Chapter 16 #4
I shook my head. “Just exhausted.” I figured out my balance and shook him off. He let me go but stayed close to my side. Even as mad as he was, he still wasn’t going to let me fall.
“I thought we covered you being all hovery around me.”
“And I’m pretty sure I told you it was my job to be hovery. So deal with it.”
There it was again. The statement that I was just a job. But there was a shift in his expression, something unguarded leaked through, before his eyes shuttered, all hints of emotion vanishing from his face.
“I wish you had told me you were leaving the castle. Are you that curious about religion?” He sounded confused.
“No. I’m trying to learn everything I can about my power, the Veil, the darkness.
We can’t find anything in the library records.
Finn had the idea to look outside the castle and decided to start there.
And how was I supposed to tell you I was leaving the castle?
You’ve been around more recently, but it’s not like I know where you are every moment of the day. ”
He was taken aback by my vehemence. I thought about apologizing, but he was the one who thought I needed to run my every move past him.
“I lived for many years without you tracking my steps, Griffin Narvene.” The words were flowing out of me now, charged by the panic of the day. “I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can,” he said steadily. The vulnerability that entered his eyes made the fight go out of me. I leaned heavily against the wall. He made a motion like he was going to catch me again, but stopped himself. “But when I felt the fear… the terror… when I realized what you were up against…”
A breeze rustled a lock of hair that had escaped my braid and blew it into my face. He gently moved it back, tucking it behind my ear.
“The idea of you being hurt, being attacked by a hufen, here of all places, threw me,” he said roughly, his hand cradling the back of my head, thumb playing with loose strands at the nape of my neck.
“I can understand that,” I said softly. I hoped he heard the forgiveness in my voice.
He paused, our eyes still locked. “If I can make one request?” He looked tired. As if this was the last thing he had needed today. “Please promise me you’ll never go anywhere unarmed again.”
I decided not to point out that everyone kept saying I was a weapon, and that I had managed to kill a hufen and stop the darkness without weapons, but nodded instead, shoving off the wall.
I went to walk on but something in his face stopped me.
I was getting better at reading him. Or he was letting me in more.
“Before we go in there,” he started, then stopped as if he didn’t know how to continue. “Zachariah will grill you.”
“I’m used to it.”
“Don’t let him break you.”
“Today?” I looked up at him with a cheeky grin I didn’t feel. “Or in general?”
He barked out a laugh. “Both, I guess.”
“Good to know,” I continued with that perky voice, planning on faking it until I either believed it myself or could rest. “Let’s get it over with. I’d really like to take a bath.”
We found Zachariah more quickly than I had anticipated. Apparently, the news had traveled fast.
He strode up to us, his long coat billowing with every stride, like storm clouds on the horizon. “You burned our oldest temple!” His voice echoed off the stone walls, sending everyone around us in different directions like birds scattering to the skies.
No hello. No good to see you’re unharmed, Granddaughter. Just anger at the destruction of public property. He was in rare form today.
“Hi, Grandfather, how are you today?” I kept my voice deliberately cheerful.
“How dare you do such a thing?” The words exploded out of him. “How dare you destroy our most sacred place?”
“To eradicate the darkness spread by a hufen! With the help of all seven priestesses! I think if anyone had a right to be mad at me, it was those priestesses, the ones charged with protecting the temple. But nope, they stood right behind me, showing me how to burn it.”
“What were you even doing there in the first place? What possessed you to stray outside the castle gates? Gates where you are protected!” He was trembling with rage.
“You do not make those decisions for me, and you will not keep me locked up here,” I fired back at Zachariah.
“Last I checked, you kept saying I was the next in line for the throne. You’re just the regent.
I will meet my people and learn my kingdom.
And I will do whatever I need to, to learn how to restore the Veil.
Which, I believe, is the only value you think I have. ”
He slammed a hand against the stone wall. “You shall not leave the safety of these walls!”
