The Stone Wolf (The Chain Breaker Book 4) by D.K. Holmberg (digital book reader TXT) 📕

happened. How had he ended up back in the city, and back in the Dragon, of all places?

He reached the tavern and pulled open the door. Wrenlow was sitting at one of the tables, watching the door, and he got to his feet as soon as Gavin came in. He wobbled for a moment before sinking back down. His dark hair looked lank, and there was a hollowness to his eyes that hadn’t been there before, but he was still Wrenlow.

Olivia sat next to him. Her brown hair was damp, as if she had recently bathed. She stared at the table with her head bent forward, and Gavin noticed a series of enchantments along one wrist and another pair around her neck. With that many enchantments, he couldn’t help but wonder how they had managed to be subdued.

She didn’t get up.

Gavin swept his gaze around the tavern, worried that this may be some sort of a trap and that Tristan might be trying to play some game with Gavin, but he didn’t see anything to suggest that Tristan was involved. Though he wouldn’t put it past his old mentor to do that.

“You don’t have to worry,” Wrenlow said.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s not here.”

Wrenlow sunk back down into the chair, and Gavin approached.

Gaspar leaned on the wall, his elbows propped against it, like he was trying to look better than he was. Imogen remained near the hearth, one hand still on the hilt of her sword, as if ready to attack.

Maybe she was.

“How did you get back here?” Gavin asked.

“We were rescued. Then broke free,” Wrenlow said, looking to Olivia. He smiled slightly. “It’s my fault that this happened. We were out in the street.”

“What do you mean you were out in the street?” Gavin asked, taking a seat across from them.

“Well, when we were captured. We were out in the street. They caught us there.”

“Who did?”

“I don’t even know,” Wrenlow replied. “I didn’t see them. It happened so quickly…” He shook his head. “I know you would be disappointed in me, Gavin, and I should have been able to protect myself better than I had. But even with the enchantments, I wasn’t fast enough.”

“That happens sometimes.”

“Not to you.”

“But you aren’t me,” Gavin said. “You shouldn’t be expected to do the same things as I can do.”

“But you’ve been working with me. You’ve been training me, so I won’t be surprised by anyone.”

“And there’s only so much I can prepare you for,” Gavin said.

Jessica sat at another table, folding a stack of towels in front of her, and she nodded to him. Her chestnut hair was pulled back with a ribbon, and her eyes were drawn, worry etched in them.

He’d brought trouble to the Dragon again. Gavin didn’t want to keep bringing danger or keep causing problems for the people here. All he wanted to do was to ensure that his friends were safe, but every time he tried to do the right thing, he ended up leaving them in a worse situation than they were in before.

And now…

“What can you tell me about what happened while you were away?” Gavin asked.

“I can tell you about the abduction,” Wrenlow said, looking over to Olivia before turning his attention back to Gavin. He leaned forward, rested his elbows on the table, and rubbed his eyes. “I should have known better. I should have known we were just seeing the start of all of it.”

“We didn’t know,” Gavin said.

“We didn’t, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have known. And then I brought Olivia into it. I wasn’t even trying to do that. I was trying to keep her safe, but…”

“It’s not your fault,” Olivia said softly. She looked over at Gavin. “He tried. You’d be proud of him. He fought the first one. He was moving fast.”

“Because of the enchantment you made for me,” Wrenlow said.

“But you were using the power within it the right way.” She smiled at him. “And you should be proud of what you did.”

“I would’ve been prouder had nothing happened to you.”

“You have to let it go.”

Wrenlow opened his mouth, and Gavin reached forward and took Wrenlow’s arm. “The two of you need to stop arguing,” he said. “What happened after you were taken?”

“I don’t know. We were blindfolded and placed in the back of a cart.”

“Together?” Gavin asked.

“No. We were separated, though every so often, we’d be placed near enough to each other that I knew she was still there.”

“You didn’t see anything,” Gavin said. He leaned back and looked over to Gaspar and Imogen before turning his attention to Wrenlow again. “Do you remember anything about when you were brought to that house?”

“I don’t remember a house,” Wrenlow said. “We might’ve been in one, but it was difficult to keep track of everything. The cart seemed to move pretty regularly, and we were blindfolded the whole time. I tried to use more enchantments, but they confiscated all of them.”

“Even your El’aras enchantment?”

“They didn’t seem to care about that one,” Wrenlow said. “It didn’t work, though. I tried to get a hold of you over and over again, but it was like there was some sort of interference. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before, but then again, I don’t know nearly as much about enchantments as Olivia. There was a night when we were placed near each other, and I asked her about it. She said that maybe somebody had a particular enchantment that allowed them to interfere with others.” Wrenlow shrugged. “I’m not surprised, though. Given what we’ve seen about other enchantments, it would make sense that somebody would have the ability to disrupt others, wouldn’t they?”

Gavin didn’t know, and given what they had gone through with the others and how much trouble they’d dealt with, he figured he should have been looking into it before. He would have to ask Zella about it, if he could figure out where she had gone.

“What happened with your rescue?” Gavin asked.

“It wasn’t so much a rescue