

29 - Tuttugu og Níu

Valente's demeanor instantly went from calm to alert as he put his arms around me protectively.

"It's okay. It's Buri," I told him through the link.

"Who the fuck is Buri?" he asked me, raising an eyebrow.

"An old man I met a few days ago. He said he lives at the cottage by the stream," I told him.

We both got up to stand now.

"I've never seen anybody there in all these years Rayne," he said. "It's completely abandoned. You think I wouldn't know if someone lived within my pack borders without permission?"

I sighed.

"It did seem a little weird to me," I told him as we made our way back towards the cottage.

"How're you feeling now?" he asked me, a look of concern on his face.

"I don't feel anything at all," I said honestly. There was no pain, or even a little soreness in my bones. Perhaps the shift upgraded my healing power.

As we reached the cottage, Valente walked ahead of me to go inside.

I followed him to find him standing still in the middle of the dark cottage, looking down at a white dress.

My dress.

I walked up beside him, bending down to pick it up. It was perfect again, just like when I put it on last night.

"I saw the the ripped shreds myself, it was irreparable," he said.

I inspected the dress to check the fabric, and it showed no signs of tear or repair work. It looked just like it did last night, not any brighter or newer. It couldn't possibly have been a replacement either.

It was the dress.

It had been completely fixed.

Almost as if, by magic.

"Wizardry," Valente whispered at the same time I reached that conclusion.

"Show yourself!" he shouted, his voice echoing inside the empty cottage walls.

There was no response.

"He said he travels," I told him.

"He was right here! We just heard him! And you've had an entire conversation with this complete stranger?" he asked me, his annoyance evident.

"Gramma told me that this cottage was at Akureyri too. I think it's a part of his magic. He did say it was a part of him," he went towards the walls and touched them.

"I never paid any attention to it. I thought it was just an abandoned cottage that didn't belong to anybody," he said.

That's what I thought too.

He started moving towards the door. "C'mon," he said to me.

"Where to?" I asked him.

"Let's ask Rosa what she knows," he replied.

...

I'd worn my dress again in the cottage as Valente waited outside.

He had put on his jacket as we walked back to my house.

Rosa opened the door before we even rang the door bell. She looked as if she had been crying, and hugged me as soon as she saw me.

"Oh Rayne," she said, letting go of me, her grip tight on my arms. She turned to Valente, mouthing a thank you, before making way for us to step inside.