Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
I’ve learned, in this endless time of darkness, to take joy wherever I can find it. You never know when it will come again. And those moments of lightness? They sustain you when the darkness comes.
— From the journal of Violet Andrever
We ended up at a tavern off the main path in the city, about halfway down the mountain.
As we approached, a crooked sign denoting it as the Rampart’s Roost swung slowly in the wind.
Peat smoke and drunken laughter hit me as Finn flung open the door.
The stones inside were colored with age and stained with smoke, and wooden beams ran the length of the ceiling, but the person who’d built this place must have also been partaking in the drinks as everything was lopsided.
Clearly, the brothers were both known here; as they walked in, several men slapped Finn on the back while nodding respectfully to Griff.
The bartender immediately sent two tankards sloshing down the oak bar. “And for the lady?” he called over the din.
I shrugged at Griff’s questioning look. I had no idea what to order in a place like this. This was not the quiet little pub from home. I was torn between enjoying the new experience and wondering why my boots were sticking to the floor.
Griff held up three fingers, and another tankard came sailing down the bar.
We navigated our way through the crowd to a rickety table in the back. I settled onto an uneven bench while Finn plopped down across from me. Griff sat next to me, a motion that caused the bench to teeter and me to slide into him before catching myself.
“What a fucking day,” Finn said, taking a long drink. He set his tankard down with more force than was necessary, rocking our table. “What’s the plan for tomorrow? Go somewhere else where we can be attacked?”
“You better not,” Griff said. “I have business out of town and won’t be able to accompany you if you do.”
“Where are you going?” I asked, feeling inexplicably depressed that he had plans without me.
“Ventaris.” At Finn’s raised eyebrow, Griff added, “Prior appointment.”
He was saved from explaining further by Finn blurting out, “How could Fiadh be so stupid?” He took another long drink.
Griff didn’t answer, just took an equally long drink.
I glanced between the two of them, feeling for the first time like an outsider with the twins. It was times like these where it hit me just how much older than me they were—they’d had whole lives before I’d tumbled onto the scene. Lives where they’d made—and lost—friends.
“How well did you two know her?” I asked, not at all sure if that was the right question to be asking.
“Not well,” Finn said at the same time Griff answered, “Well enough.”
Griff raised an eyebrow, questioning Finn’s answer. Finn shrugged, acknowledging his brother’s point.
“At one point, we were all children running around the castle. But she’d always kept to herself. Never joined in, even when it seemed like she was desperate to.” Finn let out a long breath, shifting his shoulders, before lifting his tankard. “To Fiadh.”
“To Fiadh,” Griff echoed, softly, tankard raised. “May she find peace.”
They both drank heavily. I joined them, taking my first sip of something that tasted vaguely like apples when a voice interrupted us.
“Why if it isn’t young Master Finnegan!” A woman with tight red curls and a heavily made-up face slid onto the bench next to him with enough force that she smacked into his hip, her dress dipping perilously low on her chest. She pressed a sloppy kiss to his mouth.
“I haven’t seen you in months! Not since Ignistar at least! You usually come more often.”
The blood drained from Finn’s face as I inhaled my ale and coughed. Griff pounded my back, trying desperately to hold in his laughter.
“Good to see you too, Nuala,” Griff managed. “Nuala and Finn have known each other a long time,” he told me.
There was a loud thump from under the table and Griff grunted as Finn glared at him, his face now bright red.
“Hi.” I stood and extended my hand. “I’m Le—” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Griff subtly shake his head. “Lily,” I finished smoothly. “It’s nice to meet you.”
She looked askance at my hand but took it gingerly. As our hands touched, she winked. “I don’t normally share, but for you, I’ll make an exception.”
Griff snorted into his tankard while Finn conspicuously avoided my eyes.
“I appreciate the offer, Nuala, but unfortunately, I’ll have to decline.” I thought I managed to come off as sincere.
Griff turned his laugh into a cough as Finn stared into his tankard as if he could disappear inside it.
Nuala ran a finger down Finn’s cheek, trying to get his attention on her again.
Griff stretched his arm over the back of the bench, his fingertips brushing my shoulder, and I shivered. From the cold, I told myself.
“Sorry I’m late!” Freya rushed over to the table and beamed at me.
“Good to see you outside of the castle!” Noticing Nuala, she turned her attention that way.
