Nonetheless…
“Take me to the castle gates,” I said. “Out on the bridge. Next to those hunters in green.”
She gave me a fond look. “Completely mad. All of us.”
Word must have gotten around that the dragon was on their side—or on my side, anyway—because we weren’t peppered with arrows as Jonquil steered it to the front line of the coming battle.
“Take care,” she said as we dipped low enough for me to heave myself off without breaking a leg.
“You, too.” I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “See you when this is over.” Or so I hoped.
I jumped.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The Lines Are Drawn
My landing was less than graceful, but at least I hit the bridge—what was left of it—rather than the water. I wobbled unsteadily on my feet for a moment before I found my balance. The dragon turned and raced off, spewing a gout of fire into the air like a fountain.
“It’s aboot time ye shawed up,” grunted a hunter in green.
“Hello, Clem,” I said. “Lovely to see you, too.”
“Hae ye git ony magic tricks tae save th’ day?”
“Not really, no.”
I didn’t have time to say anything more before I was swept up in a pair of very strong arms.
“Hi,” said Sam.
I relaxed in his embrace. “I missed you.” He didn’t have a single weapon on him, not so much as a paring knife. “Are you about to fight monsters unarmed?”
“It’s worked for me so far.”
“No, it hasn’t.”
“You changed your hair again,” he observed.
“Hacked off with a claymore. Is it flattering?”
“It’s…a unique look.”
I would have liked to stay that way, pressed up against him, my head on his shoulder. It would have been nice to hold each other until the monsters completed their bridge of stony bodies.
Instead, someone cleared their throat next to us, and we remembered our circumstances. All of them. We sprang apart like guilty teenagers.
Gervase was mounted on a great roan stallion, and the king’s eyes flicked first to me, then to Sam, and then to the hunter riding to his left, the only one of the twelve on horseback. Given that her hand was laid on the king’s elbow, I was confident it was Jack. On Gervase’s other side, the lion scowled, his tail swishing back and forth.
Gervase returned his gaze to me. “I have come to understand you are, in fact, my bride-to-be.”
“Oh. Um, yes,” I said. Sam remained silent, staring fixedly at the ground. “Sorry for the deception,” I added.
“Surely, I’m the one who should apologize,” Gervase said.
“Whatever for?”
The king’s eyebrows hitched up. “For…falsely imprisoning you?”
