“Yes, I’ll be right there.”
“And don’t you have a council meeting to attend or something?” he asked Wolfe.
“He’s just taken the last few days off.” I patted his arm. “He deserves a little break.”
“I’ve definitely been enjoying it,” Wolfe said, gaze dipping to my lips, which only made my cheeks turn redder.
“Stop encouraging him,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth.
“You two are insufferable.” Morton shook his head. “I simply do not understand people at all.”
“I better go get ready for dinner.” Wolfe leaned down and pressed a swift kiss to my lips. “I’ll see you later tonight?”
He walked away, and I stared after him, unable to help the wide smile on my face. Once he disappeared, I finished putting the books away and walked toward the front desk, where Morton was checking out a book to a father and his little girl. They left, the library now empty, and I looked around, sighing, so completely content in a way I never thought I’d be. Except for one thing. I’d passed the six-week mark, and I was still here. But I also still didn’t have my key, and it hadn’t escaped me that at any moment, the castle could disappear me.
Something pinched my arm, and I gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Morton slithered to the edge of the desk, stretching his neck.
“I think there’s a bug in here or something!” I swatted the air, the sting on my arm intensifying. “Ow!” I slapped my forearm, then flipped my palm over to look for the bug.
“I don’t think it’s a bug.” Morton pointed his tail at my arm, and I looked down, gasping as ink scrawled across my skin.
“Is that . . .”
“It is,” Morton said. “You’re getting your key!”
I watched in fascination as the full golden key formed, flourishes and swirls on the body of it that made it decorative. I realized it didn’t look like Wolfe’s or Cillian’s or Ceri’s. It was my own unique design.
My eyes filled with tears as the key fully formed, the pain no longer bothering me, the shiny golden ink thick. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I said through tears.
Morton slithered from the desk onto my hand and up my arm. “Welcome home, Niamh.”
CHAPTER 41
Wolfe
Iapproached my mother’s house, stopping in front of the short stone wall, remembering the time Lor and I had been sword playing on it, and he’d fallen and broken his arm. I’d felt awful, but he’d bragged to the entire city about it, about how he’d gotten the injury during an epic fight. Mother hadn’t found it as amusing as the rest of us.
I smiled at the memory, then took a deep breath and walked through the little opening and up the stone path that led to the front door. Laughter rang out from inside, and I froze for a moment, taking a step back. Maybe I wasn’t ready for this. Then again, when would I ever be? I thought of Niamh, about what she’d say to me if she were here. She’d tell me how much my family missed me. How much I’d missed out on. How the next day wasn’t guaranteed, and I needed to make the most of my time here with them.
I knocked on the door, and the chatter fell to silence.
I rolled back my shoulders as the door swung open, Jerome standing there, staring up at me with wide eyes behind his spectacles.His hair had gotten grayer since I’d last seen him. Longer, too, now curling around the nape of his neck, and he had scruff that he scratched as he gaped at me.
“Wolfe,” he said, and Mother gasped behind him, whirling around, cheeks paling.
“Can I come in?”
Jerome stepped aside as I strode into the living area.
“Is everything okay?” Mother asked. “Did something happen?”
Cillian and Nevan had both stood from the table where they sat.
Not much had changed in the last few years. The small room had two couches, both pushed under the windows, and a small round wooden table sat in front of them. A rug lay over the wooden floors, one that I’d always slipped on when chasing one of my brothers through the house while Mother shouted at us to stop.
I looked down the hallway that led to the bedrooms, only two. My brothers and I had all shared one room growing up, all of us complaining loudly about it like the little brats we were. I wondered if the bunk beds that Jerome had built were still in there, if the wardrobe where Lor liked to hide during our games still stood.