“You must be Nuala! Finn couldn’t stop talking about you the last time he came home.
Or maybe the time before last! Anyway—” Her eyes went blank.
I stifled a laugh. Finn must have been giving her an earful.
“I’m Freya,” she finished sheepishly.
Nuala was beaming at Finn, her arms lassoed around his neck as Finn shifted on the bench. Griff and Freya were staring unabashedly, grinning at Finn’s clear discomfort.
From across the room, someone called for Nuala.
With a flounce of irritation, she caressed Finn’s cheek. “I’ll be back soon, Finny.”
And with that, she sashayed off.
Finn, an even brighter red after the nickname, breathed such a huge sigh of relief that the rest of us burst out laughing.
“And why have I never heard of Nuala?” I asked him innocently. “She seemed… enthusiastic.”
Finn didn’t look at me, just muttered into his drink, “She’s just friendly.”
“Friendly?” Freya questioned, taking the abandoned seat. “Finn, if she had been any friendlier, you would have needed a room. Although I don’t think she would have minded.”
“It’s not like that,” Finn bit out.
“Right.” Freya’s eyes twinkled. “She was just being friendly.” Finn turned his glare on her, but she was undeterred. “I remember you got that same flustered look every Merlaine growing up, whenever you had to work up the courage to ask your latest crush to dance.”
“I did not get flustered. I am not flustered now.” Finn’s protest fell flat.
Freya laughed. “Okay, sure. But do you remember the midsummer festival where Griff had to physically put you in proximity to ask someone to dance? He teleported you both directly in her face.”
“Which was a great strategy. I seem to recall her getting scared and falling over backward.” Finn narrowed his eyes at Griff, still upset about the moment from several decades ago. But at least his mouth was starting to twitch upward.
“Maybe not my finest moment,” Griff admitted.
Freya turned to me. “Lexa, it was glorious. Well, maybe not for these two at that moment, but it was good for Griff to get some of his own discomfort. He had started to get entirely too cocky in his own prowess with women.”
I laughed. “Do tell more.”
Griff rubbed a hand over his face. “Tagalong, do you have to?”
She grinned. “I think I do, Champion. Griff got to the point where he’d walk up to a girl and say exactly three words.”
“What three words?” I was intrigued.
“‘Want to dance?’” Griff replied dryly. “I was very sophisticated.”
“I see not much has changed since then, if your performance at Ignistar is anything to go by,” I said mildly.
His grin was my only answer as Freya continued, “And then you’d watch the girl swoon that Griffin Narvene had asked her to dance.”
“Sometimes they’d be so nervous that Griff would just stand there with his hand outstretched, waiting for her to make up her mind.” Finn stood, over his earlier disquiet and back into his normal rhythm, and headed over to the bar.
“Our Champion over here used to be the life of the party,” Freya continued.
I whirled to him. “You? The life of the party? This I have to see.”
He gave me a rueful look. “Things change.” He nursed his first drink as Finn came back with a second round for all of us.
I was only partially done with my first drink as Finn slid the tankards around.
“Speaking of change,” Griff said, glancing at me. “I hear you got through an entire council meeting without an outburst or storming out the other day.”
“I’ve never stormed out,” I protested, although that was decidedly untrue. I had been going to more and more of the council meetings, not that I had any real place there, nor did anyone listen to me.
“No?” His eyebrow arched slightly. “You told me about the time Zachariah was being an ass—”
“That doesn’t narrow it down,” I interrupted.
Finn chortled. Freya’s eyes were bouncing back and forth between us.
“As I was saying, Zachariah was harping on you being the Orlaith and I believe there was profanity before a door slammed upon your exit.”
“That was preservation,” I said with as much dignity as I could.
“For self or others?” Griff asked.
“Does it matter?”
He nodded at me, an amused expression on his face, but conceded the point.
Freya had paused with her tankard lifted halfway to her lips, a curious expression on her face as she watched Griff. When she caught me looking, she quickly took a drink, but I saw the thoughtful expression as her eyes darted between us.
They continued in this vein, telling stories of their childhood and teasing each other.
When Freya announced that she was heading back up to the castle, I decided to join her.
Griff made to stand but I put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the muscles tense under my touch.
“No, stay. I’ll be fine just walking back up to the castle. ”