Kalina ~ Book Four

The girl didn't say a word as Sylvie slowly walked her along the path towards home. She thought better than to walk her right to the house and pulled out her phone, calling Kian. Elias was organising new business, and Rowan was probably planning their campout.

“Yeah, Princess? I was just about to call you.”

“Is it possible for humans to get past your wards?”

“What?” He paused a moment before a rustling crunched down the line. “They can get to the border, but the wards always turn them around and send them back. Why?” His voice was guarded.

“I found a girl. She needs help.”

“Does it have a name?”

“She hasn’t said a word.”

Sylvie felt a strange guilt talking about the girl in front of her, but she had to do something. She couldn't risk letting her out of her sight.

“Forgive me. I say it because there is no way a human got in, Princess. Be careful.”

Sylvie raked her gaze over the girl's back, her spine sticking out through the thin, tattered cotton slip she had on. “I think I’ll be fine.”

“Rowan’s on his way.”

“I know.”

“I’ll meet you at Amira’s.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“I love you too.” She hung up, and the girl tensed as approaching footsteps filled the forest.

In human form, Rowan barely glanced at the girl before raking his gaze down his mate. “You’re alright.”

“Naturally.”

The girl shook and dropped into a ball, whimpering back and forth.

Sylvie dropped beside her and spoke soothingly, “We won’t hurt you. Rowan is my- my boyfriend. I can take you somewhere to clean you up and get you some food, okay? Then we can figure out where you came from.”

The girl just whimpered and rocked, and Sylvie sat silently beside her. Kian’s calming effects would have been helpful right then.

Rowan hovered at Sylvie’s side and took a step back. The whimpering stopped. Sylvie’s brow rose, and Rowan stepped back one more. The girl unfurled from her ball and sniffled, her tired face flickering.

“Come.” Sylvie stood and offered a hand, which the girl thankfully took. She sent a look behind her to Rowan that said, give us space, and he nodded, staying a few metres behind. When they reached Amira’s hut, the old shifter wasn’t there, and Sylvie shot a worried glance at Rowan.

“She’s with Kian, gathering herbs. Thought it would be wise to stay away.”

Sylvie guided the girl to a chair and helped her sit. “Why?”

Rowan took a tentative step forward, and the girl yelped before he stepped back again. She was afraid of him. Or was it shifters? He nodded in understanding.

“Stay outside then, Ro. I’ll let you know if I need help.”

He glanced at the girl, his top lip twitching slightly as if his wolf was on the fringes, wanting to bare his teeth. Weird, but probably worrying about her safety.

“I’ll be fine,” she reiterated, waiting for him to shut the door. She exhaled, padded around the room, making a warm tea filled with healing herbs, and pulled a sandwich from Amira’s fridge. Hopefully, she wouldn’t mind. Usually, the sandwiches were off-limits unless she offered one herself, but this girl looked a second away from blowing over in the wind.

Amira would understand.

“Do you want to eat first or shower?”

The girl looked at her mud-streaked arms, and her lip trembled.

“Shower it is,” Sylvie said.

Helping her to Amira’s tiny bathroom, Sylvie lifted the girl into the small shower tub. She kept her slip dress on to maintain her privacy and turned on the shower, taking the wand in her hand and running it until the water was warm.

“I’m going to run this over your body now.”

She nodded shakily, and Sylvie rinsed her arms, legs, and hair. Slowly, the girl uncurled and pulled the shift over her head, revealing the body of a malnourished teen. Her ribs stuck out, and the breast tissue around her nipple had a dozen burn marks in various stages of healing.

Someone had tortured her.

Sylvie carefully avoided that area as she washed the dirt from the girl, her hand gripping the shower wand so tightly she wondered if it would snap. Finally, once the water ran clear, she pulled her to her feet and wrapped a towel around her. The girl wobbled, and Sylvie wrapped her arms around her.

“I’m going to pick you up, okay?”

She nodded once more, a bit stronger than the last time. Sylvie scooped the girl up like a child and carried her back to the chair, lowering her and tucking the towel under her armpits.

"I’ll find you some clothes.”

She padded to the door and peeked out, catching Rowan's eye. “I need some clothes for her. Grab something of mine. I have a new packet of underwear in my bottom drawer and a smallish tracksuit in the closet.”

His eyes glazed for a second, and he nodded. “Seone will get it.”

Sylvie smiled and leaned further out the door with puckered lips. He kissed her and cupped her chin, rasping, “I love you.”

She kissed him again before heading back in. She was getting all the love today.

Seone appeared a few minutes later and posted the clothes through the door, disappearing before Sylvie thanked her.

She dressed the teen carefully, avoiding the bruised or burned areas, leaving her in the chair to fetch the now-warm tea and sandwich.

Once every crumb was gone, which took an unbearable amount of time, Sylvie dragged a chair over and tried questioning again.

“Do you have a name?”

The girl swallowed repeatedly as if trying to lubricate her throat and instead opted to draw a pattern on the chair's wooden arm. Sylvie glanced at it and asked her to draw it again.

A straight line and two arches on its side. The letter B. “Bea?”

The girl, Bea, nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Bea. I’m Sylvie. Do you know how you got here?”

She shook her head.

“And you're,” Sylvie hedged. “You're a human, right?”

Bea’s brows furrowed in a way only a human could about such an unusual question, and Sylvie waved her hand. “Just checking. Never know in these woods.” She offered a conspiratory smile and fetched her another sandwich.

