I pause, a little taken aback. “Um. Well. Okay.”
Then I step through and close it behind me.
The lock flips. Moments later, I hear furniture being dragged into place to block the door. It wouldn’t do much to stop my brothers, but she doesn’t need to know that. That’s why I’m here.
The night passes quickly, as do most things now that I have been freed from the endless eternity of being locked up in the dungeon.
Dawn breaks through the window at the end of the hall before I am quite ready. Because the dawn means she will leave. And this brief blip of beauty and change in my monotonous existence will be gone again.
But that is better for her, so I breathe deeply to calm myself and startle when I catch his or Remus’s scent in the air.
What? Where is he? He kept talking about the woman as if she were his consort. I should have taken his foolish talk more seriously!
I’m about to tear open the door to check on the woman when the door suddenly opens from the other side.
I blink, surprised. She was very quiet about moving the furniture back, but there’s no trace of Remus in the room. I sniff and catch traces of his scent again. When was he in my room? Was I so blinded by her scent last night that I missed his?
“Are you alright?” I ask, stepping through the door and looking around. The room is small, though, and my brother isn’t there.
She blinks, her gaze slightly averted. “I’m ready to go.”
I frown, then nod. “You’ll need provisions.”
I had a lot of time to think throughout the night. I can’t simply send her into the wilds like yesterday. If she’s going to succeed, she’ll need preparation. “It will take you a week to walk back to civilization at the speed of human legs. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to hunt along your way, so you’ll need to take rations with you, but that will get heavy. And you’ll need some sort of structure to sleep in at night to protect you from the cold, so?—”
“Will you go with me?”
I stare at her, startled. When she turned down the thought of my brothers flying her out?—
“But I have no wings.”
“You saved me from the lynx. You’re a good hunter. And you have a lot of arms and a strong back. Even the lightest tents are heavy. And I’m small.”
I blink again. “You. . . trust me?”
She shrugs, eyes shooting to the floor. “Well, I got to thinking last night. Even if I had a map, what good would it do me? This isa strange land, mostly trees.” She shakes her head and rubs her thighs. “A week is a lot of time to walk in circles, and then, even if I could carry these provisions you’re talking about, if they run out, I’ll still die. I’m not good at asking for help, but I can see reason.”
I nod again because that decides it. This one will not go down to the deathly plane, not when it is in my power to prevent it. “I will take you.”
TEN
KSENIA
Thing leadsthe way down to the kitchen—a large extensive room below the ground floor—but I hang back by the door near the staircase because Hannah is fussing over everything she is sure we need to take with us.
I’m eager to get going, conscious of every moment of daylight, and ready to leave this castle. Yeah, these guys are big and a little freaky-looking, but it’s more so their intentions. That Abaddon guy clearly doesn’t trust me, and paranoid people are dangerous. Plus, the other one—well, he was happy to make his intentionsquiteclear to me this morning.
I woke to find the maniac twin grinning andflyingabove my head as I slept on the couch. His tail whipped around, and the flat, slightly pointy leather-like flap on the very tip of it covered my mouth to muffle my scream.
“Hello, consort, my consort,” he said.
I immediately leaped off the couch, crouching low and drawing my daggers, which only seemed to delight him. He, too, came to his feet, though his wings still flared out wide behindhim. I was ready to scream again to alert my blue protector when he whispered low, as if very aware of his brother outside the door. “This is what I mean.” He grinned. “We are perfect for one another.”
Maybe I didn’t scream then because I hated the idea of anyone protecting me when I’d been protecting myself for a long while now. I just narrowed my eyes at him and brought my blades up.
“I know who you are,” Remus hissed.
That got my attention. He did? Then why hadn’t he said anything before now?
