Annie Hayden's Arc

Chapter 14 of 27

Annie carried the old book out of the archive. Kaelen walked beside her, silent. The book held her plan to save the fox, but the plan needed his father. And she still did not understand why Kaelen kept fighting for her. Twice she had watched him argue with the High Mage on her behalf. A man that guarded got nothing for free. Before she trusted his plan, she had to know his price. Outside, his white stag waited by the archive steps. Its coat threw back the light in soft colors. Kaelen rested a hand on its neck and would not meet her eyes. "Stop," Annie said. "Before I show your father anything, I need the truth. Why do you keep defending me? You barely know me." He pulled his hand from the stag. "You have the book. That's enough." "It isn't." She stepped in front of him. The fox pressed against her leg, tail warm. "You knew my name on the mountain before I said it. You keep pushing your father to teach me. Nobody does that for a stranger. So tell me your stake, or I go to him alone." For a long moment he said nothing. The stag shifted its hooves in the snow. "There was a human before you," Kaelen said. "Long ago. The one in that book." His voice dropped. "My father hunted her. He didn't spare creatures then, and he didn't spare her. She had a bonded beast, like your fox. He killed it to break her." Annie's throat tightened. "Why does that matter to you?" "Because I found her records years ago. I read what he did." He looked at the fox, then at Annie. "I've watched my father hunt this world for a hundred years. When you walked in with a firefox at your side, I saw a chance to change what he is. If he learns to save one creature instead of killing it, maybe the century after this one looks different." He drew a slow breath. "You're not a stranger to me, Annie. You're the second chance I never thought I'd get." Annie stood still. The cold bit her cheeks. She had wanted a selfish reason she could weigh and distrust. Instead he had handed her something heavier and truer. His stake was not in her at all. It was in his father. "That's why the book matters," she said slowly. "It's not just my fox. You want him to read what he did and choose different." "Yes." Kaelen met her eyes now. "I can't ask him for me. He'd refuse. But he can't refuse a student who's already learning to spare her own bonded creature." The distrust drained out of her. She still did not fully know him. But now she knew where he stood, and it stood beside her. "Then we tell him together," Annie said. "Tonight." Kaelen nodded. He turned the stag toward the hill, and Annie followed, the book held tight.