Or at least, it has to be my move if I don’t want Evram to win, andfuck that.
But it feels like the fog of the Cloud Forest has permeated my head. I can’t think.
After another moment, Nariel, moving slowly, settles his jacket over my shoulders and then gathers me into his arms, carrying me bridal style.
With a sigh, I thump my head against his shoulder.
His arms tighten around me. I burrow into the warmth of him, the feeling of his magic, like velvet shadows.
I hear the snap of his wings unfurling, dimly see the shadow of them above—which means he’s not hiding them—and then he lifts us into the sky.
At first all I can see over his shoulder is trees poking through the mist. Eventually we rise above it, and Nariel spins us slowly, letting me take in everything around us.
I squint against the sun. Before, he wanted me to see what we could build. Now, it’s what is mine to protect. The whole world that I have risked without any defense, that I have failed. My chest tightens.
Nariel keeps spinning.
No. Nariel would just tell me if he thought I’d messed up, wouldn’t he? That’s my own self-recrimination, and self-recrimination won’t save my sister.
This is about giving me time to screw my head back on in whatever direction I decide it needs to go.
And this is about possibilities.
I can go anywhere in the world, because Nariel can take me. Hewilltake me, despite the fact that I’m dampening his shirt with my tears, that I’m making him do all the work of holding me up right now, and that has to stop.
It’s my move.
I wrap my arms around Nariel, holding on.
He lets his chin rest on my head.
We spin like that for I don’t even know how long, breathing together, before I notice something that gives me the barest shape of an idea, but that’ssomethingand I grab onto it like a lifeline.
“Can you fly us to La Fortuna Waterfall?”
“It would be my pleasure,” Nariel murmurs into my hair.
My heart pounds.
Then we’re moving.
Nariel dives back into the forest, flying through the trees.
I don’t know Costa Rica’s geography that well, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t a normal route people take from one place to the other.
It takes me a few minutes to notice Nariel is slowly picking up speed.
I tilt my head so I can look up at his face.
“Problem?” Nariel asks in his velvet voice.
Is there a problem with not being cloaked, my demonic companion zipping through the trees like they’re an obstacle course?
He’s enjoying this.The realization hits suddenly.
Look at that, my brain may still work after all.
Because on the heels of that thought is another: I told Nariel I trusted him, and now he’s trustingthatand showing me this side of him.
