Page 11 of Knight's End
Our conversation had made Blue lose a bit of concentration concerning his gargoyle, and we found ourselves floating high in the air above the rest. He turned his attention to our willful beast, and I turned my thoughts back to the impending war. We didn’t speak again, but he did scoot a bit closer. And he didn’t try to hide from me when the friction of riding and pressing against one another naturally made him hard.
When we took a break, he helped me off the gargoyle with a shy smile. “Thank you.”
I leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek, a tingle running through my toes. “No, thank you.”
We’d joined the others and sat on a fallen tree trunk, debating what we should do next.
“Clearly, these beasts aren’t what we hoped,” Declan was brutally honest. “I don’t think we can defend the castle in any meaningful way with them yet. Not until they’re trained.”
“Would anyone know how to train them?” I asked.
“Jace might,” Ryan responded. Our castle’s beast master was an old grizzled man. And he had been around since childhood, so perhaps he did know.
“Someone should go for him,” Connor said. “Bring him here.”
“You want to split up?” Cerena asked.
“I don’t want Bloss exposed to whatever attack is going on there. If we bumble in on five of these monsters,” Connor gestured at our mounts, “we aren’t going to be effective at protecting her.”
“Agreed,” Ryan said. “I’ll go.”
Blue piped up. “Actually, I’ve been thinking. The sea witch, fairy woman …”
“Sea sprite,” Cerena piped up. “That monster, by the sound of it, is a sea sprite. Nasty creatures. At least they have the decency to be rare.” She grumbled as she hauled over a flat rock and set it on the tree trunk. She grabbed a pouch at her hip, opened it, pulling out a small tin jar the size of her palm. She yanked at the tiny handle on the lid to open it, and sprinkled a powder from inside onto the stone. She muttered a spell over it. We paused our conversation to watch. Soon, she’d magicked up six small, dense loaves of bread.
Blue grabbed his too soon, burning his fingers. “Ah!”
Cerena chided, “You couldn’t wait another minute?”
“This is the first food I’ve had in human form in weeks!” he protested.
“Ah, well then,” she waved him on. “Go on.”
Blue took a bite and sighed like he’d gone to heaven. “Amazing.”
Everyone chuckled as they took their own loaf. Even Quinn.
His chuckle was a soft, breathy matter. Hearing it made me scoot closer and bump him with my shoulder. I leaned up and whispered in his ear. “I can’t wait until you learn to say my name.”
His eyes shone back down at me, full of everything he would say if he could.
I pecked his cheek and then took another bite of bread.
Connor leaned forward in his spot and asked Blue, “What did you want to say about that sea sprite?”
“Well, she thinks she killed Bloss, right? Because Declan looked like her at the time. So … if she’s told her allies, then my father and Rasle’s queen—”
“Isla,” I supplied the old vulture’s name.
Blue turned his clever gaze on me. “They all think you’re dead. I just wonder … how can we use that to our advantage?”
Quinn leaned forward, his first attempt to participate in the group conversation. His eyes were alight as he drew a slow, steady finger across his neck.
Watching that made my heart pound faster in my chest.
“Exactly,” said Blue. His tone grew more excited as he and Quinn stared at one another. “If Ryan goes and gets the beast master … can the rest of us come up with a target and a plan?”
A wicked, naughty grin spread across Quinn’s face. And for the first time since we’d thought he was human, the first time since his living nightmare had hit him, I felt like I had my spy master back.
