Heart of Ash (The Dark Arcane Series: Book 1)

Chapter Thirty Eight

"How do you know the ring's hers?"

He held it up to the light between two fingers.

"This is my family ring, there's an R engraved on the inside."

"R for..."

"Reighstorm," Sariem whispered as she pieced it together. "You're the last of the Reighstorm family."

Ender couldn't help but grimace as he nodded.

"I know most of you have negative emotions towards the Reighstorms but—"

"You are not your parents, Ender. We know that," Kade comforted in his stony voice. "We can't chose who we're related to."

He looked at the ground. His parents betrayal of the Shadows had always haunted him. He missed them so dearly, but he couldn't forget the lives they cost.

"I hope you can understand why I need to find her. I can't—I can't lose her twice." He looked at them and was met with understanding.

"Of course, go," Conan pushed gently. "We'll be here when you get back."

His head snapped up at the sound of his voice, and even more so at the fact that Conan was agreeing with him. There were so many things swimming in his eyes, and he wanted an eternity to study it all.

A sadness crept up on him. Now that he knew he was leaving for a while, he suddenly wanted to talk to Conan about a hundred different things. He wanted to apologise. He wanted to know if Conan thought of him as much as he thought of Conan when he slept alone. But mostly, he wanted to kiss him.

"I'll go with you," Kade offered, drawing his attention. "You'd do the same for me."

He snorted. "No, the rest of you continue on and find the Tegye San, and protect it. We know what the Elites really are now, so prepare yourselves. I'll be back soon."

"You have no way of finding us, though—"

He tapped the side of his head without an eye, with a crooked smile. "The explosion, remember? I'm not entirely human."

"That's going to take some getting used to," Nala muttered, from her slumped position behind Conan on his horse.

"Nala, you're awake!" Sariem cheered. "You were out for an entire day."

"I was?" she said groggily. "Feels like I've been asleep for a year."

The dye in her hair had mostly washed out by now, the remnants presenting as a musty grey.

Kade nodded at her with a smile, honest and grateful and filled with relief. "Good to have you back, sis."

"You tore your leg pretty bad though, and your arm was bleeding something awful, but I gave you some stitches and you should be right as rain in a few months," the Ender explained.

"Months?"

"It was pretty bad, Nala," Darius admitted. "There was a lot of blood."

"You'll be able to use your crossbow, no changes there, but the muscles in your leg will need time to heal. I wager with training you'll be back to normal in under a year."

She sighed reluctantly.

"So what happened with the wolves? Did we win?" She looked around through a squint.