Page 50 of Inked Athena

“He doesn’t want to worry you.” Myles looks genuinely sorry, but it’s hard to see him as anything but Samuil’s accomplice right now. Everything going on is partially his fault, too.

“Too late.”

I’m worried about Samuil and what he’s up to in London.

I’m worried about what will happen with us when he comes back.

Most of all, I’m terrified he won’t come back at all. Maybe this whole setup was just a convenient way to stash his pregnant mistake somewhere remote while he handles his real priorities.

Myles watches the puppies wrestle in silence. One tugs at his pant leg until he shoos it away. “They get annoying fast, don’t they?”

“Hey, at least they’re here.”

There’s a beat before he can’t help himself. Defending Samuil is in the job description. “They’re only here because Samuil didn’t want you feeling so alone.”

I huff out a bitter laugh. “Is that why you’re here? He sent you to plead his case for him?”

“No, I’m here because I wanted to come.”

“That makes you the only one.”

Again, he ignores me. And I’m glad.

Because if he pushed, I’d have to admit that the truth is much more complicated.

I love it here. I’d stay at Castle Moorbeath forever.

But only if Samuil was with me.

The four puppies are romping in four different directions until Myles scoops them all up and deposits them in a squirming pile in the middle of the blanket. “Wanna tell me their names?”

Not really.I want to pin Myles to the grass by his annoyingly thick skull and force him to tell me what Samuil has been doing every single day for the last three weeks.

But seeing as how that’s not physically possible, and he wouldn’t give me any information even under threat of torture anyway, I allow the subject change.

“Meg is the one biting your toenail. The other three are boys—Finbarr has the brown tail and Rory and Kill are rolling around on the grass.”

“Kill? Pretty brutal name for such a fuzzy little thing.”

“It’s short for Killian,” I explain. “Mr. Morris picked it. He had a dog that looked just like that chubby little monster when he was a kid.”

Myles chuckles as Kill rolls over Rory and lands on his back, all four little paws pedaling up in the air.

“I heard you and Mr. Morris went fishing yesterday.”

I’m not surprised he heard about that. I’m sure he and Sam know exactly what I’ve been up to the last three weeks.

Even with that bitter thought, though, I can’t help but smile. “I’ve never been fishing before, but it was actually pretty fun. I’m looking forward to taking my boat out on the lake one of these days.”

I nod towards the boat floating along the edge of the loch, and Myles’s jaw drops. “That thing can’t possibly be water-worthy.”

“It will be when I’m through with it.” I lift my chin proudly. “I’m working on fixing it up. As soon as I learn which end of the hammer to hold, it’s gonna be game over. Both for that boat and for Samuil.”

Myles laughs, but when I don’t join, his chuckle quickly fades away. He clears his throat. “Listen, Nova, I know you feel isolated up here?—”

“You don’t even know the half of it,” I snap before he can even get started. “I lost my father and my brothers in a single day. I’ve barely begun to process that. Mostly because the only people I might be able to process it with are the people I’m not allowed to talk to.”

He runs a hand through his hair and curses under his breath again. But he doesn’t interrupt me. Which is good, because I have a lot more to say.

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