“It worked, didn’t it?” I fired back at him, my exhaustion making me reckless and choosing my words without care. I took a step toward him, bringing us almost nose to nose. “The priestesses agreed?—”
“The priestesses?” he echoed with a laugh tinged with wild desperation. “You bet your life on seven strangers in robes? If one hint of that darkness had touched you?—”
“You don’t get to decide that for me! You don’t get to decide what risks I will and will not take!” I was shouting now, long past caring if others overheard. “I will not let you lock me away in that moldy castle! People aredyingout there. People could have diedhere.Today. And if I have the power to help them, I’m going to do it, whether or not you approve of my actions!”
“I don’t want to lock you away.” In contrast to my shouting, he was spitting out words through clenched teeth, looming over me. “I’m simply trying to keep you alive!”
We stared at each other, both breathing hard. We were standing on a precipice, and I saw the moment he made the decision to withdraw, pull the mask back up, and shut me out. He took a step back but I moved forward. I opened my mouth to say something, anything, to keep the walls from coming back up.
But then Finn cleared his throat. “You two are both idiots. Griff, she saved many lives today. Including mine. And Lexie, he’s justbeing a protective ass. Well-intentioned, but an ass. He can’t help himself, he just is,” he added with a glare at his brother.
The anger keeping me on my feet left me in a rush, and I swayed. Griff took a step forward as if he was going to grab me, but stopped himself at the last minute as Finn took my arm instead. Griff let out a heavy sigh and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I have to get you back and report this to Zachariah. Especially if hufen are infiltrating the city.” He turned to Finn. “I trust you will help here, then find your own way back?” Without waiting for Finn’s affirmative, he removed Finn’s grasp on me, lifted me into his arms, and spun.
We landed in the clearing outside the gates, and I stepped away from him. He let me go, somewhat reluctantly, but immediately steadied me when I wobbled, his hands holding on firmly to my waist.
“Are you injured?” His eyes scanned up and down my body even as his hands tightened, reassuring himself that there weren’t any wounds that he had missed.
I shook my head. “Just exhausted.” I figured out my balance and shook him off. He let me go but stayed close to my side. Even as mad as he was, he still wasn’t going to let me fall.
“I thought we covered you being all hovery around me.”
“And I’m pretty sure I told you it was myjobto be hovery. So deal with it.”
There it was again. The statement that I was just a job. But there was a shift in his expression, something unguarded leaked through, before his eyes shuttered, all hints of emotion vanishing from his face.
“I wish you had told me you were leaving the castle. Are you that curious about religion?” He sounded confused.
“No. I’m trying to learn everything I can about my power, the Veil, the darkness. We can’t find anything in the library records. Finn had the idea to look outside the castle and decided to start there. And how was I supposed to tell you I was leaving the castle? You’ve beenaround more recently, but it’s not like I know where you are every moment of the day.”
He was taken aback by my vehemence. I thought about apologizing, but he was the one who thought I needed to run my every move past him.
“I lived for many years without you tracking my steps, Griffin Narvene.” The words were flowing out of me now, charged by the panic of the day. “I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can,” he said steadily. The vulnerability that entered his eyes made the fight go out of me. I leaned heavily against the wall. He made a motion like he was going to catch me again, but stopped himself. “But when I felt the fear… the terror… when I realized what you were up against…”
A breeze rustled a lock of hair that had escaped my braid and blew it into my face. He gently moved it back, tucking it behind my ear.
“The idea of you being hurt, being attacked by a hufen, here of all places, threw me,” he said roughly, his hand cradling the back of my head, thumb playing with loose strands at the nape of my neck.
“I can understand that,” I said softly. I hoped he heard the forgiveness in my voice.
He paused, our eyes still locked. “If I can make one request?” He looked tired. As if this was the last thing he had needed today. “Please promise me you’ll never go anywhere unarmed again.”
I decided not to point out that everyone kept sayingIwas a weapon, and that I had managed to kill a hufen and stop the darknesswithoutweapons, but nodded instead, shoving off the wall. I went to walk on but something in his face stopped me. I was getting better at reading him. Or he was letting me in more.
“Before we go in there,” he started, then stopped as if he didn’t know how to continue. “Zachariah will grill you.”
“I’m used to it.”
“Don’t let him break you.”
“Today?” I looked up at him with a cheeky grin I didn’t feel. “Or in general?”
He barked out a laugh. “Both, I guess.”
“Good to know,” I continued with that perky voice, planning on faking it until I either believed it myself or could rest. “Let’s get it over with. I’d really like to take a bath.”
We foundZachariah more quickly than I had anticipated. Apparently, the news had traveled fast.
