Page 151 of The Courting of Bristol Keats
Quin said they had spread out, searching everywhere within a hundred yards—the outside limits of a nightjump. Then they had taken to the air on their horses, searching even farther.
Kasta leaned back, huffing out a frustrated breath. “There wasn’t a sign of him anywhere.”
“Whoever helped him must have been lying in wait inside the barn all along,” Dalagorn said.
But who would help him? There were only a handful of fae in Danu who could nightjump at all, and no one had known where they were going, not even Master Woodhouse.
“What about Keats?” Quin asked. “Maybe she told someone where she was going.”
That was a possibility. And there was the unknown rider who had met her in the woods—the glamoured one who didn’t want to be recognized.
Eris drew a piece of parchment from his ledger and began making a list of those they knew who could nightjump. “Besides you two,” he said, nodding to Madame Chastain and Tyghan, “there’s also Lord Csorba, Olivia, Reuben . . .”
“The Lumessa,” Tyghan said.
Madame Chastain shook her head. “No, not anymore. She’s too weak. But the Sisters Izzy and Camille are still capable.”
Capable.Tyghan thought about his unexpected encounter with Julia.I won’t be opening or closing any doors for you—but I am still quite powerful.
“Write down Julia, too,” Tyghan added.
“The recruit? But she—”
“We don’t know everything she can or can’t do. Question her.” He pushed the list across the table to Quin. “And then find out where each of them was this afternoon.”
The latch rattled again, and everyone’s attention darted to the door. Cully walked in, oblivious to the turmoil inside, and reported that Bristol was back on the palace grounds. “No other attempted stops. She came straight here. She’s at the pavilion now.” He pulled on his earlobe uncomfortably. “But there was an incident.”
“Meaning?” Kasta said.
“She’s not happy. She drew a knife on me and ordered me to leave her alone.”
Tyghan blinked slowly, absorbing the answer. It was settled now. Kierus had told her everything.
“But she came back of her own accord,” Eris spoke up, trying to dispel assumptions, “and she didn’t disappear with Kierus. That is telling. She is still committed.”
“Threatening an officer with a knife?” Madame Chastain countered. “That is more telling. I wouldn’t count on her commitment.”
“Of course she’s torn, Dahlia. Kierus is her father.”
Quin sighed. “We have big trouble now.”
Tyghan pushed up from the table. “I’ll go speak to her—”
Pounding shook the rotunda door before it swung wide, banging into the stone wall.
Melizan clucked her tongue. “Looks like the trouble has come to you.”
CHAPTER 104
Tyghan didn’t expect to see a smile on Bristol’s face. Or her slow, comfortable swagger into the room. Worse, he didn’t expect her eyes to be so unreadable. They were nothing like the night he met her at the Willoughby Inn when she struggled to hide her feelings. Now there was no struggle in her expression at all. There was nothing but a smile that didn’t reach past the corner of her lips. Her eyes were as dead as deep winter. She looked more like Maire than she ever had.
The knives he had left in her room were sheathed on her belt. All three of them.
“Good afternoon,” she said. “Or is it evening? I suppose we’re on the cusp, which is always an interesting place to be. Twilight, maybe? Is that what you would call it, Counselor? You’re so precise about words.”
Eris rose to his feet. “I try to be,” he said uncertainly.
“But not always successful, I suppose.”
