Before I can speak again, I’m lifted into his arms. Gently, firmly, and without any fuss, I’m pressed against his warm, hard, muscular chest, and he carefully carries me out the door and into the warm sun.
“It’s winter?” I say as a breeze filled with the scent of spring wafts over us.
“Not in the Yeavering,” Warden says. “The Night Lands have a different cycle to here.”
I close my eyes and enjoy the sun on my face, not wanting to say it always seems like winter in the Night Lands, something I can’t remember doing for a long time.
“Did I really tell you my name?” I say lazily.
“You did,” Warden rumbles his reply. “And Meg tells me you are not a witch. You are a human.”
I sit bolt upright, or at least as upright as I can, in his arms.
“I am!” I exclaim, as everything comes rushing back in a deluge I can’t process all at once. “And I need to find my sister. She’s the reason I’m here!”
There isn’t thunder and lightning, but there may as well be. I am not a witch and I have no magic. I am human.
“Kaitlyn,” I breathe. “I came here to find her.”
“Kaitlyn? She is a human too?” Warden asks, cocking his head on one side and studying me.
“Yes, she has red hair. My hair was the same colour.” I pull at the ends of my multi-coloured hair and look at them. “Not now.”
My brow furrows. It seems I remember so much…but not enough.
“There are humans in the Yeavering,” Warden says as we approach another, smaller arched doorway in the tumbledown castle walls. “I know where most of them are. We can visit and see if one is your sister.”
“You don’t know which one is Kaitlyn?” I study his face, even more confused. “If you know where they are, then you know their names, don’t you?”
Warden swallows and blinks at me. He tosses his head a little, the gold rings tinkling. He swallows again.
“My lady, I only have eyes for you. No other female could, or should, occupy my thoughts.”
WARDEN
Ishould know the names of the other humans I have encountered. The ones who are mated with my erstwhile comrades in arms from our battles in the Night Lands. The Wyrm took a mate I believe is human, and the Barghest and the Bluecap. But any one of them could be Hazel’s sister.
My body heats under her gaze.
“I should know, little mare.” I shake my head. “It is wrong of me not to know. But any one of the monsters they are mated to would happily kill me without a thought if I coveted their mates.” I release a long breath. “However, the name of your sister is familiar. I believe she may be mated to the Bluecap.”
Hazel looks at me for a long time, and then her face breaks into the biggest smile.
“And you know the Bluecap?”
This time I sigh rather than breathe. “I do, for my sins.”
“Can we go?”
“Once you are well, my lady.”
“I’m well.” She wriggles in my arms.
“Meg says you still need to recover. You were asleep for a long time.” I deepen my voice because she seemed to sleep better when I did.
“But my sister....”
“I can assure you, the Bluecap is takingverygood care of her. No harm whatsoever could come to her.” Unable to help myself, I shove my nose in her hair and inhale her scent.
