Chương 14: A Place to Belong

"So what now?" Celeste asked. We had just entered the mercenary guild to report the completion of a mission… no one else had survived. The building was as loud and unpleasant as before, crowded with scarred tables, cheap ale, dented armor, and men whose stories grew larger each time their cups emptied. Yet the moment the three of us walked inside, the room changed. It didn't fall silent, but the noise thinned as attention shifted toward us. Dice paused mid-roll.

Heads turned in our direction, and curious eyes moved from Adrian to Celeste, then to me before settling on the half-charred charm we had carried back from Black Hollow House. Apparently, returning alive from the haunted manor made people interesting; how inconvenient. I shrugged.

"Perhaps we should find a house for the three of us." Celeste blinked, and Adrian looked at me.

"Living in inns has become exhausting. There are too many strangers, too many smells, and far too many people who treat a locked door as nothing more than a polite suggestion." They continued staring at me.

"What?" Celeste's face brightened so quickly that it was almost alarming before she reached out and grabbed my arm. I flinched hard. For one violent heartbeat, every instinct in my body screamed at me to throw her across the room, remove the offending hand, punish the contact, and remind the world that touching me without permission was a remarkably efficient way to become decoration. Still, I forced myself to remain motionless. Celeste noticed.

Her smile softened as she loosened her grip without fully releasing me.

"Sorry." I looked down at her hand before raising my eyes to hers.

"It's fine," I replied, though it was not. Adrian watched the exchange quietly without interfering or making a scene. I hated being handled like cracked glass almost as much as I hated being grabbed.

"We already have a house," Celeste said, recovering her cheer with impressive speed.

"A large one. Much too large, honestly. You can come live with us." That was actually a good idea. It would give me somewhere to put down real roots and begin building the life I had always dreamed of. I narrowed my eyes.

"Did you not say you were among the strongest mercenaries in the city?"

"One of the highest-ranked teams," Adrian corrected.

"The same thing with less impressive wording." Celeste smiled.

"Higher rank means better contracts, better pay, and enough coin to afford a large house."

"Far too large," Adrian added.

"It has character."

"It has twelve rooms."

"And?"

"We use three." Celeste lifted her chin.

"The others provide possibilities."

"They provide dust." I looked between them.

"Do you often argue about unused rooms?"

"Only when Adrian insists on being unreasonable," Celeste replied.

"Quite often, then," he said. She turned toward him with an expression of genuine betrayal. He looked pleased; it was absolutely disgusting. Celeste turned back to me and squeezed my arm again, though more carefully this time.

"Come live with us." She said it as though the arrangement were obvious. Perhaps, to her, it was. My blood tied the three of us together now, and pretending otherwise would have been pointless. I looked away first.

"It's not as though I have much choice," I muttered.

"We're tied together now." Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"You do have a choice," Adrian said. I glanced at him. His expression remained calm, but something serious had settled behind his eyes.

"Our bond may connect us, but that is not why we are asking," Adrian said.

"What happened between us doesn't mean it's an obligation. Our home would be open regardless." Celeste nodded.

"Everyone deserves somewhere safe." For eighteen years, safety had been the one thing I wanted and never possessed. The thought almost made me laugh. That life belonged to the past now, and I had burned every last piece of it away. Only the future remained. Instead, I pulled my arm free from Celeste's hand and walked toward the guild counter.

"Fine. But if I move in, there will be rules." Celeste beamed.

"Rules are good."

"First rule: don't disgust me with excessive lovey-dovey behavior, or I may vomit on your furniture."

"I cannot promise that."

"Then I cannot promise the furniture will survive." Adrian leaned closer to her.

"We should hide the nice chairs."

"We don't have nice chairs," Celeste replied.

"You bought those purple ones."

"They're dramatic chairs. Entirely different category." I placed the proof of the witch's death on the guild counter, and the clerk immediately went pale, which was understandable. The half-charred charm I had taken from her neck still pulsed with faint, ugly magic, and Celeste assured me it would be enough to prove the mission was complete since the witch herself had left very little behind worth carrying. I had suggested bringing her head, but Celeste informed me there had not been enough of it left.

A minor detail. The clerk stared at the charm for several long seconds before stumbling away to fetch the guildmaster, while Celeste settled against the counter beside me.

"You know," she said lightly, "if our affection bothers you so much, perhaps we should find you someone special."

"No."

"You answered too quickly."

