Who Is My Husband
Scene 29

The men stared at the goblin’s strange reaction. He wasn’t afraid of them, but he was afraid of her.

“Forgive me… I did not realize he was yours.” The goblin’s body began to shake in fear. “We didn’t know you were still here. We didn’t know… have mercy on me.” He felt the burning slowly subside inside of him and he lowered his head slightly showing submission.

Kailee felt her insides twitch. She was livid. An unexplainable anger was rising inside of her. This creature knew her while she didn’t, but she needed to play along. He was afraid of her. Maybe she could get information.

“Where is he being held? Will she hurt him?” Her voice was laced with a lethal tone as she struggled against her raging emotions.

“I don’t know. Someone like myself would not be permitted to know Cresha’s location. As long as they don’t try to reclaim him, she will not touch him.” The goblin was able to speak a bit better since Reggie had loosened his grip on his neck though his hand was still there. “Will you declare war? Please. Us goblins did what we had to in order to survive. We didn’t know you were still around. Please have mercy on us.”

“Who is she?” Grum said icily with narrowed eyes.

The goblin looked up at the man. “You don’t know? Good! We don’t need your kind trying to claim her.” He might have made some mistakes, but he wasn’t about to make more. If she was alive then the goblins needed to know. They would abandon Cresha’s side for her. Because she was the light in this world. And no matter how bleak it was in the night her light could pierce any darkness.

Reggie squeezed his fingers around the goblin’s throat. “Watch how you speak to us. We should just kill him.”

“No.” Kailee said softly. She turned her head and looked out to the sky. “He was just a hostage in someone else’s game. He isn’t the one pulling the strings.” She looked back at the three men.

“But Trey-” Reggie said.

“He was taken but not by him. He was just playing the part he had been given.” Kailee shrugged with a small smile. “Killing him won’t bring Trey back. Let him go.”

Reggie’s fingers shook around the goblins neck. He wanted so badly to just snap it.

“You heard what she said.” Lance said in irritation. He wanted to kill the goblin as well. But with Trey gone, Kailee was the person they should be listening to. He watched as Reggie struggled with himself for a moment before he finally let go of the goblin. The goblin slowly walked away and paused in front of Kailee.

“My lady, Hawkins at your service. My life is yours to command.”

“How was Cresha able to capture Trey?” Kailee asked quietly.

“It is an ancient spell. A dark magic that requires a sacrifice. The moment he was alone again she was able to instantly teleport him to her because he was the one the warlock locked onto.”

Kailee looked at him briefly and sighed. “You can be on your way. I have a lot to figure out.”

Hawkins nodded his head. And quickly made his escape. He would let his kind know about her existence. They needed to switch sides. With her around there was no need to be puppets anymore.

Grum slammed his fist into the wall angrily. He was breathing heavily and was slightly baring his teeth. “Now what are we going to do?”

“We can’t not go for him.” Reggie said as he began to pace about madly.

“We don’t even know where to replace him. And we can’t risk him being killed.” Grum squeezed his fingers until they started to show white from the tension.

Kailee walked over and leaned on the wall as she peered out the window. She stayed there quietly as the three men behind her began to argue over what to do. Their sounds became muffled background noises. She mindlessly played with her bracelet. She felt a small pulling sensation in her chest. She let her eyes travel over the horizon until it settled on a mountain in the far distance. That direction made her heart leap. She turned back around to the three men. Lance had his hand on his head, Reggie continued to pace while Grum leaned with his fists against the wall.

“I can replace him.” Kailee said quietly. The three men lifted their heads up to look at her. “She will kill him if you guys come for him… but she never said anything about if I come for him.”

“No way Kailee. You aren’t going.” Reggie growled lowly.

“How did you know that wasn’t Trey? I mean… I am really close to him. He looked the same, sounded the same and even smelled the same.” Lance said studying Kailee.

Wait. He said he smelled the same? No, he didn’t. He didn’t smell like Trey at all. Did this mean she had another weird factor about her? She looked up at Grum. “He could tell it wasn’t Trey too.”

Grum shook his head. “Not at first. It was not until you started acting suspicious that I started watching him more closely. The way he shifted his weight on his legs was a bit different. Honestly, I just guessed to see if it would flush him out and it worked.”

“Oh.” Kailee said. The three men continued to look at her waiting for an answer. “It just wasn’t Trey.”

