Letter #30
Happy Birthday, Love,
I saw you in the woods with your bow last week. You’re getting better.
Watching you walk through town with my gift strapped across your back made me feel like everyone knew you were mine (even if they didn’t). It made me want to find something you could always wear… like a necklace.
I thought one that said MATE, or your name would be perfect, but Ora said you would hate it. She helped me choose this one instead.
Wear it for me, little mate.
Yours,
Nick
P.S. I put a sweater in the bag for that little fox of yours. He looks cold.
Amelia held up the gold necklace and stared at the trout pendant dangling from the chain.
She hated Ora.
“Did she like the necklace?” Rennick asked Finn, eager to hear her reaction.
Finn raised a brow. “I don’t wait around to watch her. When she finishes, the letter, I take it and leave.”
Rennick threw his hands up. “How am I supposed to know if she liked it or not?” It was the wrong thing to say because Finn looked mad.
No. He looked furious.
“I travel through the night to get there before morning, and sometimes I have to wait another couple of hours for her to wake, and you’re mad I didn’t wait even longer to watch her open a fucking necklace?” Finn shook his head with an incredulous laugh. “Find someone else to do it.” He stalked off, and Rennick stared after him in shock.
“Finn, wait,” he called after him, jogging to catch up. “I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
Finn kept walking, his strides heavy. “But you are.”
Rennick grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. “I’m sorry. I do appreciate what you’ve been doing, and you know anything you want is yours.”
Rennick paid Finn handsomely for his time. He bought him the finest horse and anything else his friend even looked at with longing, but those were material things, and he realized now that he treated Finn like an errand boy instead of his best friend.
“If I could defy the gods and take them myself, I would,” Rennick said quietly. “It kills me that I can’t.” He’d tried crossing the barrier more times than he could count over the last few months. The guards at the barrier gates merely watched him with amusement as he bounced off the invisible wall.
Finn hung his head. “I know.” He met Rennick’s stare. “I saw what losing your mother did to Callum. I’ll do what I can to help you with Amelia, but I have a life, too.”
Rennick rolled his lips together to hold back the emotion that swelled up at the mention of his mother. “You’re right. If it gets to be too much, you don’t have to do it.”
His best friend sighed and slapped him on the back. “Stop being a dick and we’re good.”
