Bʀᴏᴋᴇɴ Hᴀʀᴍᴏɴʏ || Tʜᴇ Cʜᴏsᴇɴ Eɪɢʜᴛ: Fᴀʟʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Bᴇᴀsᴛs Bᴏᴏᴋ Oɴᴇ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ || ᴇᴜʀᴀ

Niko

The messenger bird disrupted a particularly boring breakfast with Lucia and Lord Koran– he'd told me to call him just Koran but it honestly just made everything more awkward.

I thought at first that it was a message from Aidan, my younger brother. He'd been hoping to come visit, and promised to send a bird when he'd boarded a boat.

But then I saw the Greencloak seal on the scroll. My heart sped up with a mixture of excitement and nerves. News from Greenhaven was either wonderful or horrible, I'd learned. There was no in between.

"A message for you, milady." The servant hurried to pass it along to Lucia.

She nodded, looking as uneasy as I felt. The bird perched itself on the arm of her chair, looking ruffled as she pulled the scroll from its binding.

"Well?" Lord Koran's question startled me. I'd forgotten he was there for a moment– quite a feat, for his authoritative presence was extremely hard to overlook.

Lucia pursed her lips. "It's from our old guardian, Tyler."

I was so startled by the way she worded it that I missed the next part of what Lord Koran said. It was true, Tyler wasn't our guardian anymore. Yet... he'd been like a father. I couldn't quite get my head around the idea of him being our old guardian. As if... we'd outgrown his protection or something.

"Niko?"

I shook myself out of my thoughts and glanced up. "Yeah? Sorry."

"It says that we are to return to Greenhaven." Lucia repeated. Her eyes searched mine, asking silently if I was okay.

"Oh, really?" I frowned. "Why? And when?"

Lucia sighed, as if annoyed by the answer she was about to give. "As soon as possible. We're being reassembled for some mission."

I scrunched my nose. "Let me guess, no specifications at all."

She shook her head.

Lord Koran, who'd been silent throughout the exchange, cleared his throat and drew our attention. "If duty calls, you must answer." He said steadily. "I can have a boat prepared for the voyage by tomorrow."

"But Father–" Lucia started.

He raised a hand against her protest.

She ignored it, standing up to glare at him. The action startled the messenger bird, who took flight and landed on the table near me. "No, Father. You were far to quick to dump me off to the Greencloaks last time. I'm old enough to make my own decisions. I won't leave you here again!"

Lord Koran's eyes turned stormy as he narrowed them at his only daughter. "You will watch your tone with me, young lady. You have your orders–"

"I will not!" Lucia spat the words with a venom I'd  only seen in battle. "You cannot send me away again! What if I don't return?" Her tone turned pleading. "What if there's nothing for me to return to?"

I averted my eyes, sensing how personal this was getting. The messenger bird was still hopping around the table, so I coaxed it to my arm.