My phone rang and I reached for it, knowing it had to be one of two people since only Roland and Nate called me at this number. I was already smiling when I answered it.
“You owe me big time, demon girl,” Roland quipped, snickering at the nickname he’d made up for me last week.
I leaned back in my chair and scowled at the wall. “If you don’t stop calling me that, I’m not talking to you anymore.”
He laughed at my weak threat. We both knew that would never happen. “I think you’ll forgive me when I tell you about my little trip to a certain cave today.”
My stomach quivered in excitement. “And?”
“And that place is a bitch to get to. You couldn’t find a less dangerous hideaway?”
“Remy found it, not me, and you have to admit it’s the perfect spot. Now tell me.”
“Do you know how bloody cold it is up on that cliff?” he moaned. “I think my toes are still frozen.”
“Roland!”
He sighed. “Message delivered and answered.”
I jerked upright, my heart racing. “Answered? He left something for me?”
“More like he drew something on the wall of the cave. I took a picture of it with my phone. I don’t know how you can read this stuff. It looks like hieroglyphics.” I heard him playing with his cell phone. “I just sent it to you.”
I scrambled to check my email, and I had to wait another thirty seconds for his message to show up. When I opened the attachment, I stared at the picture for a minute before tears pricked my eyes. Leaving home had been hard enough, but leaving without saying good-bye to Remy had killed a little piece of me. After a lot of pleading on my part, Roland had agreed to leave a small note in the cave for me. Remy could not read human writing, and I knew how to write a few dozen troll words, so my short message translated to, I miss you. Sara. On the cave wall, written in Troll was, I miss you too, my friend.
“Well? What does it say?”
I translated the writing for Roland, and he huffed loudly. “That’s it? You made me freeze my ass off climbing down a cliff twice to find out if he was still your friend? Hell, I could have told you that and saved myself the trip.”
“You don’t know trolls, Roland. They have very different ways, and the elders are really strict. If they told Remy to stay away from me forever, he would obey them.”
He sighed again. “Sara, I might not know troll ways, but I saw you with Remy. Meeting him is not something I’ll ever forget. No matter what happened back then or what orders he got from his elders, that troll will never stop being your friend.”
Roland was usually playful and goofy, and sometimes I forgot how insightful he could be. “I think I just needed to hear it from him. Thanks for doing this for me. You’re the best.”
“I know. I get that a lot.”
I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Good to know some things will never change.”
He laughed with me. “What can I say? Women love me.”
“You’re hopeless, you know that? One of these days, you’re going to meet someone who doesn’t fall all over you, and I hope I get to meet her.”
“I have met her, and she broke my heart back in elementary school.”
“Oh, don’t start that again.” I closed my eyes, still embarrassed by his and Peter’s recent confessions that they both had crushes on me when we were kids.
“I bet your face is red right now,” he teased.
“Stop it or I won’t tell you about what happened today.”
“More exciting than my day?”
I told him all about the hellhounds, the menagerie, and the wyvern. He whistled and told me I had to send him some pictures. “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do that, but I’ll ask. Maybe you can come visit me and see them yourself.”
“Yeah, a werewolf visiting a Mohiri stronghold, that should go over well.”
“You never know. Stranger things have happened.” I picked at the label on a bottle of Coke on my desk. “So, any special plans for the big birthday next week?” I felt a pang of sadness at the thought of not being there for his eighteenth birthday. It is a huge milestone for a werewolf because they are considered an adult at eighteen, and they are included in hunts and start doing patrols with the other adult wolves. It was bittersweet for both of us. We were excited for his coming of age, but sad that we wouldn’t be able to celebrate his birthday together. My own birthday was a little over a month away, and it was hard to imagine him and Peter not being here for it.
“No big plans. I think I have to work the next day anyway.”
“You have a job? Who are you, and what have you done with Roland?”