Page 106 of Crown of Tides and Fury

Finally, we came out of the stairwell into fresh air. I had struggled to keep the time of day straight in my mind, but after all those hours without sunlight, I had to guess the time by what food I’d been given. Dinner. I’d been given dinner. Evening, not early morning. I’d been inside for three days. Maybe four. And with the extra blood in my head, I was still trying to tell up from down.

Griffon lowered me to my feet. He stepped behind me and held his hands beneath my elbows while I found my balance. We stood in a circular space—a roof that topped the stairwell—surrounded by the blocky battlements of the castle. Four or five stories below us, a thick fog swirled close to the ground alternately revealing and hiding dark human-like forms.

Without thought, I pulled up my knee and slipped my silver dagger from my boot. Griffon moved his hands to my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. “Easy, Lennon. These areyourpeople. Your army.” He chuckled and led me to the opposite side of the circle where more men stood between the castle and the sea beyond. “I think you’re more important than you realize.”

We returned to the other side and he pointed down. “Your friends are there. Shall I take you to them?”

I realized this might be the last time I ever see Griffon, no matter which version. I shoved my grudges way down into my stomach and reached for him, slipped my arms around his ribs and pulled myself close. No words, no explanations. I just needed it.

His arms came around my shoulders. His hands spread against my back and pulled me closer still. I sensed his regret and the fact that he was saying goodbye too. And though I could have stood that way for a good long time, absorbing his heat and his incredible strength with no bars between us, I couldn’t.

I retreated a step, took a deep breath, and nodded. “Let’s go.”

I should have insisted we use the stairs.

* * *

Griffon scoopedme up and flew with me over the courtyard and around to the front of the castle to let that army, whom I didn’t recognize, get a good look at me. Most of them wore the same sort of kilt Urban had, and a few of them cheered when we landed in front of Persi, the MacKenzies, and the rest of the team. My stomach was still recovering from the drastic drop of that first step off the battlements, and my blood was completely diluted with adrenaline.

The Highlanders headed toward us like a team of football players called off the field, some of them sheathing their weapons as they came. All of them were pleased to see me, a complete stranger to them. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling to imagine, even for a second, that they’d all come for my sake.

The voice in my head had been right. Wickham wasn’t around.

“My brother has gone,” Griffon told Persi. He stood close behind me with his wings cocked and ready, his chest bare to curious eyes and the breeze growing colder by the minute. “He may try to bring back Orion and his monsters. You may want to leave whilst you can.” When he paused, my friends watched him nervously, as if he might try to take off with me again. “I must go and check on…others.”

I bent my right arm behind me, painfully tempted to reach for him, to turn and say goodbye like normal people do. I caught my breath when the backs of his fingers slid along my forearm, my wrist, then the touch was washed away by a downdraft and a woosh of his wings. While my friends were distracted by the show, I pulled my arm around and pressed my wrist against my lips.

“Guess Wickham was right about him,” Kitch said, smirking at me. “Let’s get our girl home.”

Home. Yes. For now…

41

No One Brought Chocolate

Orion never came.

By the time we left Tantallon in the rearview mirror, my head was swimming with the names of more Highlanders than I could count. I’d recognized the one they called The Dragon, whose wife was the gemologist who examined Hank. Some of the names rang a bell from stories bantered around by Urban, Wickham, and Kitch.

A tall ginger called Leger had the same accent as Brian and Flann. The rest of them sounded much like Urban, so my ear was already tuned to their accents, that was, if they spoke at all. Most gave me a little nod and retreated down the hill, toward their cars. Some seemed disappointed no blood had been shed. Urban assured them they’d be called up again, soon.

I hoped that wouldn’t be necessary.

Though I would have welcomed a long car ride and a bag of chocolate to help gather my thoughts, four hours of unnecessary driving was a little much to ask of my friends. And no one thought to bring chocolate.

A few miles from the castle, Wickham joined each car long enough to pop us home, starting with the one I was in. He came and went so quickly, there was no chance to talk, for which I was grateful. I wasn’t ready to face him.

All but Everly gave me a wide berth when we arrived. She walked me to my room, gave me a hug, and backed away.

I swallowed my pride whole and begged her not to go. “Please stay. I’m going to turn on all the lights, shower, then run a bath. I know it’s late, but I’d appreciate it if you’d just…talk. I don’t want to be alone.”

“I can do better than that.” She nodded over my shoulder.

Ivy hugged me from behind. “Oh, Lennon,” she began, but she was obviously at a loss for words.

I took pity on her. “None of that,” I said. “Just come inside and make all the noise you want.”

After I was ensconced in a hot bath topped with six inches of thick bubbles, I hollered for Everly to open the door so I could hear them better. She and Ivy brought chairs from the veranda into the bathroom, which was twice the size of my cell, and continued their conversation in front of me. Some friend of theirs was pregnant yet again, and they suspected her husband (one of the Highlanders called Shug, short for sugar?) was trying to prove a point.

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