He stroked my back and kissed the top of my head. “It’s all right. We’re okay. Everyone is okay.”
“By the Gods.”
“Look at me,” he said, tilting my chin up. “You fought so fucking bravely tonight. It’s because of you we got everyone out.”
“That was you,” I said.
“It was both of us. And everyone else here.”
It was true. Everyone had played their role.
I looked back over my shoulder. Dario was wiping a cloth against Jules’s forehead. He looked reverent as he did it. Caring. So unlike the Dario he usually showed me. But this wasn’t quite the empathetic Dario I knew either. This seemed like something else. Someone new.
Rhyan followed my gaze, his jaw tensed.
“How is she?” I asked, turning back in his arms.
He squeezed me. “I think mostly in shock,” he said. “I don’t know. What the Imperator—I mean, Emperor—did to her tonight was awful. But nothing she won’t recover from. It’s more about what else happened for the last … well, while ... I don’t really know what she’s been through. But I think that’s going to take some time. She’s going to need your patience.”
He took my hand. “We’re well into Cretanya now. Luckily, we avoided the hourly ashvan. You remember the inn we stayed at before? The one that Sean’s in-laws own?”
“I remember,” I said.
“We should stay there tonight,” Rhyan said. “We’re close. We need to land now. Everyone’s exhausted or injured. We’ll be as safe there as anywhere else. And I’ll feel better getting off the gryphon. We got lucky considering the ashvan patrol and the other gryphons in the capital. One inventory in the stables and they’ll know which gryphon we took. They’ll be searching the skies for us, covering it.”
“We’re going to have let him go,” he sighed. “We’re too far south for the gryphon anyway. It’s not his weather.”
“He’s a good gryphon,” I said sadly, realizing we’d have to let him go.
“And you said you didn’t like flying on them,” he teased.
I laughed. “Well, it grows on you.”
“It does.”
A minute later, Rhyan told everyone to hold on, and began directing the gryphon’s descent.
We landed in the forest, not far from the park by the inn. Galen was still passed out, sleeping off his injuries. Aiden quickly removed his robes and spread them on the ground. Then, Tristan and Aiden lifted Galen into the robes. Dario descended, Jules in his arms. She was also fast asleep. I started toward him, but held back, instead taking Meera’s hand, and hugging her as Rhyan said goodbye to the gryphon. He shooed him away, and looked ready to cry when the gryphon finally spread his wings. I pulled out my sword, standing guard, as the gryphon took off into the sky for the final time, without us. He was free. There was only a single torn rope dangling from his back leg as he flew toward the mountains and the cold. It was just like Rhyan’s tattoo.
Rhyan jumped then, vanishing into the inn to get us all rooms.
Suddenly, Jules opened her eyes, staring up at Dario.
“You’re awake,” he said, his voice husky with exhaustion. “How are you?”
“I can stand,” she said at once. She sounded anxious as she struggled to get out of his arms.
“Oh, of course, my lady.” His accent was always thick. He was one of the Glemarians who never seemed to try and hide it or speak in the more formal way of Court, the way Rhyan’s father did. But just then, Dario’s accent felt even heavier. He frowned, and then helped Jules to stand.
She swayed, not totally steady on her feet, but she wore a look of determination that I hadn’t seen in ages.
Our eyes met, and for a moment there was nothing else. She was staring at me, not speaking and I swore my heart stopped. She stepped forward, that same force of determination in her step. And then another. Like she was coming toward me.
My arms lifted unconsciously ready to run and hug her to me.
Suddenly Meera moved, running between us.
“Jules,” she said, attempting to wrap her arms around her.
