Heir To The Iron Crown: Dyrith

14 - Fjórtánda

Valente turned to look at Sven.

"Did you hear from your band yet?" he asked him.

"No, not yet," Sven said. "I don't get why he would come here."

As they talked, I walked into my bedroom to look through my closet that was completely disheveled. I pushed the stack of clothes aside to reach the safe that I had kept hidden. Thankfully it was not tampered with.

I put in my code and saw my little cash, some important documents and an old photo of Gramma, Renee and me, all still there, untouched.

Everything in the safe was okay, and it allowed me to take a breather.

But as I looked around my room to find my dressing table with all its drawers open, I realized that there was still one thing I needed to check.

I opened the top drawer completely and pulled out my jewelry box.

I looked through it again and again, flipping everything out on the bed to find it but I couldn't.

Gramma's last gift to me.

The ring.

I felt tears in my eyes, and I kept looking through the box and the other pieces but I knew he'd taken it.

I felt Valente's presence at the door but I couldn't turn around to face him.

"He took my ring," I said through the link.

Valente walked up behind me, putting his arms around me as I fell to the floor, sobbing.

It wasn't just an ornament for me, it was the only thing that I linked to her, and the only thing I linked to Valente.

It was a painful reminder of the past, which is why I never wore it since I left my pack.

But I knew Gramma had worn it herself till the day Grandpa Bryn died. And its pair, the one Grandpa wore, she'd given to my mate.

I turned around to face him, and realized he'd already read my thoughts.

He pulled out the ring that he wore around his neck on a chain from under his tshirt. It was just like mine, but it wasn't mine.

Sven came and sat with us in between the mess that was my room.

I couldn't find myself to care about anything else I had here, except for the ring that Bayo stole.

"What happened?" Sven asked softly, putting his hand on my shoulder as I held Valente's ring in my hand tightly.

"This ring had a pair. It was hers," Valente said, opening my palm gently to show Sven the ring. "He took it."

Sven got up and looked around the room.

"Was anything else taken?" he asked me.

I shook my head no, as Valente pulled me to his chest in a show of comfort.

"Why'd he want the ring?" Sven asked out loud, more to himself than us.

"I have a thought," Valente said. "But it's such a far-fetched thought."

I pulled away from him to look at him.

"Tell me," I asked him, my voice broken. Anything to understand why he'd take it.

"That ring can link you to me," he said. "But I don't understand how he knew what he was looking for."

Sven looked out the window of my room in thought.

"That does seem odd," Sven said. "Even in Fala you met Bayo for such a short time, he couldn't have possibly noticed that ring around your neck."

"Maybe not him. Maybe he works for someone else. Maybe a traitor slipped through your Liet initiation Sven. Don't tell me it's not happened before," Valente said.