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When I finally got Tempest to a safe place where we could stop and rest, he finally broke down. I sat down beside him on the park bench with my arm around him. I didn’t say anything, though mostly because I didn’t know what to say.
He was trembling and he had his face covering his hands, but I could already tell that Serena and Maya did a lot more than what I heard. He had bruises all over his body and was bleeding in some places other than his cheek.
“Just try to breathe,” I told him quietly, noting that he was already breathing pretty heavily before and was worse now. I was really the wrong one to be trying to comfort him. Nadia (or even Jade) was always a lot better at this kind of thing than me, but then again, it seemed that Tempest trusted me the most out of all of us (other than his brother, of course). Or maybe that was just my ego talking.
“She... she... Serena... w...went for my neck,” Tempest stammered through gasps for air (and through tears), “And then Priamos lunged at them.”
That made a lot more sense than Serena just slapping him and Priamos going after her and Maya. Priamos was a lot of things, but I never knew him to start a fight like he just did without good reason.
“Well, everything’s okay now,” I replied as I pulled him into a full hug. I didn’t like hugging people, but I had a feeling that Tempest needed the hug, so I just put my preferences aside for him... again. Tempest seemed to be really good at causing everyone to go against what they always said they would or wouldn’t do. Even in the short amount of time that we all actually knew him, he’d managed to change all of us - and for the better. Definitely for the better.
We were definitely much stronger as a group with him in the mix now.
“Everything’s okay now,” I repeated, “You’re safe now. Just keep trying to breathe for me.”
I looked up as Priamos, Nadia, and Jade walked up to us. Priamos was still fuming and all three of them looked like they had to fight to get away from Serena and Maya.
“We need to go,” Jade told us, “We managed to get away while Serena was screaming at her little minions to get us out of Wolf’s Hollow.”
I got up then, holding Sara’s hand in mine and I watched as Tempest got up and hugged his older brother. Priamos smiled a little and squeezed him and looked over at me.
“Thanks, Spencer,” he said softly.
I nodded a little and looked up as Miss Brodeur walked up to us. I was assuming she had already closed her store up for the day, but I wasn’t going to ask.
“If you five are willing to hear me out,” she began, “I might have an alternative solution to leaving Wolf’s Hollow just yet.”