Chapter 28
Aoife
One minute I was stepping through the portal, and the next I was falling onto the forest floor, Lorcan Wolfgang tumbling after me. His body barreled into mine, taking us both to the ground, and I groaned as Lor landed on top of me.
Sticks and pine cones stuck my back like needles, and my head ached from the impact of hitting the ground so hard.
It took me a minute to fully understand what had just happened. I’d portaled outside of Fairwitch Isle—and Lor had come with me.
His body was heavy and hard on top of mine, his breath warm against my cheek. I shoved him off me, and he rolled onto his back as I came to a stand, whipping around to glare at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Me?” He sat up, wincing as he rolled his shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing? Godwitches, Aoife, I thought you were an intruder. We had the whole castle on alert while I went after you.”
I blinked, so utterly confused.
“Sir Arthur woke me up in the dead of the night, telling me he spotted someone in a dark cloak wandering through the castle.”
“Feck,” I muttered. “That good for nothing knight. He was a nuisance when he was alive, and his suit of armor is a nuisance now that he’s dead.”
Lor’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, all of his anger melting from his face as his voice turned curious. “You knew the real Sir Arthur?”
I waved his words off. “You need to go back.” I summoned a portal. “This will take you to Fairwitch Isle.”
Lor came to a stand and shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“I’m going to hunt down Ronan.”
His jaw locked, and he pointed toward the portal. “We’re both going back to Fairwitch Isle. I won’t let you do something so reckless. You could be captured by the brotherhood.”
I lifted my chin. “If you make me go back there, I’ll just try again. And again. And again. And eventually, I will escape without you seeing me. You can’t keep eyes on me all the time.”
He looked at me as if to say, Oh yes I can.
All the fight drained out of me because if Lor thought that was the right thing to do, he would do it. He would post a guard with me all day, every day to keep me from doing something that he believed would endanger his people.
“Just let me go, Lor.” I hated the pleading in my tone.
“Why can’t you just leave this alone? The brotherhood are dangerous. I know them better than anyone in Fairwitch Isle. The weapons they have, the magic they have, it’s beyond powerful. And they’ll use it to capture you, to capture all the Fair Folk.”
“That’s why I need to do this.” I stepped forward. “I won’t be enslaved again, Lor. I won’t. I can’t.” My voice nearly broke on that last word, and Lor’s gaze softened.
He stared at me for a long moment, and I prepared myself to have to fight him, to have to shove him into that portal and force him away from me. But I didn’t. I waited. For some godwitches forsaken reason, I waited.
His jaw twitched, and he let out a long breath. “Fine. Then I’m coming with you.”
That wasn’t ideal either. “You can’t come with me. You have to go back to Fairwitch Isle. Both their rulers can’t be missing.”
He never took his eyes from me. “Close the portal, Aoife.”
“Are you serious?” I asked. “This is ridiculous. This is my mission. It’s my—”
“Close the portal, Aoife. You can send me through it, but I’ll just leave Fairwitch Isle and walk across the mountain until I find wherever you are. I won’t stop until I find you and I know that you’re safe.”
The words took me aback, so much so that I reached out and closed my fist, the portal disappearing with the movement. “Why would you go with me?” I asked as I started walking.
“Because you’re my queen,” he said. “And I’m not going to let you do this alone.”
Disappointment swelled inside of me. I wasn’t sure why, what I’d been expecting him to say. As always, Lor’s reasoning was so very practical. A king should protect his queen. That was probably what Lor was thinking. That this was the right thing to do. The good thing to do.
I quickened my pace. “Make sure you keep up. I won’t slow down for you.”