“Do you remember your family? An address? Anything we can use to get you home?”

Bea sat still for a long time, her eyes slowly moving side to side as if piecing something together before she finally shook her head. No.

Great.

Sylvie felt a warmth on Elias’ mate mark, and she rubbed it. He was outside now, too. She was surprised he didn't barge in and flit her away from the unknown danger that was a half-starved teenage girl.

“Okay, well, for now, you can stay in a little unit behind my place. It's private. Has plenty of food and a bed. Does that sound okay?”

Bea nodded, and her eyelids drooped in answer. “I’ll carry you,” Sylvie said then, a question in her tone. So far, she was the only one Bea let near her, so it was better to keep going instead of ruining Bea's progress and asking her mates to touch her. Bea nodded and wrapped her arms, bony and light, around Sylvie's neck as she lifted her bridal style.

“Open the door, Elias.”

The door swung open, and Bea trembled and buried her face in Sylvie’s neck.

“Okay, everyone move back.”

They did. Rosie, Seone and Amira were a part of the crowd. Kian was still absent. He was nearby but out of sight. What was he doing?

“Where?” Elias asked quietly. Bea jumped at his voice.

“Kerensa’s old spot.”

He nodded, and she walked carefully there, glad of her strength and coordination. Ten years ago, she would’ve tripped over her own shadow, but Sylvie was a new woman. Rosie banked too close, and Bea wailed, making Sylvie's eardrum rattle.

“Stay back!”

“Sorry.”

Sylvie cringed at her tone but kept walking. Bea was so light she didn't even have to adjust her grip and soon found herself tucking the girl into the unit's bed and leaving a cell phone by the bed. It was old, and Sylvie put her number on speed dial.

“If you need me, just call. You don’t even have to say anything. I’ll just come, okay?”

Bea nodded and curled into the bed, the duvet swallowing her up.

“Rest up, Bea.”

She turned and left, falling tiredly into the arms of her mates at the bottom of the unit's steps.

They walked well out of hearing range before Rowan muttered. “We need to get her where she belongs.”

“I know, but-”

“He’s right, Kitten. The timing of this is…odd.”

Sylvie’s nostrils flared. “I know that, but she doesn’t speak. How can I figure out where she comes from if she won’t talk to me?”

“Maybe I should-”

Sylvie shook her head, and Elias cut his sentence short.

“She’s terrified of you all.”

“But why?” Rowan edged, peering over Sylvie’s shoulder. “How would she know what we are if she’s human.”

He had a point. Sylvie shrugged. “So maybe she’s part fae then, but whatever she is, she is weak, and I think wherever she was before this, she was being abused. So let's just take it slow.”

When she mentioned the burns on Bea’s chest, Rowan growled.

“She had to have been dumped then. There’s no way she walked here from one of the towns.”

Sylvie just shrugged, tired of the interrogation. “Where is Kian, by the way? I can sense he’s close, but why isn’t he here?”

Elias squinted. “He’s checking the wards. Something must have gone wrong for her to break through, and he needs to understand what.”

Sylvie groaned into her hands and let the strong arms of her mate warm her.

“I need a shower and some food. After that, I’ll do some snooping, okay?”

They agreed, and an hour later, she found herself perched in her office chair with a steaming hot coffee and her laptop open on a missing person's website. She kept the radius within fifty kilometres but found nothing that matched Bea’s description.

She cast the net wider, and still nothing. Hour and hours later, after the dregs of her coffee had curdled and her mates had popped in now and again to check on her, she shut the laptop.

Nada.

She was practically back to square one again and resorted back to good old-fashioned getting to know Bea, with food as peace offerings. She brought her dinner and dessert and only got a brief smile from the girl before she had to head home again due to the nagging pull of her mate bonds.

Why her mates felt uncomfortable with Bea confused her a little, but she trusted them, so she kept her distance. The following day, when she brought her breakfast before class, she invited Bea to sit in with her students so she’d have something to do. She agreed and made the slow walk there, relying heavily on Sylvie.

Bea’s nose started bleeding before they walked in the door, and she used the sleeve of her jumper to stem the flow. It didn't last long, so Sylvie rolled the sleeve up and guided her more slowly inside the barn doors. They arrived before the shifters, so Sylvie positioned her at the front, near her desk and pushed the children’s tables back.

Rowan’s bond tugged her from the room, and as she peeked out to see him, he slipped a blade into her hand. “Just wear it, please. For me.” She kissed his worried lips and strapped the knife under her dress without argument.

Kian still hadn’t come to see her, and she thumbed her phone, wondering if she should just call him to hear his voice, but the children arrived.

“Alpha! I mean, Ms Sylvie!”

“Morning, Ms Sylvie.”

Rowan must have told them about Bea, the human. Their buzzing energy proved her thought accurate, and they bounded in, finding their seats without so much as a word to the new girl. Sylvie guessed she had a few years on her students, but with their intelligence, they would probably be on the same level.

“Alright, class,” Sylvie said with a smile. “This is Bea. She is visiting, and I would like to ask you to be kind but also to give her some space today, okay?”

Delilah’s hand shot up.

“Yes?”

“Don’t worry, Ms Sylvie. Mr Rowan told us what to do.”

Sylvie clasped her hands and pushed off her desk. “Alright then. Let’s start the day.”