Chapter 9
Nine
Chloe edged toward Sage’s nest, shame creeping up the back of her neck. But Sage had the nest closest to the mews’ storeroom, and Chloe wasn’t paying enough attention to her movements. Her back collided with the storeroom wall, stopping her in place.
She threw an entreating look toward Sage, but the griffin remained perched in her nest, looking back and forth between Chloe and Harrison.
Don’t look at me. Amusement sounded in the griffin’s musical tones. You were the one making eyes at the overdressed one. Personally, I’m most curious to see what Harrison intends to do about it.
Chloe glared at her. It had nothing to do with Harrison, and there was nothing for him to do.
But her momentary inattention had allowed Harrison to move closer unseen, and when she looked back in his direction, she betrayed herself with a gasp. He stepped even closer at the sound, standing so near that Chloe felt the brush of his jacket.
She held her breath, staring up at him, every nerve in her body springing to life at his proximity. The storm in his eyes had reached out to engulf her too, and she couldn’t seem to form a coherent thought.
His face was only inches from hers, his breathing rough. If he leaned down—or if she tipped onto her toes—their lips would meet.
He leaned toward her, and her heart stopped beating entirely, a shiver running over her exposed skin. But his lips brushed along the skin of her cheek with the lightest touch, coming to a stop beside her ear.
“What are you playing at, Chloe?” he whispered.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Even now, if she just turned her head, her lips would be on his.
And she could sense—with a sense she hadn’t even known she possessed—that if she did so, she wouldn’t be the only one consumed in the fire that followed.
The captain might whisper threatening words, but his stance betrayed him, leaning toward her just as she ached to lean toward him.
An image of her youngest sister appeared in her mind, and her eyes sprang open. She broke free of Harrison’s hold with a gasping breath, stepping sideways into the aisle.
She turned away from him, struggling to get herself under control and calm her breathing.
Her month was nearly over, and she had finally managed to make some headway with the Duke.
If she allowed Harrison to take her in his arms and kiss her, she would never be able to act for the Duke. Everything would be lost.
As soon as she had her expression under tight control, she forced herself to turn back to Harrison with a smile. He watched her with dark, haunted eyes, but she ignored his expression, responding as brightly as if he was beaming at her.
“Does the Duke often come to the mews?” she asked in a light voice. “I haven’t seen him here before. Perhaps he comes at a different time from me.”
She waited for his answer, trying to appear calm even as her pulse still thrummed.
Harrison slammed a flat palm against the wall beside him, leaning toward it, his head hanging, as if he, too, needed a moment to regain control. But when he turned to her, his expression was as dark as ever.
“Enough!” The word wasn’t loud, but it ripped through her with the same sense of command he exercised over his squad. “What game are you playing, Chloe? It’s time for you to answer me straight.”
“I…I don’t know what you mean.” Her voice shook, the words sounding unconvincing even to her own ears.
That will show him. Sage laughed from behind Harrison, the musical bells ringing through Chloe’s mind. Chloe glared at the griffin, but Sage merely laughed again.
Harrison speared her with a look, reclaiming her attention.
“I think you do know,” he said. “As I have known since the beginning. I saw through you the moment I saw you perched up on that rock. Do you have any idea how many girls before you have set out to captivate a duke and make themselves a duchess? You may be more creative than most, but you’re utterly deficient in other ways.
” He laughed, the sound holding no true amusement.
Chloe gasped at the cruelty of his words, strengthened by his unjust accusation. Against one claim, at least, she could protest innocence.
“I have no desire to be a duchess,” she said. “And I never did.”
“That’s not what I just saw,” he said contemptuously.
She drew herself up, speaking in her most dignified voice. “I didn’t say I have no interest in the Duke. Just that I don’t have any interest in becoming his duchess.”
The sound of footsteps made her swing around to see Fletcher approaching them. Harrison ignored his second-in-command’s appearance, however, his eyes still fixed on Chloe as his brows rose.
“That would be a first,” he said, his voice cold and mocking. “Of the many girls who pursue the Duke, I can’t say I’ve encountered one who doesn’t want to marry him, if she can manage it.”
“Of course I don’t want to marry him,” she snapped back, stung at his tone. “Then I’d have to spend the rest of my life actually living with him.”
Fletcher’s unexpected laugh broke the tension thrumming between Chloe and Harrison. He strolled forward and clapped Harrison on the shoulder.
“That puts the Duke in his place.”
Harrison shrugged off his lieutenant, still not breaking his focus on Chloe.
“Then what do you want?” he asked harshly. “I’m sick of the games. It’s time for the truth, if you please.”
Chloe resisted, scrambling to think of what she could say.
But all at once the fight leeched out of her, her shoulders slumping.
