Chapter Thirty-Four Riela
Chapter Thirty-Four
Riela
The woman slowly lowered her bow, her expression wavering between suspicion and surprise, but I was more worried about the
man behind me. I spun as much as I could while still pressing the bandage to Garrick’s shoulder. Grim was nowhere to be found,
but a tall, handsome man with dark hair, pale skin, and gleaming silver eyes stood over me.
He had the same coloring as Garrick, but his face and body were leaner, and his ears were pointed at the tips, just like the
drawings of Etheri in the storybooks. Something like amusement danced in his eyes. However, the tight black armor and profusion
of weapons he was wearing made me reach for the dagger I’d dropped, but it hadn’t crossed with us.
The man’s gaze skated past me and landed on Garrick, and his amusement deepened. “You can stop pretending, Your Highness.”
I pressed closer to Garrick, as if my presence alone would be enough to shield him. “Who are you?”
The man held a dramatic hand to his chest, his expression wounded. “You don’t recognize me, Riela? After you tried to stab
me?”
My eyes widened. He couldn’t be . . . “Grim?”
The man smiled. “Vastien Grim, in the flesh. Thanks for that, by the way. It’s been a long time since I’ve had fingers.” He
wiggled them, as if he couldn’t quite believe they existed.
My brain tripped over itself trying to process that the magical wolf was now a man, but I shoved it aside. “You need to get
a healer! Garrick is—”
“Fine,” Grim interrupted. At my frown, he waved a hand. “Ask him yourself.”
I turned back to Garrick. The Etheri sovereign gently wrapped his fingers around my wrist and drew the bloody wad of cloth away from his shoulder. “Grim is correct. The wound is already healed.”
I gaped at him. “But you collapsed. And there was so much blood. And I hurt you, just like you feared I would.”
At the whispered confession, Garrick shook his head. “Your attack had a surprising amount of force, I’ll give you that, but
I could have deflected it. So, if anything, I hurt myself.”
“But why?”
Garrick sat up, though he didn’t let go of my wrist. “Because you wanted a fight, and I refuse to hurt you.” He carefully
turned my hand over and made a low, displeased sound at the still bleeding cuts left by my clumsy attempt to catch the dagger.
His eyes darkened. “You were hurt anyway.” His magic swept through me and the small wounds closed.
“If anything, I hurt myself,” I echoed, still in shock.
“How did you open the door?”
“I don’t know. I was desperate for someone to help you, but I didn’t do anything.”
Grim left the dais to go talk to the woman—Hania, he’d called her. She had dropped to her knees in the snow, but Grim gestured
impatiently for her to rise. She threw a cautious glance at Garrick, then climbed to her feet.
Garrick followed my gaze. His hand remained a distracting warmth against my wrist. “You didn’t suspect Grim was Etheri?”
I shook my head. “I knew he was uncannily smart for a wolf, but I just figured that was the magic. Why didn’t he take this
form in Edea?”
“He can’t, thanks to Feylan. As punishment for helping me, the Blood King cursed him to remain in his primal form, which is
the wolf in Edea. In Lohka, both forms are primal, so he can shift between them.”
I blinked. “So he’s been a wolf for a hundred years?”
Garrick’s shoulder lifted in a careless shrug. “More or less.” When he saw my aghast expression, he smiled. “It’s not as bad as that. Jurhihoigli are equally comfortable in either form.”
“He’s protective of you.”
“He should be, considering he’s the head of my personal guard. Don’t let his charming grin fool you—he’s one of the deadliest
people in the entire Silver Court.”
I swallowed. I’d been right to be wary of the wolf, just not for the right reasons.
Garrick’s gaze swept over the courtyard before returning to me. “This is the longest trip yet.” He frowned as he looked between
me and the dais. “Is the door drawing your magic?”
I started to shake my head, then paused. Was it? Now that I was paying attention, there was a subtle ache in my chest. I raised my magic and saw a thin, magical tether stretching between me and the center of the dais.
“It seems so.”
Garrick’s thumb swept over my wrist a final time before he let me go and climbed to his feet. He stepped back to offer me
a hand up, but the world shifted and we were returned to Garrick’s castle in Edea.
A snarl behind me lifted the hair on my arms. Grim was back in his wolf form, and he sounded less than pleased about the change.
Garrick stared down at me. His silver eyes were unfathomable, and I shrank under the weight of his gaze. “I’m sorry. I don’t
know what happened. I’ll open it again.”
I closed my eyes and willed the door to open. The world shifted again, and when I opened my eyes, I was back in Lohka.
