“Worrying is hardly the word I’d use,” Reagan said, his tone lighter. “It’s more like keeping track of my liability.”
“Liability? I thought I was more of an asset to you.”
He gave a low laugh, his gaze flicking over me appraisingly. “We’ll see about that. Still want to come?”
My fingers dug into my damp palms. “Isn’t it too late to change your plans now?” I asked.
But Cerridwen’s voice drifted from the adjoining room at that very moment.
“I hear you’re leaving already,” she said, stepping into view. “Don’t let Coriander ask you too many questions. He is too curious about humans.”
My eyes darted to him, the question clear on my face.
“Answer if you want or don’t,” Reagan answered coolly. “Don’t worry about Coriander.”
“Off you go, then,” Cerridwen said, already leaving us.
I took in a deep breath, gripping the side of his cloak before the room around us vanished, and the air went dark. Nausea filled me, and I pressed against him for the next eight seconds until we arrived.
CHAPTER 14
My knees buckled the moment my boots hit solid ground.
I might have toppled completely if Reagan’s arm hadn’t held me steady. It wasn’t until I gulped down a lungful of air that I realised my fingers were curled inside his cloak, digging into his ribs.
“Not fond of flinging?” he drawled, the corner of his mouth twitching, not seeming to mind my fingers.
Heat crawled up my neck as I stepped back, releasing him. “Doesn’t that make your stomach queasy?”
He shrugged and turned to take in the sight before us. “Welcome to Erisea Hall.”
I noticed the sky first. It was a vibrant blue, scattered with bright white clouds. It was warmer here than it had any right to be, so close to winter. I shed my cloak, draping it over my arm as a salty breeze brought the scent of flowers to me.
We were in a garden covered in them, with every imaginable colour, their petals reflecting the sunlight like tiny jewels. The grass beneath my feet was a vibrant summer green, so at oddswith the frost-laden leaves of Mountheim that I almost wanted to sink to my knees and feel it with my bare hands.
Erisea Hall loomed at the far end of the sprawling garden, its cream-coloured stone bathed in relentless sunbeams. The castle’s spires stretched high, their rounded domes topped with slender rods. Thick layers of vines and moss crept along the walls.
The castle stood every bit as large and ancient as Mountheim Hall, as if the two were twin fortresses born of the same era.
I spun around. We seemed to be perched higher than the surrounding landscape, but not by much. Beyond the garden, on this side of the castle, a forest sprawled downward, thick and slightly darker than the grass beneath my boots.
I turned my gaze back to the castle, to the side entrance nestled in the ivy-covered wall. We were already within the gates.
“Can they control the weather?” I asked as we strolled towards the entrance.
“What gave it away? The glaring sun or the bloody heat?” he asked, squinting. “But yes, they can. Not the entire estate, of course.”
We reached the stairs. Reagan placed a hand on my lower back, as if I might trip and fall without it. I laughed under my nose, earning a sidelong glance from him.
“Welcome, Lord Reagan and Lady Darling,” said a man waiting at the top of the stairs.
My humour fled me. I leaned closer to Reagan and whispered, “Lady?”
He shook his head. “He’s just assuming.”
Before us stood a man with long grey hair tied behind his neck, clad in a raisin-coloured waistcoat over a white shirt.
He wasn’t exactly old, maybe a few years younger than Barracus Crow, but the deeply etched lines across his forehead and his harshly pursed lips gave him an aged look.
