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"All right, we're clear of the Glades. Who the hell are you?" Ry asked.

"Addrick."

Ry scowled. "And is that supposed to mean something to me?"

"No. But it means something to me. It is my name after all." Addrick pulled on the reins to Kira's horse and looked around. His nose twitched as he smelled the air. Flowers mixed with the dust being kicked up by the hooves of their horses. His pointed eyes focused on the horizon. Pupils narrowed to slits as he sat still in the saddle. The wind howled as it moved through the nearby oak trees.

The horizon consumed the smoke cloud from Kira's home hours ago, but Addrick knew better than to trust the guards weren't following them. Years of living through their sieges on Wilder camps taught him that.

"Can you at least tell me where we're going?"

"We're going northeast."

"Gee, thanks. That clarified things."

Addrick shrugged and turned to Ry. Kira sat in front of him, still unconscious. A bruise had formed on her jaw from where Addrick had punched her. He'd used magic to strengthen the blow and ensure she remained out for some time. It was too dangerous to allow her to remain awake.

"There's a wooded area ahead that'll provide us shelter for the night." Addrick kicked his shoeless heels into the horse's side to bring it back to a trot. A grumble rumbled in Ry's throat, but Addrick didn't care. His job wasn't to worry about the frustration of the friend. Getting Kira to the Wilders was his only concern.

His people suspected she was a Wilder from the first moment his tribe had ventured into the Glades. Addrick was six the first time his tribe traded with her village. In all his life he'd never seen a person with red hair outside of their nomadic kind. To see Kira running through the town, chasing after a boy with a wooden sword, had been an odd experience to Addrick. Her presence fascinated him. For a short time, he followed her. Whenever she looked back and almost caught him, he ducked out of the way using his speed as a leopard to aid him. Though he could not speak or cast magic when he shifted, he could call on the beasts speed or sight at will. Often he was nothing but a breeze shifting the wares of a merchant when running through human villages. It was the one magic he could use without fear of their prejudice.

The first time he'd caught her using magic, it angered him. She used it so freely around a human boy, putting their entire race at risk. Addrick didn't realize then she didn't understand she wasn't human herself. When their tribe had returned to the others, they'd informed them of the child. Many set out to witness it for themselves. A Wilder living among humans made some see it as a sign the time they must remain concealed was coming to an end. Addrick had little to no faith in the humankind ever accepting them again.

Addrick sighed as he dismounted Kira's horse and led it by the bit into the canopy. He hated riding on the back of a horse, but to leave it behind when Kira wasn't a shifter would've been absurd and slowed their progress. Not all Wilders shared the same gifts. Sure, they could cast magic the same, but what set them apart from the others were what kind of Wilder they were.

There were shifters like Addrick, who could transform into a single animal. Seers who could see the past, present, and future when properly trained. Fairies that used their sexuality to entrap humans, the list went on. Addrick wasn't sure he'd met all of his kind himself.

Ry helped ease Kira into Addrick's arms. He carried her to where he set up her bed after tying her horse to one of the trees. She continued to sleep soundly. Addrick hoped she'd remain asleep long enough for him to bind her magic until he could get her to their people. He frowned. How could she be so careless with her magic? It was a thought he'd asked himself a thousand times since rescuing them.

"Are you going to tell me anything about who you are?"

"I already told ye. I'm Addrick." He smiled. "Do ye have a mortar in that satchel of yers?"

"Oh yes, I always carry a mortar with me for just such an occasion."

Addrick shrugged and moved to one of the trees. His fingernails extended out to form claws and his hand became spotted with the color of the leopard within him. He used one claw to pry a piece of bark from the trunk before moving to the other side to scrape off some of the moss. The scent of mushrooms filled his nose as he sniffed around their hideaway. One corner of his mouth curled as he locked in on a single scent and moved to pull the mushroom from the soil before adding it to his bark tray.

"Make yerself useful." Addrick knelt beside Kira and grabbed a rock from the ground. "Go find some wood for the fire."

"What fire?" Ry asked.

Addrick turned his palm to face up, fingers curled to form a cup that held a ball of flame within.

"The one I'm going to make." Addrick released the fire and pulled his tunic over his head before tossing it on the ground. Tattoos of varying kinds graced his tan skin. One ran the length of his back, a dragon formed from his spin with wings extending out to his shoulders before transforming into flames. Over his right peck was a claw that appeared to rip through his chest. On the other breast was a three leaf clover. Addrick saw Ry's eyes drift to the tattoo on his arm.

"Where did you get that?"

"What? My rugged physique? From me ma and pa."

"That tattoo on your arm. It's an odd design."

Addrick looked to his arm. A black circle surrounded three interlocking spirals; each spiral contained a colored circle at their tip. Two, one pointing to his back and the other to his chest, were the same brass color missing their jewels. The third jewel, near his shoulder, was blue painted to appear as though it glowed. He covered the tattoo with his hand and narrowed his eyes.

"Wood for the fire, now."

"I don't think I like you much."

"Good. I'm not partial to human's meself." Addrick didn't watch Ry stomp off. He used the rock to grind the moss and mushroom into a chunky paste. Water poured from his fingers to create mud he added to the mixture. Carefully, he straddled Kira's body, putting a knee between her arms and torso. He took a deep breath, his pupils turned to tiny diamonds inside his irises as he dipped two fingers into the paste.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Wood hit the ground after Ry shouted. Addrick raised a hand, stopping Ry's approach with magic.

"Yer girlfriend is a moron. I'm binding her magic so she doesn't kill us all when she wakes up."

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Fine. I'm binding yer whore's magic."

Ry grumbled. "She's my sister if you must know. Get the hell off—" Addrick snapped his fingers to silence Ry. His lips continued to move, but no sound came out.

"She is no sister of yers. Kira is Wilder, not human. Now I'll release ye if ye be a good little boy and set up the wood for the fire. A good human is a silent human. I won't harm her. Ye think I would have rescued ye if I wanted to?"

Addrick snapped his fingers again and Ry stumbled forward, falling to his hands and knees. He glared up at Addrick but said nothing. Instead, he gathered the wood and set up the beginnings of a fire pit. Addrick returned his attention to Kira, dipping his fingers back into the paste. He leaned forward and drew a shape on Kira's forehead, two sideways triangles connected at the points by a wavy line. On her right cheek he drew another shape. Three lines, one wavy and the other two straight, contained within an oval. The final drawing came on her left cheek, a heart broken in two parts with another wavy line between the two. Addrick set his bark tray down before leaning on top of her. One hand waved over her face. Each symbol glowed, dim at first but brightened to illuminate Addrick's face. He blew air into her face and the color and symbols both faded.

"Why did you have to do that?" Ry asked when Addrick had finished and used his magic to start a fire.

"Because she is careless with her power. She should not have unleashed it in such a way."

"Her aunt died in front of her eyes! I don't blame her for killing those bastards."

"So?"

Ry growled. "Do you not have a heart?"

"Me heart is just fine, how else would I be alive right now?" Addrick pulled his tunic back on and leaned back against the trunk of a tree. He closed his eyes, ready to drift to sleep. He could feel the obnoxious human's eyes on him.

"Can you at least tell me where you're taking us? And serious this time, not just a direction."

"Northeast was a serious answer. At the time we were going northeast. It's not my fault ye didn't specify ye wanted to know anything more than that." Addrick sighed. "To the home of the Wilders."

"The Wilders have no home. They're a nomadic race!"

"Every living creature has a home, we have two homes to be precise. One we cannot access which requires us to live among ye humans. The other is concealed by magic, but is on the boundary of Morag and Altian. That is where we are headed. To New Calandria."