But Garrick and Grim were not.
Hania had been joined by several more guards. She waved a hand before they could draw their weapons, then pointed at me and
said something I didn’t understand. The guards bowed, and Hania said something else, this time while looking at me.
I held up my hands. “I don’t understand.”
Her face creased in thought, then she hesitantly asked, “Where . . . King?”
“If you mean Garrick, he’s in Edea. I don’t know why.” I rubbed my chest. The ache was still there, which meant I must still be tied to the doorway with magic. “Let me see if I can get back.”
I concentrated on returning, but nothing happened. I glanced up at the guards and swallowed. I could not be stuck on this
side without Garrick. I needed to get back now. But even though I was desperate to leave, nothing happened.
Hania edged closer, and I pushed myself to my feet. She raised her hands in a way that was probably supposed to be soothing,
but it just wound my nerves tighter. I stepped back, and the world shifted again. I stumbled and nearly tripped over Grim.
I pressed a hand against my sternum and took deep breaths while I waited for the world to right itself.
“What happened?” Garrick asked from somewhere in front of me.
I straightened with a wince. “I don’t know. I crossed without you. I saw Hania again. She was asking about you. At least,
I think she was.”
Garrick tilted his head. “Perhaps touch is required for you to take me through.”
“But I wasn’t touching Grim the first time, and he came through just fine.”
“Grim is bound to me.” When he caught my narrow look, he smiled. “By choice, little mage. I’m not that kind of monster.”
I stepped forward and bent to retrieve my dagger. The blade was surprisingly clean, like the blood had been scoured away.
But a stain darkened the stone where Garrick had bled through his tunic. I shuddered. Garrick said he could’ve dodged, but
I wasn’t so sure.
I’d hurt him, and I couldn’t even blame it on a misunderstanding.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I sheathed the blade. “I shouldn’t have attacked you.”
Garrick’s fingers gently tipped my face up until I had no choice but to meet his eyes. “I knew what you were planning from
the moment I saw you this morning. You are not as sneaky as you think, little tempest.”
“If you knew what I was planning, then you should’ve let Grim bite me.”
His thumb feathered across my jaw. “I vowed not to harm you. Letting Grim bite you would’ve been harm.”
I frowned. “But I attacked you. That negated the vow.” Releasing him from his vow not to hurt me had been a calculated risk,
but despite everything, I trusted him, with or without the vow.
My eyes widened. I trusted him.
“Shall we test it?” Garrick asked softly, unaware of my dawning realization.
He sliced a silver claw across my fingertip before I could do more than open my mouth to protest. I instinctively jerked my
hand away, but then I paused. I hadn’t felt any pain. A glance revealed my finger was unmarked, and when I turned Garrick’s
hands over, he had a small, angry cut on his index finger.
I frowned at him in confusion. “But I attacked you. We both know I did. And I remember your vow very clearly had an ‘until
you attack’ clause.”
“The magic doesn’t agree. You didn’t intend to hurt me, so therefore you didn’t attack me.”
I scowled. “That’s a rather large loophole.”
“And the reason my vow included harm by accident or intent. Specifics matter.”
And he’d made a more specific vow—not because I’d known about the loophole, but because I hadn’t. A soft warmth bloomed through me. He might call himself a monster, but I wasn’t so sure.
I lifted onto my toes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “Thank you,” I whispered.
He studied me intently for a moment, then heat ignited in his eyes. He wrapped his arms around me and drew me closer, until
I was pressed up against the solid warmth of his body.
His head dipped, but he paused at the last second, waiting. I closed the distance between us, and that was all the encouragement he needed. He kissed me slowly, languorously, like he was memorizing the contours of my lips.
A deep, pleased sound rumbled from his chest when I licked the firm fullness of his bottom lip, then his mouth opened and
his tongue slid against mine with a stroke that sent shivers racing through my body. I reached up to clutch his shoulders
and froze when my fingers met the damp stickiness of his bloody tunic.
I jerked back and stared at the stain. The sound of the dagger sinking into his flesh echoed through my mind and I flinched.
Garrick’s hold gentled until it felt like a hug. “It wasn’t your fault,” he reiterated.
“I threw a dagger at you and propelled it with magic. I’m pretty sure that makes it my fault.”
“Your magic does seem to work better when you’re furious,” he agreed with a grin before turning serious. “Riela, if I didn’t
want that dagger to hit me, it wouldn’t have, magic or otherwise.”
I remembered the weight of his magic and swallowed. Perhaps it was foolish to trust him again so quickly, but so far, he’d
remained true to every vow he’d made to me.