𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐑, r.c.

𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

CHAPTER EIGHT | ALPINE AND GREYBEARD
"Dude, how many times do I have to tell you? Tradition." Arden scoffed and shook her head as she sat on the arm of Randall's chair, the Morton boy flipping through the book.

"No, you do it to stop the path of magic." Arden slapped the Carpio boy upside the head, making him furrow his brows, telling him she told him that a long time ago. "Okay, if you don't eat the heart, the magic continues on its way, following the necessary path to perform thy practitioners bidding." The two girls looked at each other, the blonde grinning.

"Well fuck me." The Macauley girl let out a chuckle as Jack continued through the book.

"There's a lot in here about the hides and their champions. Greybeard is the fearless one." Randall smiled, telling him it sounded about right as Jack went on. "Tundra, the most cunning. Alpine, the swiftest, and Midnight is the reckless one."

"We call him "Cannon Fodder"." Jack let out a soft chuckle, before turning to Lilith.

"I guess that makes you, Timber, a loner."

"You got a problem with an independent wolf?" Jack shook his head, moving the book from one hand to the other as Lilith stood there, looking as if she were hurt the boy had brought it up.

"Not at all. But here's the thing about Silverback. He's the most powerful." Arden scoffed and stood up, crossing her arms as she glared at Jack.

"And it says in there that Alpine's the best hunter, doesn't mean I want to kill everything I see. Just because he chose you, doesn't mean you're the most powerful, Silverback is." Randall stood up, placing his hand on her lower back as Hamish spoke to the boy.

"You're saying you want to be in charge? It's not easy, especially with our girls here." Jack scoffed, closing the book.

"No thanks, but we do want the same thing. Look, you guys want to take down bad magic.I want to take down a bad magician. I'm proposing an alliance." Lilith lifted her head up, asking who the boy's bad guy was. "Edward Coventry. He's the leader of the Order and he's... responsible for my mothers death." Everyone looked at each other before Arden let out a soft sigh.

"We don't do revenge, Morton."

"Yeah, you just kill people at random." Lilith and Arden looked at each other, walking towards the boy.

"We'll kill you." Jack walked towards the two, thanking them for proving his point.

"Guys, we can help each other." Randall looked up at the boy, and then to Hamish, sighing. "He should've had a choice. We didn't give him one."

"We'll try an alliance." Arden glared at the boy, uncrossing her arms.

"For now." The blonde girl quickly walked out of the small and dark room, Randall looking at Jack and then following behind her. Jack watched as the two walked up the stairs before turning to the tall man, asking if the two were together.

"They aren't, but their hides are very protective over one another. Alpine and Greybeard are two of the oldest hides, been together for centuries. The first two people to host their hides were bonded, so now whoever's lucky enough to get either hide ends up close to the other, whether it's a close friendship or something else. They just care for one another is all."

..........

"Den? Open the door." The girl laid faced down on her bed, her head under her pillow. "Cmon Den, just talk to me. I'm sorry, okay, I know you told me he wasn't ready to be one of us, but I didn't listen. Please open the door." The girl silently got up from her bed and walked over to the door, opening it to see Randall with one arm on each side of the door frame, leaning forward.

"I'm not mad at you, Randall. I'm just mad he's going to ruin it for us, you know? Get us all caught and accidentally tell someone about us. I don't want him to mess up what we have... the four of us. It already sounds like he doesn't want to be a knight. I say we kill him and find someone better fit for Silverback." Randall sighed, walking into the girls room before closing the door behind him.

"I don't think Silverback is fit for anyone else though."

..........

"When I was a freshman, a little bit before Hamish asked Randall to join, he asked me. I was at the bar and some asshole was giving one of my classmates a hard time, telling her she was beautiful and she should go back to his house with him. She looked super scared and uncomfortable, so I walked up, asked if she was alright and told her she was welcome to sit with me if the man was making her uncomfortable. Turns out, the next day the guy had killed some other girl a few cities over. Saved the girl's life. Hamish saw everything and the next day asked me if I wanted to help save more people's lives. A few days after, I was still learning to control myself and my sister came to town to visit from Oregon. She came to the house, I heard a ringing and snapped at the person the ringing was coming from. It'll be two years in about a week." The girl looked down at her hands as Jack shifted in his seat, pulling his robe tighter over his body. "Jack, what I'm trying to teach you is, sometimes you don't get a choice. You may have to kill a friend to stop the bad magic, even if you don't want to. Because sometimes it doesn't matter if you want to or not, Silverback knows best so if he wants to, he will."

"So, I could end up killing someone I care about just because they use bad magic?" Arden nodded her head before she stood up, looking back down at the boy, telling him she had to go. She quickly began walking out of the door as Jack just sat there. The door quickly slammed shut as Randall walked back into the room with a wide grin on his face.

"Where's Denny?" Jack pointed out the door making Randall's eyes slightly widen. "What were you guys talking about?"

"She was telling me about the girl she saved when she was a freshman, and then she was telling me that she killed her sister, and how it'll be two years in a week. What's wrong?" Randall let out a soft, fuck, as he walked out the door, before running out of the house. Randall knew where the girl had gone, deciding he didn't need Greybeard for this one. He walked through the woods, his hands in his pockets before hearing the sound of crying. He saw the blonde standing over a rock, a single daffodil placed on top of it.

"If you want, next week, we can come out and spend the day here. I'll spend the whole day with you if you need me." The girl looked down at her shoes as Randall walked up behind her, the blonde wiping her own tears. "I don't want you to be sad, Den." Before Randall could finish, the girl turned to look at him, interrupting him.

"I'm a monster, Randall. I killed my sister and no one knows but you, and the other three. My own mother doesn't even know I killed her daughter, they think she's missing still and I can't tell them.  What am I gonna do?" Randall looked at the girl, his heartbreaking as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest. He rested his head on top of hers as she cried into his sweatshirt. The girl began to breath heavily, her sobs growing louder as Randall placed his hand under her chin making her look up at him. "Breath, Den. Hey, look at me, breath." The blonde couldn't do it, her heart beating a million miles an hour. "Hey, what color are my eyes? Look at my eyes. What color are they?" The Macauley girl looked up into his dark brown eyes, trying to slow her breathing to talk.

"Warm."  Randall furrowed his brows as he kept his arms around Arden before she continued. "Warm like the feeling you get when you step out of the shade and into the sun. Your eyes are warm." Randall brought his hand up, wiping the tears off her cheeks as she let out some deep breaths, finally calming down. The boy moved a strand of her blonde hair to behind her ear.

"Your eyes are cold. Like the feeling you get when you jump into a pool for the first time."

"Thank you, Randall, for caring about me."