Chapter 39
H e’d caught me by surprise, and I didn’t know what to do at first. Then I really felt the warmth of his lips and heat from his breath as he pushed his tongue inside. Prince Wylen knew precisely how to make a woman lose all sense of self.
I melted into his arms, enjoying the comfort for just a moment. Was it wrong? Yes, probably. Should I stop? Yep. Did I? Hell no.
It wasn’t until Wylen pulled away that I was able to catch my breath again. “You be safe, Sosasia Raine Westwood.” He smiled at me and then walked away with the horses following him closely behind.
“Bye,” I whispered. Shit. What had just happened?
“Are you okay?” Gil asked, dropping in beside me.
“Did you just…teleport?”
“Yeah, it’s a specialty of mine.”
“I thought you did something with blades?”
Gil laughed and wiggled his fingers in front of my face. “Watch this.” He used his pointer finger, danced it down to his side, and when he touched his hip, a sword appeared—a big sword.
“How are you going to swim with that thing?” I asked .
He laughed and wrapped his arm over my shoulder, leading us toward the portal. “Looks like you made quite the impression.”
“On the queen?”
“No, Sosie. On our young prince.”
I looked behind us only to see Wylen and the three horses off far in the distance. He still wasn’t riding, which I thought was odd, but I couldn’t ask him about it now. “Wylen doesn’t know what he wants.”
“Maybe not yet…but in time.”
We’d reached the edge of the pool, and standing high on the rock formation above it, we stopped. “Are you going to miss this place?” I asked Gil.
“Yes. But I can wait another hundred years to return again.” He paused a moment before adding, “If she’ll let me.”
“How old are you?”
He winked at me a second before doing a swan dive into the pool. I climbed down a little lower, not really a fan of cliff diving. “How old will I get?’ I shouted when his head popped up above the surface. He ignored me and dove under again. “Jerk,” I mumbled.
A wolf howled from the valley below. I couldn’t see them anymore, but the sound alone almost made me cry.
I was going back to the concrete city. I needed to be there for my career and for Tris…
at least right now. But Ashtabulah had a whole different appeal that I wasn’t sure I could deny forever.
The fresh air. The beautiful trees. The wolves.
Wylen.
No, it wasn’t like that. Tris and I had something good going, and I wasn’t about to mess that up. But I would be lying if I didn’t admit a tiny part of me would miss Wylen. And an even bigger part of me was glad that I would have an ally here in Ashtabulah when I had to return each season.
“Until then,” I whispered into the sky.
This time, I dove into the water, but it didn’t matter. It was still very, very cold. Screaming on the inside, I kicked and swam to the wall of water. Only instead of waiting for the kelpies to let us pass, I swam straight through to the holding area.
“What took you so long?” Gil asked.
“Are you maybe a little excited to be going home?”
Smiling, he pulled me into a hug and squeezed me tight. “Thank you, Sosie. I mean it. I am grateful.”
“Well, you paid for our train tickets and our driver.”
His chest bounced against mine as he laughed, still not letting go. “Did I now?”
“Kaelan’s idea.”
“Of course.” He pulled back and held me at arm’s length. “Did he book our return?”
I winced. “I’m afraid not.”
“Oh, no good. We will have to fix that.” Gil grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Ready?”
“Yeah, but how do we get out of here? Last time there was a slide and…ah—” My body snapped through something viscous and cold.
Maybe the bubbles? Maybe the rocks? Whatever it was, it didn’t feel so great, but at least it was quick.
In just a few seconds, I found myself swimming again in the pool on the human side of the arch.
“Sosie!” Tris shouted. It was nighttime here, and the full moon lit up the sky like an early morning sunrise.
I waved to Tris, then heard Gil pop up beside me. “You good?” I asked.
“I’m excellent,” he said. “Oh, is that the troll-boy?”
“Gil…”
He said something incoherent while he started swimming toward Tris. Oh no. I didn’t want them to meet without me.
I dove under the water, able to swim faster that way, but Gil still beat me to the edge with the help of his newly healed body. He and Tris were talking and laughing as if they were best buds by the time I arrived. “What’s going on?” I asked.
Tris shook his head and held out a hand to help me up. “So, this is Gil. And holy shit, is that a crown? ”
Gil teleported out of the water and ended up on the rock cliff above and to the left of us.
He stood there, with the moon at his back and his hands on his hips, soaking in his surroundings.
Smiling with contentment, I accepted Tris’s towel and let him pull me close.
My barely-there gown did little to protect me from the cold.
“Are you good?” he asked, rubbing my arms with the towel. “Your brain all there?” he teased.
“I’m good.” Tilting my chin up, Tris accepted my offer and gave me a nice, warm kiss. “How long have we been gone?” I asked when it was finished.
“Four days.”
“What? Not even a full two days passed in Ashtabulah.” That was going to be problematic for my scheduled visits.
“What is it?” Tris asked, always observant.
“Nothing we need to worry about now. How was the camping?”
He started to guide me back across the rocks so we could join Gil on the trail. “You know, it was quite nice. We should go camping more often. Maybe visit this place again.
“I would really like that.”
A fter I changed into a more comfortable outfit I’d packed and Tris lent Gil a shirt, we rode back to the station and let my father sweet-talk the gate attendant into upgrading us to first class despite not having his credit number on him.
I had no idea how, but I really didn’t care.
First class on a long trip was my newest favorite thing.
And when Tris ordered me a glazed donut and a coffee in the dining car, I soaked it all in.
They had both returned to our cabins to sleep not long after we ate.
I was dead tired, too, but my adrenaline was pumping too hard for my brain to completely switch off, so I’d stayed in our booth in the dining car.
