“Here, I’ll do that.” Alastair eased in beside her and unloaded her arms. She shot him a grateful smile.
He wandered off into the stacks. Steadying my breath, I stepped in beside her and gently placed my hand on her upper back. The moments when no one else was around were so fleeting, even now. Alastair would be back at any moment, and even then…it wasn’t as if I had anything to say or do. I just wanted that breath of stillness with her. I wanted to help her calm down.
“You all right, Val?” I asked quietly.
Her throat bobbed as she turned to me. “I’m worried about Tessa. I know the king is excited that she’s using her power and that she’s found her wings, but all of this will be hard on her. Iknowher, Niamh. She’s strong, but she can’t do this alone. She shouldn’t have to do it alone, either.”
I smiled gently. “She isn’t alone. She has Kal. And her sister and Toryn and Fenella are all there, too. They’ll look after her.”
She nodded. “I know. You’re probably right. She’s fine. It’s just…she was there by my side when I was trapped in a grief greater than I could bear. If she hadn’t been there, if she hadn’t helped me…I would not be standing here before you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes, I think so.” My heart pounded painfully in my chest.
“And so I need to be with her now, just in case. Maybe she doesn’t need me, but if she does, I do not want to there to be an entire sea’s worth of water between us. If the king hadn’t agreed to give us ships, I would have stolen one, fuck the consequences.”
“You’re quite something.” I smiled. “Your hair matches the fire in your heart.”
Val’s tongue darted out to lick her soft lips. “You’re telling me you wouldn’t have done the same?”
“Oh, I absolutely would have.”
Tension pounded between us, and I considered, just for a split second, throwing all caution to the wind and finding out just how soft Val’s lips were. But I couldn’t tell if she felt the same, and the last thing I wanted to do was ruin our friendship.
Alastair, of course, chose that moment to stomp back over to us.
“The books are taken care of. Let’s go pack up the rest of our things. I’m eager to get back to Aesir.”
Back to the fae lands, where danger awaited us all. The battle for the world loomed before us, but instead of feeling dread, a thrill went through me. I’d been born for this fight. I’d waited for it all my life.
“Let’s go kill those gods,” I said with a wicked smile.
Fifty-Two
Tessa
Despite the victory, there was a sorrowful feeling in the air. Many lives had been lost, and the threat of death still hung heavily over the city like a scythe. Somehow, Caedmon had escaped, likely fleeing to the gods. Sirius had not shown his face. Neither had any of the other three who had been trapped in the stone coffins beneath Gailfean. Most importantly, neither had Andromeda.
They would come. If not now, soon. And fighting them would be a far different battle than the one we’d just endured.
After ensuring the streets were safe, the residents of the solemn city wandered from their homes to help the warriors carry the dead to the castle courtyard. I wanted to help, and so did Kalen, but Gaven and Ruari came bearing news, so we joined them in the war room, where they filled us in on what had happened in the Gaoth Pass.
I took a seat, too weary to stand. Channeling all that power had left me weak. Truth be told, as strong as I’d been during the fight, I knew I wouldn’t have been able to go on much longer like that.
Ruari leaned against the wall with his arms folded over his chest. He eyed the wolf beside me. Nellie flashed her teeth at him, but he didn’t so much as flinch. It was almost as though he could sense the truth about who she was, even though we hadn’t told him.
Gaven took Kalen’s offered drink and took a sip of the fion before speaking. “Ruari met your warriors in the pass, but they were almost overrun by the beasts.”
Ruari nodded, running a hand down his tired face. Speckles of blood still painted his skin and his armor. No one had taken a moment to clean up yet. “There were even these monstrous creatures I’d never seen before.”
“Large scorpions,” Fenella cut in. “Right?”
He gave her a nod. “There were five of them and about a hundred shadowfiends. If we hadn’t arrived when we did, your fighters would have been overrun, and then the beasts would have charged up the mountain path to the city.”
“They really were trying to surround us on all sides,” Kalen murmured.
And it had almost worked.
“Just before that, Boudica came screeching down at us,” Gaven added. “I thought it was a cry for help, so I came this way. But it looks like you took care of it all yourselves.”
