On the surface, the mates were not having it good.
Ren sat on the muddy bank, his robes stained with damp earth. He didn't care. He sat with his legs drawn up, his chin resting on his knees, staring at the swirling eddies where the Iron-Whale had breached the surface before.
"I am a fraud," Ren whispered to the water.
He smelled the scent of Zarek, and he turned back to find the dragon king leaning against a trunk of a massive Iron-Wood tree near the water's edge, crossing his arms over his chest.
His bicep was bandaged where the high-pressure water had sliced him, but fresh blood was already seeping through the white linen.
Zarek was as anxious as the others. Even the forest felt tense because there was no Roxy to hold her mates down.
Zarek stared at the river as if his sheer will could force the water to part and give her back. The silence between them was suffocating.
"I am sorry," Ren said.
The words felt inadequate, but they were all he had.
