Page 148 of Across an Endless Sea

“Try me,” I retort. “Maev—umpf! PUT ME DOWN!”

True to his threat, Drystan scoops me up and hoists me over his shoulder. There’s a heartbeat where my lack of undergarments becomes common knowledge to every single member of my Guard, and then I growl, trying to reach back to cover my bare ass with the skirts.

“Where the fuck are her panties?” Drystan growls, whirling to face Lore who just whistles.

“What. A. View.” The redcap sounds oddly impressed. “No, don’t turn around just yet. Oh,come on, huntsman. How can you be so grumpy when you have her weeping pussy inches from your nose? Smell her. Her fever is coming, and it tastesdivine.”

Both Jaro and Drystan freeze, and I can hear their indrawn breaths.

“Shit,” Jaro breathes. “He’s right.”

“No,” I object. “He can’t be.”

The timing is terrible.

Bree shakes his head. “He is, dragonfly. I could taste it. You’ve got a week, maybe a little longer, but it’s coming.”

He looks as thrilled as I feel at the prospect.

“It doesn’t matter,” Drystan says. “The plan doesn’t change.”

“Doesn’t change?” Bree looks at him, incredulous. “Have you any idea what a fever is like? She’ll be aching and needy for days beforehand, but that’s nothing compared to when it hits—”

“We’ll be in Pavellen by then,” Jaro interjects. “Can we really trust having her vulnerable and right in the middle of Aiyana’s court?”

“The city temple will keep her safe,” Drystan retorts. “Someone get her a blanket. We’re leaving. Now. Redcap, blink us to the horses. Kitarni, Bram, and Wraith should be waiting for us in the hills.”

“Put me down!” I order a second time. “Drystan, I swore an oath—”

“So didI,” he growls.

Forty-Five

Caed

The city is on fire. The glow of it shrouds the horizon, and my gut clenches as Rose’s answering fear and hurt echoes along the Call. She’s still in there, among all of that mess, and my skin prickles with irritation.

Why haven’t they gotten her out of there? She was supposed to be on her pilgrimage by now. In a stroke of unbelievable luck—because I refuse to believe it’s pity on the redcap’s part—Prae and I woke this morning to find the pages readying the horses and supplies for Rose’s pilgrimage in the valley below our camp.

Now, Marl—or Bram, as he’s really called—the high priestess, and Rose’s barghest are all down there, watching the smoke drift up into the sky from the city.

“Hogart and Haor have brought down the second wall,” Prae observes, keeping her voice quiet. “I suppose it was inevitable, given all the blasting powder in the camp…”

Blasting powder? We use that in the mines, not on enemy walls.

“It would’ve been useless on the outer wall,” she adds. “The fae would’ve seen it coming and shot us down before we could’ve gotten it close enough. But the fairies built houses on both sides of the inner wall, leaving plenty of places to hide explosives.” She turns away, running a hand through her braids. “I fucking warned him this would happen.”

I don’t need to ask to know that the ‘him’ she’s referring to is the knight commander.

She turns back to the fire at the exact time that the call in my chest changes direction. Now she’s below us. Sure enough, when I pace across the camp, don my glamour, and edge around the large boulder at the crest of the hill, the group below has grown. Even from this distance, I can pick out the enormous bulk of Jaromir and the smaller, darker silhouette of the púca. Beside them, the mad redcap appears to be… glittering? But his cap is fixed onto Rose’s head, which is currently upside down as she pummels her tiny fists against the dour knight’s back.

What did she do to end up strung over Drystan’s shoulder? I didn’t think the fae had it in them to manhandle their precious Nicnevin like that.

He ignores her objections as he strides up to the huge black stallion at the front of the group and drops her unceremoniously into the saddle.

Raised voices fill the air, and I strain to hear what’s being said, but it’s useless. I’m too far away.

“I think the queen was reluctant to leave her city,” Prae remarks, and I almost jump out of my skin.

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