In my heart, yes. But the number of beings following me around was growing at an alarming rate.
CHAPTER 42
“Flying would be faster.”
“Not all of us have wings,” I said aloud. Garrick might not be able to hear Isanara’s never-ending commentary in my head, but I was done being the only one tortured by it.
Especially because Garrick the Red seemed intent upon torturing me.
The mountains between the Sacrifice and Devotion Gates made the ones we’d trekked through after the Justice Gate look like glorified hills. I’d only ever passed through them, never spent time in them.
“I bet the others are walking the base of the mountains,” I grumbled, under my breath but loud enough for Garrick to hear, especially with his fae lineage.
“Maybe that is why your bonded chooses the mountains instead.”
“You will not take his side.”And I was certainly not speaking that aloud so that Garrick would know it.
Isanara walked at my side, sometimes wandering between the trees or bounding off to investigate a sound in the distance. But she never strayed out of my sight and she never took flight. It was hard to guess the width of her wings, as I’d never seenthem fully extended. But either the trees were too close together to allow her to fly, or she had some other reason for staying on the ground. If it was pity for me, I might be sick. But, unlike the unlimited access she seemed to have to my mind, I could not peer into hers.
“Our interests are aligned. We both seek to protect you,”she said, snapping her jaws in Garrick’s direction.
“Then go be his familiar.”
Garrick glanced over his shoulder. Like Isanara, he was tireless despite the incline. “Trouble in paradise?”
“I have nothing but trouble,” I grumbled. We’d been climbing for days. Every once in a while, there was an intermittent plateau or downhill segment. But what went down must eventually go back up. My muscles ached and my clothes were laced with the sweat of exertion, despite the frigid temperature of the air. I needed a day to wash my damn clothes.
“Have or are?” Garrick quipped, falling back to match pace with me.
“Dark Lord, spare me.” I avoided his eyes, unable to deal with their intensity. “I have an adolescent dragon in my head and a half-human bounty hunter at my side. And they seem determined to compete with one another for who will have the honor of driving me mad.”
Isanara was suddenly at my side, nudging my pack again. “What is it you want out of there?”
“Maybe she’s hungry.” Garrick smirked. It was my stomach that had rumbled a few minutes before.
“She is more than welcome to take a bite out of you.”
Garrick caught my chin with his hand, stopping me mid-step and bracing the weight of my body against his. “I was under the impression that you were the one who desired a bite of me.”
Damn it all to the Dark Lord’s frozen hell. He caught me with those glowing turquoise eyes and my insides instantly turned liquid. I had only one defense against that.
“You arrogant bas?—”
Garrick clapped his palm over my mouth, stifling the words. I reacted on impulse and bit him. He did not even react. He’d turned away completely, the glow of his eyes flattening to a dark teal as he scanned the forest ahead of us.
I yanked my head to the side, freeing myself from his grip. “What in?—”
“Stop talking.”
My mouth froze at the demand, the weight of those two words settling in my chest as heavily as any block of ice ever had.
“There are strangers ahead,”Isanara hissed.
She was no longer rooting around in my pack. Like Garrick, her eyes were fixed ahead. Her head bobbed in a serpentine motion as she assessed the threat. Were her senses as sharp as mine? As the fae? Or more?
“I have already told you that dragons are not bound by the limitations of humans,” she growled into my mind. “Or witches.”
She had heard my thought, earlier.
