Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Knox
Her delicate hand was warm in mine. For a second, all I could do was marvel at the small blue veins and the fragile bones in the back of it. And then I closed my hand around hers and met her sea green eyes.
“Are we really going into town?” she asked.
“Yes.” I looked around as I realized she was missing her companion. “Where’s your rodent?”
Her mouth pursed. “Gizzi is not a rodent.”
“Fine, where is your shoulder friend?”
Briar looked around before shrugging. “He’s probably in the pantry scrounging fruit from the sprites. They like feeding him.”
“We love animals,” Twist said with a pointed look at me. Apparently, he didn’t approve of my rodent comment.
I glowered at the sprite who grinned in return. Had everyone in this castle fallen in love with her while I was gone?
Briar whistled, and a second later, the lowleeto poked his head out from the pantry. His front paws held the doorframe as he stood on his hind legs. Food stuffed his puffed-out cheeks.
His eyes narrowed when he spotted me before going to all fours. His claws clicked against the floor as he scampered across it.
He didn’t hesitate before leaping onto Briar’s pants and climbing to her shoulder. Once there, its nearly black eyes remained on me as it settled against her. Unlike Briar, it was clearly fatter than when I last saw it.
“Are we going?” Briar asked, unable to keep the excitement from her voice.
Was Bertie right? Was the reason she looked so exhausted and more fragile because she’d been trapped here, or was something else going on?
I should have come back sooner, but then I would have only been a danger to her and everyone else. I should have told Dromon he could take her outside the castle and into town before I left, but that’s something I never could have let happen.
I hadn’t been stable enough to let her go without me there. Hopefully, some fresh air and time away from the castle would put color back into her cheeks.
“Yes,” I said.
Her grin lit her face, and her eyes sparkled. The beast exposed its belly again, desperate for rubs.
This woman had me wrapped around her finger, and I loathed it as much as I loved it.
She tried to tug her hand free of mine, but I retained it as I turned us toward the door. We were halfway across the kitchen when a sprite flew overhead, spraying water over us.
The others giggled as Zephyr darted out the door with a watering can in hand. My teeth clamped together as Briar laughed and wiped the droplets from her face.
Her reaction was so different than mine. I wanted to grab Zephyr by his feet and smash him into the ground for being an irritating prick, but she looked delighted.
There was a time when I would have been delighted too. When I was younger, I rejoiced in the pranks the sprites pulled and often tried to get them back, but that childish whimsy had ceased to exist.
As she stared at me, Briar’s smile slipped away and the twinkle faded from her eyes. I tried to let my ire go and bask in the laughter of the sprites, but now I was mad at myself for my reaction, the world, and everything taken from me.
Briar still experienced joy, but if she stayed here, would I take that from her?
I should set her free.
And send her where?
Nowhere would guarantee her safety, and I couldn’t set her free. Whether or not she deserved better than me, she was mine.
Tearing my gaze away from her, I led her across the kitchen. When she waved to the sprites, they all waved excitedly back.