I had to get moving.
And even the thought made me want to curl up and close my eyes again.
“I appreciate you being my snuggle buddy,” I told the griffin, “but I’ve got places to go, houses to burn down.”
Ilis had told me not to use my power for her little task, but she’d said nothing about using it when I arrived back, hungover and exhausted from being magically roofied.
Oh yes, she would pay.
The griffin chuffed as I got to my feet. Then it leaned down and nuzzled my hair.
“Yeah,” I told him. “You too. Uh, good luck with everything.”
I pivoted and strode out of the clearing, back the way I’d come. Thanks to the time I’d lost, I now needed to move my ass.
My chest was heavy. Samael would have killed that griffin for me. He would’ve burned this realm down if I was the one dying and he had to come up with a plan to save me.
“Your heart is soft beneath the barbed wire you wrapped it in to keep yourself safe,”Samael purred.“Your compassion and mercy are two of the things that drew my attention before I came close to admitting what I felt for you.”
I tensed.“Are you reading my mind?”
“No. But I can feel your guilt.”
“You would have done it for me.”
He was silent.“And you would have been disappointed in your male when you had learned what I had done.”
“That disappointment wouldn’t have stopped you.”
“No.”Amused tenderness radiated from his end of the bond.“But I have been alive for much longer, have been forced to do things that would make you turn away from me if you were to learn of them.”
“I wouldn’t turn away from you. I told you. I’m all in.”
“Then you will understand that I could never turn from you for the kindness that comes naturally.”
I didn’t feel particularly kind. I resented the hell out of the griffin, and I’d been planning on stabbing Ilis ever since I realized she’d drugged me.
“Even if that kindness means you die?”
Just the thought made me itch to turn in place, stalk back to the griffin and slay it.
“You will come up with another way. And if you don’t, I will be waiting for you when it’s your time.”
The thought of being forced to go on for centuries without him… loneliness almost swallowed me whole.
Something rustled behind me, and I whirled, crouching into a low fighting stance.
The griffin eyed me.
I eyed it back.
“What are you doing?” I asked it.
Of course it didn’t answer, merely waited, as if expecting me to move.
“You shouldn’t follow me. There are bad things in this place. Things that would probably love to eat nosy griffins.”
The griffin ignored that. Samael gave a low laugh and faded from my consciousness.
