Back at the hospital, I sat down next to Derek by the fireplace. He glanced back Emma as the nurse helped her adjust her cast.
"Can I ask you something?" Derek asked me.
I nodded curiously, Derek didn't usually ask permission he was usually blunt with questions.
"Why were you helping Emma and Jeremy try to fix things after the things she said about you?"
I shrugged, "We all have good days and bad days, I'm not going to let that get in the way of our friendship."
Derek chuckled, "I just don't get it I guess. That should get in the way, you should be bothered by what she said."
I shrugged again, "Remember that night at the safe house with your dad's friend and Liam and all that? When you came to me wanting help changing? I was furious with the way you'd treated me but I couldn't get myself to say no to helping you. People say and do things without thinking, you can't hold it against them. Especially if you weren't supposed to hear it because they were in another room."
Derek dropped it, not liking how I compared it to him being mean to me once. I watched Elijah and Tess chatting on the other side of the room and waited a minute before changing the subject in case Derek wanted to say anything else.
"Want to hear something interesting?" I asked. Derek nodded. "So Elijah keeps track of magic stuff right? I never really stopped to think about how he does it. Its not like he's got some app on his phone. Do you know how?"
Derek shook his head.
"He spelled his forearm to keep track," I said. "If his arm gets pink or red then somethings happened. Isn't that cool?"
"How do you know this?" Derek asked.
"I saw it today and asked, I thought maybe he'd been hit."
"So his magic alarm went off and you're not concerned?" Derek stood up.
"What're you doing?" I got to my feet.
"I'm going to go ask."
I grabbed Derek's arm, "No don't. Look he's in a good mood finally. Don't ruin it."
"What if its something to do with you though?" He asked as he brushed my hands off his arm.
I felt a scab rip under bandage and I bit my tongue, trying to keep tears from my eyes. The front door swung open with a bang, taking Derek's attention and giving me a second to compose myself. Ashe came in looking angry.
"What did I do now?" Elijah smirked seeing her mad.
Ashe paid no attention to Elijah though and instead walked straight towards me and Derek. She grabbed my shoulders and started guiding me towards the door.
"Hey," Derek growled. "What're you doing?"
"She'll be right back," Ashe responded and pushed me out the door.
"What's going on?" I asked.
Ashe shushed me and grabbed my shoulder again, guiding me far from the hospital. She finally stopped next to a large willow tree.
"Come on," she said as she pulled herself up onto a branch and climbed.
I followed, though I was much slower since I was trying not to put too much pressure on my bad hand. I caught up to her about three quarters of the way up and sat on a branch I hoped would hold me. Ashe sat on the branch beside me and leaned against the trunk.
"This was my favorite tree growing up," she said as she looked out through the leaves to the late afternoon sun. "Elijah hated climbing so he would never bother me up here."
"I'm sorry I'm very confused right now," I admitted.
"I wanted to talk with you in the most private place I could. No one can hear us up here," she said. "I don't like outsiders but I don't like my brother abusing you like he did today."
She turned and looked at me.
"You should never let him put you in danger like that," she said. "He's a selfish man, he'll keep you around until you're no use for him anymore. Then he leaves you behind to deal with his consequences."
I stared at her bewildered that she would talk about Elijah this way.
"I'm trying to look out for you. Get away from him while you still can, Elijah's nothing but bad news."
"I think you're wrong," I said. "He takes care of me."
"Did you know he only rescued you because he wanted to see Tess? You were simply a ticket back into her life. Did you know he let Tess fall onto a pile of metal to get rid of the baby? He only helped her because I was a witness. Did you know he started wars between species so he could steal from them while they were busy fighting each other? He started a war to make a few dollars. Did you know that he was supposed to be alpha here but instead he bailed when our parents died? He didn't even stay long enough to attend their funeral Chloe."
"Everyone makes mistakes," I said. It was all my brain could manage to say. She had to have to facts wrong.
"They weren't mistakes, they were intentional. I love him but he's bad news, you need to take your friends and get away from him."
"He's saved my life," I replied. "More times than I can count. He traveled across the country to make sure I was okay when he thought something happened."
Ashe slowly shook her head and looked back out at the sky, "He doesn't change. He's going to leave you when something happens."
I shook my head, she didn't know what she was talking about. Elijah wasn't using any of us, he loved us. We were family.
"Did you know," she spoke softer this time. "That there was this girl who fell in love with him and Elijah promised her that they were mates. Destined to be together forever. The only time I'd ever seen him be sappy and romantic. And he let her drown in the river. The water was too high and too fast. He knew better but he let her go in."
"It was probably an accident," I said, my throat felt dry.
"Our father taught us everything about this land. We know when the river wasn't safe to cross. Elijah claimed he accidentally let go of her hand but his clothes were dry when he came back. Don't let him let go of your hand Chloe. You need to let go first before the river sweeps you away."
Some necromancy stuff coming soon, I'm sure you can guess what it is. This next part happened in the past, just felt like including some bonus material I guess lol. I like Ashe so far idk about you guys. She's got that sibling relationship with Elijah of sometimes being nice and helpful and sometimes being a jerk. We don't always know what to expect from her.
Tess' POV (days ago)
"You're trying to convince us to stay here," I chuckled as Ashe lead us to yet another building.
Ashe smiled and rolled her eyes, "I don't think its possible to get Elijah to stay anywhere." She stopped in front a building with a heavy metal door. "This is our shop. I guess you could call it our blacksmith shop. We have one guy who makes the majority of our tools…"
I didn't listen to the rest of what she said. I felt a pain in my stomach that took my attention. Elijah noticed the weird look on my face and put an arm around me.
We stepped inside, the place was covered in a decent layer of sawdust. I smiled and admired the tools Ashe and Elijah were talking about as I felt the pain again. I should say something to Elijah, he can tell somethings up but I didn't want to make him more stressed. I felt a wave of it again. This wasn't labor pains was it? It was too early.
We walked towards the back where the man she mentioned must work on the metal tools. There was all sorts of equipment that I didn't even know what to call. I saw Elijah give a small smile out of the corner of my eye. He was happy to see me interested in the stuff.
I moved to step around a pile of cast iron buckets when pain hit me again. It was sharp fast making me cry out and stumble, tripping on one of the buckets. I hit the ground and my ears were ringing from the buckets banging together. The pain was in the side of my stomach now. I reached for it and Elijah grabbed my hand.
"Don't touch it," he said. I could barely hear him over my ears ringing. "Don't look, just look at me."
I cried out again as the baby fought back against the pain in my side kicking and scratching.
"Ashe get help," Elijah demanded. She disappeared out the door. He let go of my hand, "I've got to pull it out. Stay with me Tess."
He yanked on something and I screamed as the pain intensified.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," he tried to stop the bleeding. "It's going to be ok. It'll be ok. Tess open your eyes."
I tried my hardest to keep them open. I blinked and I was laying in a bed, Elijah sitting next to me crying.
