“So much for not being limited by the bounds of humans and witches.”I looked between Garrick and Alize again, but they’d both turned back to examining the faerie circle.“And fae.”
She nipped at my hand, but we both knew that if she really wanted to hurt me, those fangs would more than do the job.
Alize insisted she had not performed the magic that had caused the faerie ring. Garrick had not been out of my company for long enough to attribute the ring to him. It put the wind magic Alize had wielded in our duel into perspective. While powerful, no mushrooms had sprung up to mark our exchange of magic and power. Which meant whatever had happened here in the forest…
A new thought sprang into my mind. I spun so quickly I might have fallen if Isanara had not twined between my legs, providing a steadying force.
“Do you have magic?”
Garrick’s eyes blew wide, the clover green retreating into the cerulean blue and melding into a variegated turquoise.
“None manifested during my time in Balar Shan.”
I would know if he was lying to me.He wouldn’t lie to me.
Neither of us had shared all of our secrets, not by any stretch of the immortal imagination. But I’d never lied to Garrick, and as far as I could tell, he’d repaid that honesty.
“He is fae,”Isanara whispered. But even fae ears were not keen enough to hear the thoughts my familiar and I exchanged within the confines of my mind.
“There is more afoot here than we realize.” Alize crushed the mushroom she’d been examining under the heel of her boot, then ground it into the dirt a few times for good measure. She wiped her hands on her tawny leather breeches, adjusted her pack, and started off in the direction we’d been heading before the diversion. “The Devotion Gate is on the other side of thatpass. I will allow you to follow me and avoid the tavern on the southern road, but don’t let me see you again.”
The last was directed at me. Isanara let her know for the both of us that the sentiment was entirely mutual.
Garrick stared after her, his mouth moving slightly as if he were counting off the seconds and calculating how much of a head start to give Alize. But my attention had snagged on something else entirely.
“Tavern?” I croaked.
CHAPTER 46
“Disarmme and we will spend the night in the tavern instead of on the ground.”
It had taken me hours and hours to get those words out of him. He’d been in a temper ever since the faerie ring. There were no more lingering touches and no genuine smiles. Whatever that ring meant to the two of them, it had unnerved Garrick.
That should have unnerved me. But the prospect of an actual bed in a room that wasn’t shared with Nash or Alize was more diverting than I would have estimated.
I eyed the weapons strapped to him. Greatsword at his waist, bandolier of knives across his chest, and bow and quiver strapped to his back. Plus, the curved knife he currently gripped in his hand—the one with the braided silver handle. His favorite.
Would he count disarming him as getting that knife, or did he honestly expect me to pick off all of those weapons one by one? If so, I might as well start digging down for a bed in the dirt now instead of later.
I had just the two blades to my name.
“Use your power to complement what I’ve already taught you.”
Logically, I knew the only one who could poke around inside my head was Isanara, busy flapping eagerly from side to side at the edge of our makeshift sparring ring—a slightly sloped riverbed that had long since gone dry. But damn if Garrick did not make a good show of it.
“And what in the Dark God’s frigid hell does that mean?” I threw the curse into the wind and charged forward, aiming for his knee. He had an easy nine inches on me; it was the most reliable target I could reach.
Garrick deflected me easily, using the weight I’d put behind my attack to send me sprawling. “Alize uses her wind to push aside her attacker’s blade and then shove her own into the opening.”
I forced myself up, cursing every delicious meal my bonded had cooked over the past several weeks and every bit of muscle he’d forced me to gain with his endless uphill slogs. “Continue comparing me to that fae bitch, and you will see exactly how I can use what you’ve taught me.”
There was another target within easy reach of my height. While I’d spent more hours than I cared to admit dreaming of that particular appendage, I’d happily shove my knee into it if it shut him up.
He held up his hands between us and curled one in invitation. “Please do.”
How the fuck was I supposed to beat him when every maneuver I knew he’d taught me? Garrick was not going to let me win. Not ever. I knew that much about him with certainty.
“Go for the bow,”Isanara urged from the sidelines.
