I sweep my hair back from my face, attempting to look normal. Or whatever the hell normal is because I simply don’t know anymore.
“No time,” Linton rasps. “I have to protect my mate.”
“Do we have to go? Now?” I ask.
Linton reaches down and takes my hand. For a second, I think he’s about to pull me to my feet, but instead he bows to me.
“My Kaitlyn, your life is in danger, and we must leave this place,” he says solemnly.
Max grins as if his mouth is about to fall off his face. And as if a visit from the Redcaps isn’t imminent.
“Oh, Mr. Linton. To see you mated is a beautiful thing,” he says, his eyes filled with twinkles.
I get to my feet, my thighs slippery, even though Linton did a good job cleaning me up. I am also very much aware of the lack of knickers, thanks to him.
Linton keeps hold of my hand as he leads me through the inn and out into the courtyard.
“Wait! Wait!” Joanna comes running out after us and hands me a canvas bag.
I just have time to take it when Linton pulls me against his hard body and unfurls his wings. With a superhuman downward beat, we’re in the air, and I’m clinging to him with all my might as I’m only held on by his arm around my waist.
My squeak of terror is lost in the rush of wind as we ascend over the forest, and he sets his wings. Amazingly, I haven’t dropped the bag. It’s still clutched tightly in my hands.
“Linton.” My voice is whipped away, and I can’t even look anymore. My eyes are streaming with tears.
Instead, I do what I did last time and I bury my face in his warm chest, inhaling his soft, spicy scent, and I do what I haven’t done for a very long time.
I place my trust in Linton to not let me fall.
LINTON
Icould have easily taken on an entire hoard of Redcaps, but more than five would be an issue when I have my mate to protect. They’re slippery and deadly. If they know a weakness, they will exploit it. And my desire to protect my Kaitlyn at any cost, they would see as a weakness.
Whereas she is my strength.
The weather in the Yeavering is kind to us, the sky a pale autumn blue and a little tail wind which means we should reach the fells soon.
The moon hangs in the sky, ghostly and slender with night getting ever closer. The pull of the soon to be full moon is strong and getting stronger every hour which passes.
Having my Kaitlyn by my side when it reaches the apex…I’m not sure what will happen, but for once, the moon represents more than being able to use my full magic again.
Only, I’m not sure what it is. Something is pressing at the back of my mind. Something scrambled by all my other thoughts, by the violence and the blood…so much blood, I could bathe in it, if I bathed at all.
All the horrors I have witnessed. Horrors which most of the other monsters forced to fight in the Night Lands were able to escape.
All except Warden. He remains there, gods only know why, but he does.
I will never go back. I might ply my trade in what I know, but the Night Lands will never take me again.
And now I have Kaitlyn to protect. Tam Lin will not have her.
If this puts me at war with the Yeavering, then so be it. I know war, and those who think they can bring it—they are wrong.
Kaitlyn pounds on my chest. I look down at her. Her face is pale, and she gazes at me with her stunning, beautiful eyes. Her mouth opens and closes, and it’s clear she’s trying to say something. Only our movement through the air is stealing all her words.
Below us is an expanse of grassland, frequented by sheep and where a ribbon of stones runs, remnants of an ancient civilisation, or so I was told. Possibly human rather than Yeavering.
I spin in a circle before I descend to ensure we are alone and then gently place Kaitlyn on her feet as we come in to land.
