The Wild Moon by Riley Storm
Chapter Thirty-Three
“What’s that?”
I looked up to find Aaron glancing over at me, his eyes flicking between the road and the book in my lap.
“My father’s journal,” I said, trying not to let myself get distracted by those damnable blue eyes of his.
They have no business being that intriguing.
Bright. They were bright, not intriguing. That’s what they had no business being. They were like the sky but with an electric glow to them. Were they contacts, maybe? I couldn’t rule that out, but I was positive I’d never seen someone with eyes quite the shade of his.
So much for not getting distracted. I fell for the trap again.
We were hours outside of Kellar now, human civilization well behind us. The meadows had given way to forests, and we were slowly climbing higher into the foothills at the base of the mountains. Another hour, or maybe two, and I figured we’d be into the mountain range. It was hard to tell. The damn stone giants were incredibly deceiving in size.
“His journal?”
“Yeah. He gave it to me as a shi–a gift,” I corrected, almost making a huge mistake. I was feeling too at ease around Aaron. I couldn’t afford a slip. Not now. “He meant to, at least. He never got the chance before he disappeared.”
“I’m sorry,” Aaron said with uncharacteristic kindness. “I liked your father.”
“Thanks,” I said. “But I still think he’s out there. Somewhere.”
Aaron very clearly didn’t state the obvious, that the odds were incredibly unlikely. I appreciated that from him. I wasn’t dumb, I knew it was unlikely, but I wasn’t ready to give up hope. Not yet.
“Your card was under the front cover,” I said quietly. “I think he wanted me to come to you. That, combined with the last entries. It’s like he was telling me I needed to come out here myself. To find something. You’re positive he didn’t find anything last time?”
“Nothing that he told us about,” Aaron said.
“I see.”
“What does his journal say?”
I stared down at the entry I was reading.
I talked to Lars today after returning home. I explained to him I knew I was on the right track, that we’re closing in on it. It won’t be long now before we find Shuldar. He was angrier than I’ve seen before. Spoke about time running out. That he needed to find it and soon. I’ve never heard him speak like that, not to me at least.
I flipped forward the pages by about a month.
I don’t know what Lars wants me to find. He no longer confides in me.
How did I explain what these bits and pieces meant to me? That I was beginning to think that my father, once a staunch supporter of Lars, might have been coming to worry about him. That perhaps he was no longer as loyal as I once thought. Perhaps he’d never been.
There was something else at stake. Something that was driving Lars’ search for Shuldar, and my father had sensed it, too. There wasn’t enough to go on, though. Not enough to fill in the pages upon pages of blanks. I doubted anyone who didn’t know my father would have been able to pick up on it because it was more what wasn’t written than what was.
The lack of support and eagerness to continue.
Had he been stalling?
I sat up straight. Was that it? Had my father figured out the location of Shuldar, and he’d been stalling, trying to delay Lars? But why? What was Lars up to that he needed to find Shuldar so badly? It made no sense.
“I just wish I could talk to him one more time,” I said quietly, closing the book. “I have so many questions. This gives me some clues, but it’s not enough. It doesn’t explain what’s going on, what I’m missing.”
Aaron nodded, drumming his fingers along the steering wheel. “Your father always told me you were smart. Smarter than he was. If he left you some clues, then you’ll find them. I believe it.”
“Thanks,” I said quietly.
In the sky, the sun began to dip, and the drumming echoed faintly in the back of my head, pushing through the blanket Aaron seemed to drape over me. Even in such proximity, I wouldn’t be able to ignore it for much longer.
What were you trying to tell me, Father?
