“Yeah,” I say, covering a yawn as I follow him. If only sleep would help me, but it’s Elizabeth’s tonic that I need.
“Aren’t you getting in?” Chase asks as I sit on a rock beside the pool and cross my legs.
I shake my head, feeling shy all of a sudden. “I’m not nearly as smelly as you are,” I say instead of admitting my self-consciousness.
“That’s true.” He immerses himself fully in the water and rubs his face and hair before standing again. He pushes his wet hair back, then rubs his hands up and down his arms, removing the blood and layers of grime he collected while in that horrible dungeon. “Hey, did you mention a second apple earlier?” he asks.
“I did.” I remove the apple from my pocket as he wades closer to fetch it.
“Do you want some?” he asks.
“No, I’m fine, thank you.” I’m actually pretty hungry, but he needs food far more than I do. “Stand here and turn around,” I tell him. “You eat, I’ll clean.” He devours the apple as I lean down and rub my hands gently along his shoulders and the top of his back, wiping his skin clean. My fingers move carefully over the pink twisted scars. They’ll soon be gone, but they’re probably still hurting as the flesh beneath them continues to knit itself back together. “I didn’t know the former queen could be so cruel,” I murmur.
Chase is silent as he tosses the apple core into the trees beyond the rocks. Another few moments pass as my fingers continue to move across his back. I can’t reach further down from where I’m sitting, but I don’t want to stop either. “I was a cruel lord,” he says quietly. “She was probably just making sure I paid for that.”
“It’s too bad she waited so long.” My hands come to rest on his shoulders. “The cruel lord she wanted to punish no longer exists.”
He reaches for my right hand while leaning back so his shoulders press against my knees. As our fingers lace together, sparkles of light begin to dance around our hands. “In the human realm,” he says quietly, “they talk about sparks flying when two people are attracted to one another. It was only after I got here, to this world of magic, that I realized sparks really do fly.”
My heart thunders in my chest, leaving me almost breathless. I want to slide my arms around him and press kisses against his neck. I want to join him in the water and take up right where we left off when the golden river whirlpool sucked us down. But I also want an answer to an important question, and I may not ask that question if I let a distraction get in the way first. “Chase,” I say as he turns his head to the side and kisses my hand. “What did Luna See about me?”
He stills. The sparkles float away. “Elizabeth told you.”
“She accidentally said something. Not much. Just that I didn’t need to worry about dying while rescuing you because Luna Saw me in your future.”
“She … she did See you.” He lets go of my hand and turns to face me. “Are you upset that I didn’t say anything to you about it?”
“I … I don’t think so. I don’t know. Should I be? Is this one of the secrets you kept since the moment you first saw me?”
“No. I didn’t even think of the vision when we first met. Luna told me about it so many years ago, her vision of a woman in gold—which I assumed meant someone wearing gold—that I filed it away in the back of my mind and barely thought of it in the years that followed. It wasn’t until the day I first took you to the mountain and Gaius removed the time traveling ability from you that I remembered it. We had returned to Wickedly Inked. You were about to leave, and I wondered if I’d ever see you again, and that must have … sparked something in my memory, I suppose.”
I try to remember the moment, but it’s a little fuzzy, obscured by the attack that came straight afterward when Saber arrived in search of his time traveling bangle. But I think I remember Chase looking oddly at me. I think I asked him if something was wrong. And he said … he said … but I can’t remember what he said. “So. What was in this vision?”
He hesitates. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Is it something horrible?”
“No.” He smiles. “At least, I don’t think it’s horrible. But futures aren’t set in stone, and ours could easily change. Perhaps it’s changed already. The reason I didn’t say anything to you about it is because I didn’t want you to feel as if you have no choice. As if you somehow had to make what she Saw come true.”
I frown. “Now I’m not sure if I want to know what it was about. I mean … if it was a picture of you and me and twenty babies, I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”
Chase laughs. Loudly and properly and for the first time since we escaped. “It’s up to you,” he says when he’s recovered. “If you want to know what she Saw, I’ll tell you. But if you want to live life certain you’ve made your own choices and were never influenced by anyone else’s interpretation of a possible future, that’s fine too.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Are you trying to convince me not to ask you?”
“No.” His smile is genuine and honest. “I will tell you if you want to know.”
“Hmm.” I shift backward, swing my legs to the side, and untie my laces. “I think—” I pull my shoes off “—I will—” I tug my jacket off “—make my own choices.” I slide into the water and look up at him. “I’m curious about what she Saw, but if you decided not tell me, then I can respect that. And like you said,” I add, “our future’s probably changed already anyway.”
His hands slip around my waist and pull me closer. “Did I tell you I missed you?”
I push my fingers into his wet hair, then run them down his neck and over his chest, trailing dancing, flashing sparks across his skin. “Yes,” I breathe.
His eyes close as his brow touches mine. “Did I tell you I dreamed of kissing you?”
My hands rise again and gently clasp his face. The air between us fills with specks of golden light as my thumb brushes over his lips. “Yes.”