She was fooling herself if she thought she could keep up the charade long enough to extract a griffin egg from the Duke.
She was fairly sure she had been fooling herself from the beginning—getting to know Harrison had only sealed it.
“I never intended to take it as far as marriage,” she said. “I just wanted him to fall in love with me.”
“Just to fall in love with you,” Harrison murmured, his voice rough. “And what did the Duke ever do for you to wish such a harsh punishment on him?”
“I—” Chloe blinked at him. She’d never thought of it in those terms.
Why had she not done so? Because she had believed the Duke was too shallow and self-obsessed to develop any feelings for her of lasting strength? It had been a condescending assumption.
Sage climbed out of her nest at last, weaving between the men to approach Chloe.
Chloe greeted her arrival with relief, leaning against her as her knees wobbled, fresh shame filling her.
Sage had grown so much in the last weeks that her shoulder now stood just below Chloe’s, and her presence filled Chloe with fresh strength.
“I can see what you mean,” she said in a quiet voice. “It was poorly done of me. But I was desperate.”
Something flashed across Harrison’s face, and for a second she thought he meant to step toward her. But he controlled the impulse, bringing his face back under stern control.
“What did you think the Duke could do for you?” he asked quietly, but there was steel—and something more painful—behind his voice.
Chloe clung to Sage. “I need a griffin egg.”
Her voice wobbled as she said it, and she realized that, just as she couldn’t play the love-struck fool for the Duke, neither could she hand over a griffin egg to Gannon of all people. What would he do with it?
“A griffin egg?” Harrison looked genuinely shocked, her words breaking through his cold anger. He exchanged a quick look with Fletcher, whose brows had shot up.
“Maddie and I have a sizable mortgage on our store, but we can exchange the whole thing for one griffin egg. Without it, we’ll lose everything. And then I’ll never be able to bring my sisters to Everard.”
Harrison’s face softened a fraction as she mentioned her sisters—he had heard her chatter about them to Sage often enough—but it quickly hardened again.
“You wanted a griffin egg in order to sell it? Because it’s valuable?” He sounded sickened.
Chloe swallowed. It sounded so terrible when he said it like that. And it hadn’t been quite like that in reality. But he was close enough to the truth that she couldn’t easily refute his words.
“I let you into my mews!” he snapped, but his expression said he had let her into more than that—and the thought now horrified him.
Her heart twisted, her body starting to shake. What had she done?
Fletcher stepped up to Harrison’s side, speaking softly. “Ranger spoke to her the first time they met. And Sage chose her. You can question your own judgment, but can you question theirs?”
Harrison’s brows drew together, but he didn’t refute his lieutenant’s words.
“Did we ever tell you why Sage was so small and sickly?” he asked instead.
Chloe, who had been struggling to meet his eyes, looked up, the arm around Sage’s shoulders tightening.
“What do you mean? I thought she was born that way.”
“She was,” Harrison said. “But not because there was anything wrong with her originally. Her egg was stolen.”
“What?” Chloe gasped. “I never heard about a griffin egg being stolen.”
“We kept it quiet,” Fletcher said. “We didn’t want anyone else getting the idea to try their own hand at it. And we managed to track it down before she hatched.”
“But griffin chicks can’t thrive in their egg unless they’re being brooded over by a griffin,” Harrison said. “Usually the whole flock cares for them, taking turns keeping watch over the egg. The weeks it took us to track down Sage’s egg affected her badly. She was born tiny and sickly.”
Chloe gasped, her free hand flying to her mouth. “I had no idea. I swear it. I didn’t know it would harm the griffin inside the egg. I thought once the chick had hatched and grown a little, it would be free to reject the egg’s owner and fly off.”
“That’s assuming it was able to do so,” Harrison said harshly. “Assuming it wasn’t chained down and harvested for its feathers and tears.”
Chloe’s mouth fell open, her stomach churning. She was going to be sick.
“People do that?” she whispered.
“Only until they’re caught,” Fletcher said grimly. “Wynkara’s creatures are what make us unique, and the king doesn’t hold with their mistreatment.”
A tear ran down Chloe’s cheek. “And yet some people try…How…how horrible. I truly didn’t know, and of course I wouldn’t ever consider taking an egg now—even if the Duke gifted me one tomorrow.”
“There’s no chance of that.” Harrison’s mouth twisted in a wry tilt, although his eyes remained bleak.
“Of course not,” Chloe said, stung in spite of everything. “Given I’m so deficient compared to all the other girls who’ve pursued him.”
“Deficient? You?” Fletcher shook his head, looking between her and Harrison. “I can’t think how.”
Harrison gave a humorless laugh. “In one major way.” He turned to his friend. “At least all those other girls could identify the Duke before they tried to pursue him.”
Turning on his heel, he strode away without a backward glance.