“Or what?” I fired back. “You’ll drag me back in chains? Imprison me in the dungeon?”
“You ungrateful little—”
But I cut him off. “You’ve made it perfectly clear that you do not want me here, so I would have thought you’d be happy to see me in a situation that solved that problem for you. But fine. If you’ve decided you are, in fact, that concerned about my safety, Griff will take me.”
“You did not just drag me into this,” Griff muttered for only my ears.
I flashed him a smile and he dropped his mask long enough to roll his eyes at me.
“Or are you saying the Champion is not up to the task of protecting one person?”
“Hey now,” Griff protested.
Zachariah’s face was dark. “Or you could stay safe and sound behind the castle walls and not waste the Champion’s time indulging you in your fancies.”
“Fancies?” My voice rose to a screech.
But Griff stepped in before things could devolve further.
“Sir, she has a point. As the likely future heir, she does need to learn the kingdom. And in regards to fixing the Veil, every fraction of knowledge has been scoured within these walls. Maybe she’s right that there’s something outside of here.
It’s time to think outside the box. And better I accompany her than she gets into trouble without me, as she appears determined to do. ”
I scowled at his last words, erasing the appreciation I had been feeling toward him defending me.
Zachariah’s face took on a purplish hue. “You answer to me, not a potential heir.”
“No.” Griff’s voice was immovable. “I serve her. In any way she requires.” My heart started to soar, but then he continued, “My oath binds me to her, above all other considerations, even your commands.”
And my heart plummeted. I was just a duty. Something bound to him by his “oath.”
“Fine,” Zachariah spat out. “But when she gets herself killed, her blood is on your hands, Champion.”
“Glad that’s settled.” I spun on my heel and started striding away, mustering my last bit of energy so I could walk at a normal pace. You can collapse after you get out of here, I promised myself.
“I’m fine by the way, Grandfather,” I shot over my shoulder. “Not a scratch on me. Which a loving grandfather and a regent worried about his charge would have asked first.”
As I moved through the kitchen the next morning, I overheard the staff talking about the destruction.
I slowed my steps and listened. Volunteers for cleanup and repair were starting today.
I adjusted my sword on my hip and made a split-second decision.
Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to leave the grounds the day after getting in trouble for doing so, but that was my mess. I should help clean it up.
I had a momentary hesitation when I thought about the various arguments I’d had yesterday and how they had all resolved with the agreement that I’d take Griff with me when I left the castle, but yet again, I had no idea where he was as he hadn’t shown up in the kitchen for breakfast this morning.
And I didn’t have his nifty skill of tracking down the person I wanted.
Besides, I had felt the stretching of the wards across the entire city last night as someone—Zachariah, I assumed—organized powerful channelers to add additional protection to the city as a reaction to a dark one getting inside the perimeter.
Today was the safest day to be out there.
I pulled my hood up over my face, and as I left through the castle gates, I was just one of any number of people walking between the castle and the city. I found the temple without issue and joined the crew. Keeping my head down, I took direction from the various priestesses.
I wasn’t there long before I felt attention burning a hole in my back. I stopped dead at the sight of Griff standing against a stone wall, arms crossed tightly across his chest, mask firmly positioned on his face, jaw yet again tight and clenched.
Well, shit.
I excused myself from the line of workers and made my way over to him.
“You found me.” I tried for a lighthearted tone.
“About five minutes after you left. Didn’t I tell you I’ll always find you?” He stood unnaturally still, not shifting his weight or his position, shoulders set in a rigid line.
I looked at him hesitantly. “I needed to try to make it right, Griff. After yesterday’s destruction.”
He shoved away from the wall and towered over me, casting me in his shadow.
“I see. And the reason you couldn’t wait until I could accompany you?
” His voice was soft, but I knew anger was bubbling beneath the surface.
I had thought he’d be a little irritated at me, but this amount of emotion surprised me.
I stared up at him and answered in a small voice, “Habit?”