Page 66 of A Wayward Movement

“My apologies, Your Highness.”

Captain Mitchell bent in a bow, but to Xavier’s irritation, he didn’t look penitent. And he didn’t apologize to Alina. He did, however, give quick instructions to his men, one of whom jogged away, following a rope laid in the sand.

“He’ll fetch horses for you both,” the captain informed Xavier.

“I can walk,” Alina said, her voice faint.

“Don’t be absurd,” Xavier told her shortly.

There wasn’t a hint of his famed charm in his voice, yet Alina’s lips curved slightly in the smile he most enjoyed. He turned away from the sight, not trusting his heart to be sensible while he was still so weak.

They waited in silence for several minutes before one of the guards spoke. “Forgive me, miss.” His eyes were on Alina. “But did you really hold a shield all night?”

She nodded.

“Using what movement?”

“The anzu,” she said softly. “Zuzu helped me out whenever I needed new movement.”

“It’s remarkable,” the guard said, awed. “I’ve studied the craft a little myself. Even with Dust from a magical creature, the energy required to maintain any enchantment all alone through the whole night should have drained you completely. I would have expected it to kill you.”

Anxiety flared in Xavier at these words, not allayed at all by Alina’s cheerful reaction.

“Well, it hasn’t.” She smiled at the guard. “Although I am very tired.”

“If you can put one foot in front of the other, it will be nothing short of miraculous,” the man said.

“You shouldn’t have done it,” Xavier murmured, his throat tight.

“I had to, Xavier,” she told him. “The alicanto came back, and some wild dogs were drawn to the fire. We would have been in trouble without the shield.”

Xavier didn’t respond, this account of the dangers she’d faced while he slept making him feel worse. Shame crawled over him at how helpless he’d been, how dismally he’d failed to be her protector when they were vulnerable. He saw that Captain Mitchell was watching Alina very closely, his expression still cool, and annoyance flared in Xavier all over again.

Fortunately they didn’t have to wait long before more guards appeared, this time with horses. Alina looked dubiously up at the offered mount, her expression suggesting she’d been asked to scale a mountain.

“Ride with me,” Xavier said curtly.

“But, Your Highness—”

“She’ll ride with me,” he cut off the protesting guard. “Help her to mount in front of me.”

The guards did as told, and soon Xavier was in the saddle, Alina perched in front of him. His arms were around her as he held the reins, and her back was pressed into his chest. The fact that she didn’t fight the arrangement, even going so far as to lean back against him and let him bear her weight, told him everything he needed to know about her level of exhaustion. He felt a stab of alarm. What if she’d pushed herself too far to fully recover from? He tightened his arms around her.

The ride back to the refinement site was disproportionately long compared with his memory of how far they’d walked, but still shorter than he’d feared, given the involvement of alicanto magic. With Alina in the anzu’s usual place, Zuzu perched on the horse’s rump, behind Xavier. The bird looked tired, too, and Xavier wondered just how much movement the anzu had been required to do in order to provide fuel for Alina’s enchantment.

In spite of his disapproval, a small smile rose to Xavier’s lips at the thought of his two girls working together to protect him while he slept off the effects of his tangle with the basilisk.

No. Alina wasn’t his girl. Hadn’t been for many years. He couldn’t afford to think of her that way.

The group had found them just after dawn, but the sun was fully risen by the time they reached the refinement site. Charles was ready to receive them, his face pale with relief when Xavier slipped down from the horse with steady movements. Blair was also there, full of apologies for failing to adequately prepare them for the risks of alicanto and basilisks.

“Please, Blair,” Xavier eventually cut him off good-naturedly. “Stop drawing attention to my ineptitude. I’d rather the whole kingdom didn’t know that I got tricked by an alicanto and then blundered into a basilisk in the same day.”

Before doing anything further, Xavier saw Alina deposited safely into one of the sleeping quarters. Captain Mitchell wanted the rest of the group to depart at once back to town, but Xavier stood firm that there was no question of going anywhere until Alina was ready to travel.

With long experience of the spread of gossip, Xavier recognized the whispers that were carrying the story of their misadventure around the whole site. He hoped Alina’s reputation wouldn’t suffer for the fact that they’d been stranded alone overnight, but that wasn’t his primary concern. He felt uneasy about how clearly she’d marked herself as magically capable. He gave orders to his guards that someone be stationed at the door of her sleeping room at all times while they remained at the refinement site.

His stomach was settled enough for him to benefit from a simple breakfast, then he set about organizing for a carriage to come and collect them.