CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Slow. My progress was agonizingly slow. But I broke my magic, bit by bit, and bent it to my will.
“You’re all welcome at Falcos,” Griffon told the women who had left the fields after I’d explained their new situation. “You’ll be safe there.”
Samira, the woman who had been captured with him, stepped forward. Light wrinkles kissed her golden skin, but they did nothing to diminish her beauty. “I want to be a go-between. Between here and there. It will help make sure the women who stayed are treated better.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Tavin will be waiting for a chance to kill you.”
She looked like she might vomit but straightened her spine and nodded. “I’m sure.”
“Okay,” I said. “Just do me one favor. If it comes up, please tell Tavin you’re meeting me in Vircann. The last thing I need is him tattling to the council that I’m voluntarily at Falcos.”
“So that dog? She was right? You’re a gargoyle?” Her brow bunched as she peered at my eyes.
“I was born to humans,” I said, “but I’m not one. It’s a long story.”
She nodded and let it drop, though curiosity burned in her eyes. “We’ll never forget this. Any of us. Freedom had never been a possibility before you.”
A brick lodged in my throat, and all I could manage was another jerky nod.
She turned to Griffon. “And thank you. For caring enough to try. Twice. I’d just never been willing to leave the others behind, until now.”
Griffon dipped his chin and wrapped her in a hug. “I owe you my life. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to repay that debt.”
Something I refused to name stirred in my chest as I watched him embrace this woman—this human.
Samira squeezed him tight. “You did more than most would have.” She raised a hand in farewell and joined the women heading northwest into the fringe of the Abing Forest.
Griffon’s towering form blotted out my view just as the last of their shadows were swallowed by the trees. His throat bobbed, his jaw clenching as quickly as my still-rapid heartbeats.
“Guess this means you owe me another one,” I joked, and rubbed my sweaty palms down my pants.
He dragged a hand through his tousled hair and shook his head. He reached for me, but his fingers spasmed into a fist halfway across the narrow gap that separated us. A growl snaked past his clenched teeth before he slammed that fist into the towering trunk beside us.
I jerked back, my attention snapping to the explosion of red on his hand. My eyes mashed shut on reflex as he flung his raw knuckles into the tree again, but it didn’t block out the meaty thump of his fist striking wood.
I lurched forward and snagged his arm as it swung again. “Stop,” I demanded, goosebumps peppering my skin from that awful sound. My wide eyes flung questions at him I didn’t have the words to voice.
He turned around with a heavy sigh and slid down the trunk to the ground.
His fingers raked through his hair again.
The blood smeared across the back of his hand but was invisible in the inky strands of his hair.
His head thumped back against the tree and he finally graced me with eyes that were still wild with fight and fear.
He huffed out another heavy breath, a smidge of that tempest calming as he stared at me.
“Thank you,” he finally said. “For getting her out and not leaving me there to be…” His voice shook on every word. He swallowed hard, his gaze darting off me before skittering back. “No one knows. That I was Tavin’s prisoner.”
“What?”
His eyes and lips were tight, every inch of him bracketed with tension.
“No one? Not even…” My gaze shifted to Alexei, finally unconscious but still twitching, his eyes roaming beneath his lids.
“No. Especially not him or Laney.”
“Why?”
I caught a flash of the hardness that iced over his expression before his head dropped into his hands. “It was my burden to bear. Not theirs.”
I watched him for another moment, the image of his scorched chest flitting through my head. “Hey.”
His wary gaze slowly rose to me. I held out my hand, just like he had done for me in that cave.
He eyed it with lifted brows before swallowing my hand in his.
I threw my weight backward, but his ass didn’t so much as budge off the ground.
He chuckled and hauled himself up with what amounted to my symbolic help.
I tugged my hand back once he was on his feet and smudged both palms down my pants again. He was suddenly difficult to look at.
“If you ever want to talk about it…” I didn’t know why I said it. But somewhere deep in my heart, in a place I wasn’t brave enough to look, his pain hurt me.
His fingers brushed a stray hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear, his touch featherlight against my skin. My gaze darted back to him, some lonely, traitorous piece of me aching to lean into his hand.
“Tavin won’t forget this,” he said quietly. “You humiliated him, snatched his prized toy right from between his fingers, and cost him a hundred slaves. He’ll come for you some day.”
“Let him.” The words came out a bit breathless.
Something like pride filled his expression. “Ready to get the hell out of here?” he asked.
All I could do was nod.