I spent way too much time thinking about Wylen and his kiss.
Not because it changed my entire outlook on our relationship, but because I was worried about him.
I hadn’t told Tris about my deal with the queen yet, so I couldn’t share my concerns with him, either.
And maybe that was part of the problem. I had no one to talk to… yet.
Tris told me stories about some of the people he met at the Juniper Pools.
Most were human, but he swore he had met another troll.
It had been in the evening when Tris thought everyone was gone.
He’d set up camp behind an outcropping so he wouldn’t be noticed.
Once he’d eaten and was washing his dishes in the river, he felt someone staring at him.
“Sosie, I swear his eyes glowed red.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t just a reflection off the water?”
“Positive. He watched me for a while. Sitting on top of the rocks like he belonged. It was strange.” Tris had been so excited.
“And then, when I got back to my camp, I found this sitting on my sleeping bag.” He held out his hand to show me a crystal.
It looked eerily similar to the one embedded into my new ring.
“Did he leave a note or something?”
Tris laughed. “No, Sosie. He didn’t leave a note.”
Could it help Tris cross into Ashtabulah? Could he join me each season?
I’d kept my thoughts about that to myself right now. I’d ask Gil. Someday soon.
We arrived at the Falmouth Train Station in the late afternoon to a bright, sunny day with thunderstorms rolling in the distance.
Getting through the checkpoints was rather quick, again with Gil using some kind of fae magic to charm his way back into New Rothwick without any papers.
Tris and I were asked a few questions, particularly about our short trip, but since we had nothing to claim, we found ourselves walking out of the station within the hour.
“Gil!” Morningstar ran toward us, arms out and bracelets jangling.
“Darling,” Gil cooed. He lifted her up and spun her around as he kissed her for several long seconds. “Are you well?” She couldn’t respond through her tears and instead just hugged him tighter.
“It’s so good to see you,” Kaelan told his mentor, tears falling. As they embraced, he sobbed. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“What? Get kidnapped?”
“Yes!”
Gil laughed and winked at me. Then I felt the shadow looming over my head.
“Thank you, Sosie.” Arelis was holding out her hand.
“Ah, screw it.” I jumped around her arm and wrapped my own around her waist, forcing the vampire warrior to hug me.
“Sosie,” Tris warned, keeping an appropriate distance from Arelis.
“It’s fine.” When I pulled back and saw Malakai standing behind Arelis, I held out my arms. “You, too?”
I got a smile, a rare one, I was sure, as the wolf stepped into my arms and patted me on the back. Okay, not quite what I wanted, but definitely progress. He gave Tris a nod and let Gil pull him into a full embrace.
“Oh, Malakai, you smell like a wet dog.”
“I missed you, too, old man.”
Gil wiped at his eyes and took in all the love surrounding him. “Thank you for not giving up on me,” he said. “I have some incredible friends…and family…in my life.”
“And you have more waiting at the club,” Arelis said. “Delicia and I have arranged a welcome home dinner. I hope you can all join us.”
“I’m in,” Tris said, always hungry.
“Of course.” I smiled at my father and squeezed his hand. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
I ’d been expecting appetizers and drinks.
Something quick and simple and easy. I was not expecting a fully catered meal with seafood, fresh vegetables, and a pile of desserts.
We gorged ourselves for hours, laughing and crying and telling stories.
It was like Tris and I gained a whole new family since discovering our real heritage.
I exchanged numbers with Delicia and Irini, and I met her boyfriend, Investigator Telona, the one who was aware of the supernatural and always tried to help out when he could. Ironically enough, he was also Beckett Caldori’s partner, so my contacts had kind of come full circle.
Strange what that one phone call from my mother had turned into.
Back at my apartment, Tris and I were having a serious discussion. In the shower, and after getting my own special welcome-back gift, I’d told him about my arrangement with Queen Fiadh.
“What were you thinking, Sosie?” Tris asked me again for the hundredth time. He’d flitted back and forth between angry and concerned. He was now back to angry.
I was making popcorn in the kitchen, and he was supposed to be finding a movie. The wine was poured, and he’d grabbed the blanket. But he still couldn’t stop asking. I figured it was best that we just hash this out now.
“She would have killed him, Tris.”
He sighed. “Gil seemed perfectly healthy to me.” When I popped my head around the corner to yell at him, he put up his hand. “I know, it was the healing pool.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“No, I do. It’s just a lot.”
“No shit.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, no shit.”
Popcorn done, I snuggled down next to him and held up the ring. “Doesn’t this look a lot like that crystal you found in your tent? ”
He grabbed the two stones and held them up to the light. “Yeah, actually. It does.”
“I wonder if that’s a coincidence.”
“Do you still believe in coincidences after everything we’ve seen these last few days?”
“Nope.”
“Me neither.”
We sat in silence for a while as Tris flipped through the movie options. “You know,” he suddenly said, “I think I would have done the same.”
“What?”
“If it was my real dad. I would have figured out a way to save him. Even if that meant striking a bargain with an evil faerie queen.”
“I know,” I said, wondering how right Tris was about calling Queen Fiadh evil.
Tris leaned forward and grabbed our wine glasses. After passing mine to me carefully, he kept his in the air for a toast. “To new beginnings.”
“To new beginnings.”
We clinked, took a sip, and kissed. In that order. “I’m glad you’re safe,” he whispered. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Leaning against his shoulder, I smiled to myself. “Me, too.”
He settled down and turned up the volume. “Tonight we watch The Descent to Trollura . From the beginning.”
“Feeling in the mood for troll folklore?” I teased.
“Hey, babe. If this is our new reality, we need to learn all we can.”
I couldn’t agree more.