“Oh, we know that now. But how could you tell and so quickly? That was a spell cast by a powerful witch, one that would allow that creature to fully take on the essence of Trey. He would even have some of Trey’s more recent memories. If it wasn’t for you, we could have been fooled for days before we caught on.” Lance was really curious how she could tell that it wasn’t Trey. They all were. The three men have known Trey forever and they were fooled. How was it that she was not?

Kailee looked down at her toes. The scent was the first thing that clued her in but then there was even the way he held her. It didn’t make her skin spark or tingle. She didn’t feel the rush of being next to him. But this was something she didn’t know how to explain without sounding weird. And it really isn’t important. Right now replaceing Trey and getting him back was important.

“I mean it doesn’t really matter. I just knew. We need to concentrate on just getting him back now.” Kailee said, trying to brush it off.

“It is important. We need to know the details. Like how are you going to be able to replace Trey? We can’t do this blindly. We can’t just rush into danger. We are going to have to formulate a plan.” Grum said quietly. Sure, he wanted to draw his sword and just keep slitting throats until he found Trey. But what good would it do if his actions got Trey killed?

“Kailee, what aren’t you telling us?” Lance walked up in front of her with a small smile. He reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.

Kailee frowned. She didn’t want to say anything about her being able to smell Trey. After all, this was like her little bit of leverage she had. But at the same time with him being held captive suddenly leverage didn’t matter as much. But telling them was a bit embarrassing. The three men were looking at her expectantly and she let out a heavy sigh. She turned her head away so that she wasn’t making eye contact with them.

“He did.” She mumbled quietly and trailed off.

“He did what?” Lance asked.

“He did smell different.” Kailee whispered lowly.

Lance lifted his head up and back to Grum and Reggie. Both men shook their heads agreeing that he smelled the same to them. A small smile hit the corners of Lance’s mouth. “You can smell his scent? What does he smell like to you Kailee?”

“Well, what does he smell like to you?” Kailee said as she turned her head back to face him. She watched as Lance raised his eyebrows at her for her to answer his question. “I guess he smells like cedar and honey.” She said quietly and feeling a bit embarrassed.

“How long? How long have you been able to smell him?” Lance asked out in a quieted breath.

“Since he returned with this metal cuff, I guess. After my birthday. The smell gets stronger if I take the bracelet off.” Kailee looked up to see Reggie nodding his head with a smile.

“Okay now this part makes sense.” Reggie said.

Grum chuckled lightly. “He suppressed the link and did not even realize it.”

“Well, I’m glad it makes sense to you guys, but do you care to explain. What link?” Kailee asked, feeling left out of the loop again.

“I’m willing to bet if you take that bracelet off when you see Trey you are going to hear that voice I was talking about.” Reggie said with a soft smile.

“Actually… when I did take the bracelet off I could hear a faint whisper but I couldn’t make out what it was saying before I put it back on.”

“Yep, that confirms it.” Reggie said, slapping his hands together. “Well this will be good news for Trey to hear.”

“Well?” Kailee said impatiently.

“The thing is Kailee. A lot of us with magic have people in our lives that we are connected to. They are the person that was made to always stand next to us. In my case, my wife is my fated person. And among our kind she is considered my mate. You are Trey’s mate. He has known this since before you married. One of the reasons he was so desperate to have you. We thought because you were a regular human the mate pull would be one sided or not as strong. But when you turned twenty your magical part of you woke up and with it your ability to replace your mate. But Trey unknowingly suppressed it trying to help with your magic. The reason you can smell Trey, the reason you feel connected to him, probably the reason you knew he was in danger is because he is also your mate.” Lance said with a warm smile.

Kailee blinked as she looked at Lance. Her eyes wandered to the other two men who were both smiling at her. “So that is why Trey traded his land for me?”

“He knew you were his mate and he also…” Lance stopped suddenly. “In either case, he has a hard time controlling himself around you. And that includes his urges. It is normal to strongly desire your mate.”

Kailee bit her bottom l*p. She thought back on all her interactions with Trey. He was always gentle and considerate of her. And now it made sense how she gave herself to him so easily. “Are you four all the same?”

“Yes and no. We are all the same kind but with different abilities and strengths.” Grum said with a shallow shrug.

Kailee looked carefully over the three men in front of her.

“So, what are you guys?”