"Because the answer is obvious."

"It could happen."

"Impossible." Adrian, traitor that he apparently was, glanced toward me.

"Few things are impossible." I looked at him.

"Would you like to test that theory by discovering whether I can throw you through that wall?" He studied the wall before looking back at me.

"I withdraw the observation." Celeste laughed, but I did not.

"To me, love is nothing more than a cage built from emotion, with devotion used to disguise the bars." Celeste's laughter faded as the guild continued roaring around us, leaving an uneasy quiet in the small space between the three of us. I turned my attention toward the crowded tables and ignored the growing number of people listening.

"Love has only ever brought me pain and ownership. Torture dressed in ceremony. Chains polished until people mistake them for jewelry. It's a word men use when they want obedience, a word mothers use when they want sacrifice, and a word families use when they expect you to bleed quietly and thank them for the knife." Celeste said nothing. I hated when people rushed to soften things they didn't understand. My voice lowered.

"Seeing the two of you so devoted to each other isn't proof that love is real. It's an anomaly." Celeste studied me for a long moment before offering a patient smile, untouched by pity or offense.

"That's all right," she said. I frowned.

"What is?"

"You may call us an anomaly." Adrian's hand found hers. Celeste glanced at him before returning her attention back to me.

"We will simply continue existing until you decide you need a different word." I stared at her, irritated by the calm certainty in her expression. She wasn't defensive, offended, or desperate to prove me wrong. She simply believed it. Adrian nodded once.

"Love doesn't require your belief to remain true." My eyes narrowed.

"For us," he added. Smart correction… Celeste's smile softened.

"You don't need romance to belong somewhere, Helena." The words reached somewhere unpleasantly deep, and I immediately resented them. A home was not the place where my family had made me feel unwanted, nor was it Lord Vane's estate, where I had been treated as property. It was something else entirely. I looked away.

"The both of you are insufferable."

"Very," Adrian agreed.

"Extremely," Celeste added. The clerk returned with the guildmaster before I was forced to respond. She was a broad woman with iron-gray hair, one missing eye, and the posture of someone who had watched enough mercenaries die to stop romanticizing danger. Her remaining eye moved over Adrian and Celeste before settling on me.

"So," she said her voice rough.

"Black Hollow House is cleared?" Celeste placed the witch's charm more firmly upon the counter.

"The witch is dead. The undead should no longer reform. There may still be traces of residual magic within the manor, but the source of the curse has been destroyed." The guildmaster studied the charm. Then she looked at us.

"You three accomplished what twenty-seven others failed to do."

"Twenty-seven?" I asked.

"Mercenary parties."

"How many people?" She hesitated.

"Seventy-nine." I whistled softly.

"Busy house." The guildmaster's eye narrowed.

"And who are you?" Before I could answer, Celeste did.

"Helena." I smiled at her. The guildmaster wisely decided not to ask for anything more. Instead, she motioned toward the clerk.

"Pay them." The clerk opened a heavy lockbox and began counting coins. My mood improved immediately. Celeste leaned closer and lowered her voice.

"Half to you and half to us, as promised." I looked at the growing pile of gold. Then at her… Adrian folded his arms.

"You already extorted a driver today."

"Earned." Celeste's eyes sparkled.

"Extorted."

"Don't make me regret saving you."

"You would miss me."

"I would miss the silence you consistently fail to provide." She laughed again as the clerk slid our payment across the counter. The gold was clean, official, and fully sanctioned by the guild. No overturned carriage had been required, which felt almost civilized. I collected my share and tucked it away, enjoying the comforting weight as it settled against my side. Perhaps the guild system possessed some value after all.

By the time we stepped back onto the street, late afternoon light had begun to spread across Graymere. The city walls cast long shadows over the road while crowds flowed around us in loud, restless currents. Celeste walked on my right, and Adrian took his place on my left. I wondered internally why they were surrounding me in such a way.

"So," Celeste said brightly, "shall we go home?" I almost corrected her by saying it was their home, not mine. The word had always belonged to other people, to places where I was tolerated, controlled, or owned; never somewhere I was truly wanted. But the gold rested warmly in my pocket, the city moved noisily around us, and the two impossible people I had dragged back from death walked beside me as though my place between them had already been decided. I sighed.

"Fine… Show me this huge house." Celeste grinned, while Adrian smiled faintly. Together, we walked deeper into Graymere.