He scooped Alexei’s trembling body off the ground and draped him over his shoulder. And together we walked north, toward our horses.
Toward Falcos.
Laney was pissed.
She leaned against the open door at the top of Falcos’ steps, her arms folded and foot tapping a staccato rhythm against the stone.
“I need to tend the horses,” Alexei rushed out.
Griffon yanked Glacier’s reins out of my hand. “I’ll help.”
I threw up my arms. “What happened to accomplices?” I yelled at their backs.
“Don’t know what you mean,” Griffon called back. “We were just there to babysit you.” He glanced back and I tossed him an obscene gesture. The smile that stretched his face did inexplicable things to my insides.
I sighed and trudged toward Laney.
“You were gone for most of five days,” she hissed the second I reached the bottom of the stairs.”
I shrugged. “But you’re free to take the fable Brie needs. And I won’t apologize for it.” I mirrored her pose and stared her down.
“It was none of your damned business,” she snapped.
I cringed at her sharp tone.
“You had no right.”
I raised my chin. “So, you can give help but refuse to accept it?” I clicked my tongue. “That’s rather unwise for someone who’s been alive for the gods know how many centuries.”
Laney deflated. “If one of you had died—”
“We didn’t,” I interrupted. “Just say thank you and walk me to my room.”
She sighed. “Thank you. But you’re not going to your room. The Archon ordered an audience the moment you arrived.”
My nose crinkled. “Why?”
Laney shrugged. “I know. But the five minutes of suspense will serve as my payback.”
I groaned. “Can I bathe first?”
“Nope.” She looped her arm through mine and dragged me inside. “So, what happened at the fields?”
I tossed her a sweet smile. “I know. But the suspense of making you wait will serve as my payment.”
She jabbed me in the ribs, but her smile was easy, and I couldn’t stop the one that spread over my face.
Damn, it had felt good to reduce one of Privalt’s most powerful men to a simpering puddle.
But more than that—it felt good to do good.
There was a bounce in my step the rest of the way to the throne room.
She slowed once we turned into the hallway with those wing doors. “Is it true Griffon gave you rounders?”
Shit. I’d forgotten about that. I gave her a terse nod.
Her lips tightened, her eyes swimming with the same dread her twins’ had. “I suggest you put them in.”
I stopped walking. “Why?”
“Just do it, or I swear on every one of your gods you’ll regret it.”
“Fine,” I huffed. I fumbled the lenses into my eyes, my fingers battling pissed-off lids that thoroughly objected to letting such a thing pass. By the time I finished, I probably looked like I’d been partaking in fable since we left.
Once I wiped the tears away, Laney led me into the throne room and to the foot of the dais. The Archon waited in the unadorned hunk of stone that was her throne, her arms crossed and a slender foot tapping against the ground. It seemed everyone was pissed at me today.
“You burned my books,” she said without preamble.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure—”
Griffon burst through the doors, his face set into a mask of cold fury. I cocked a brow, but he ignored me as he took up position beside the dais. His jaw feathered as he pointedly stared past me.
I shifted my attention back to Davina. “I’m sure your guards would be delighted with your concern for the books.”
She narrowed her eyes on me. “The guards have recovered. My records will not.”
“Well, I saved your whole damned fortress a few days later, so…” I shrugged.
“Yes, you did,” she conceded. “Despite everything else, I suppose I must thank you for that.” She inclined her chin.
I waved her off. “Don’t. I really wanted to help it burn.”
Davina snorted, the sound distinctly undignified given her typical poise. Her legs uncrossed as she leaned toward me on the throne. “Amazing, what leverage a simple truth can wield.”
I bristled. “It was more than that. Griffon made it clear who would suffer if Falcos fell.”
“Even admitting we’re useful.” She barked a laugh that sounded a lot like victory. “Beginning to realize we aren’t the monsters you thought?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Th—”
“Where is she!”
I whipped toward the pissed-off voice that roared through the corridor outside. “Beck,” I breathed.
I ran.
Two gargoyles dragged him around the corner just as I reached the wing doors. I bared my teeth at the sight of their hands wrapped around Beck’s arms. They wisely released him and stepped back.
“Lydia!” Beck’s arms opened for me and I flung myself into them, my legs wrapping around his hips as I suctioned myself to him like a damned leach.
The impact forced him back a step. “I thought you were dead,” he breathed into my neck, his hand weaving into the hair at the back of my neck. “Gods, I thought you were dead.”