His head tilts to the side. I feel his apple-scented breath on my skin.
Then he freezes.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, my eyes flying open.
Chase frowns as he focuses on something over my shoulder. “That had better not be a full moon.”
I twist around and see the silvery orb hanging above the horizon. “No. Full moon is tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow—Are you serious?”
I turn back to him. “Uh, yes.”
“We have to go back. Immediately. We have to stop her.”
“Of course we have to stop her, but you and I can’t do that on our own.”
“Actually, we can,” he says, moving past me to climb out of the water. “I don’t generally like to bring this up, but I single-handedly destroyed large parts of the fae realm once upon a time. As long as there’s no morioraith around, I can probably take out my mother and a pair of witches.”
“I’m fully aware of the devastation you’re capable of on a normal day,” I say as he pulls me from the pool. “But several hours ago, you were close to death. Your wounds may have healed, but you’re still weak. You haven’t eaten in days—and no, the apples don’t count. You need to rest!”
Chase stops on top of a rock and looks back at me as he drips water all around him. “So what do you propose? We find something to eat, rest here for the night, and take on Angelica some time tomorrow?”
“Yes. That sounds infinitely more sensible.”
He nods. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m going to blame the hunger for my illogical Plan A.”
“Since we’re no longer rushing back to the palace, would you like to add ‘fix torn T-shirt’ to Plan B?”
“Ah, yes.” He looks down at himself as if just remembering that he shed the tatters of his T-shirt. “Unfortunately, I’m not very good at clothes casting.”
“I’ll do it quickly,” I say, bending to retrieve the T-shirt from where he dropped it earlier. “It won’t be neat or clean, but it’ll at least be whole.” When I’ve joined the torn pieces
with my limited clothes casting knowledge, I hand it to him. “So what now?” I ask, rubbing my hands up and down my arms as I begin to shiver. “We scour the nearby trees for anything edible?”
“Yes.” Chase climbs back down beside me, wavering a little on unsteady legs, and raises his hands. A blast of warm air spins around me, tangling my hair and drying my skin in seconds.
“Stop wasting your energy!” I tell him when he stops.
“Stop worrying. I’ve got all night to recover. Are you dry yet?”
I pat my pants. “Mostly. My clothes are still a bit damp.”
The blast of hot hair comes again, wrapping around us both this time. It’s almost impossible to breathe with the air being continually sucked away from me, so I’m breathless by the time he’s done. “Okay, let’s start looking. There must be something edible out here.”
I push my arms into my jacket sleeves and pull my boots back on. “Not that it’s important,” I say as we climb over and around rocks toward the trees on the other side of the pool, “but what were you doing looking over my shoulder when you were supposed to be kissing me?”
“It’s dangerous out here,” he says. “I was just making sure we were still alone.”
Hopefully that’s the truth. Hopefully he wasn’t bored before our kiss even began.
Not wanting to alert the centaurs to our presence, we search as far into the trees as we dare, finding nothing more than a clump of roots that Chase assures me are edible. He grasps the purple leaves and yanks the bulbous hairy root from the ground. “You’re sure we can eat that?” I ask, my tone doubtful.
“Yes. Luna often cooked with this.”
“We’re not exactly equipped to boil stuff out here.”
“That’s what magic is for,” Chase says.
We return to the rocks, which feel safer to hide amongst than the trees. I lean over the pool and clean the mottled roots, then lower my head further and splash water onto my face, doing my best to clean the remaining black makeup off. Chase holds the roots one at a time between his hands and heats them until their skin begins to split. Then we sit together in the darkness, our only light the luminescence glowing from the pink buds in the nearby trees, and eat our meager dinner.
“Hmm,” Chase says. “They’re pretty bland. And not quite the same as if they were boiled.”
“But good enough to … fill an empty stomach.” My jaw strains as I yawn widely in mid-sentence. I rub my tired eyes.
“You need to sleep, Miss Goldilocks. We need to be—” He straightens, his gaze pointed toward the sky. “Did you see that?”
I blink. “See what?”
“The shadow that passed across the moon for a moment. It looked a bit like … a flying creature.”
I grip Chase’s arm. “Like a dragon or a gargoyle? Do you think it could be Gaius or someone else we know?”
“I’m not sure. I’d rather not send up a signal, and then it turns out to be an acquaintance of our new Queen.”
“That would suck.”
Chase stands and looks around. “I’m going to send the signal over there,” he says, pointing to a flat, open patch of ground beyond the trees. “We can remain hidden here, but we should be able to see who it is. And if the centaurs notice the signal, it won’t bring them directly to us.”
“Okay. What is this—” A second later, a skinny fork of lightning zigzags down and strikes the ground Chase was pointing at. “Right. That kind of signal.”
We duck down and keep watch between the rocks. I count the seconds. Nothing happens for almost two minutes, but then a large, winged shape swoops down and lands almost exactly where the lightning struck. “That’s a dragon,” Chase whispers. “It could be Gaius riding it. He’s not a fan of the gargoyles.”
“Is anyone a fan of the gargoyles?”
“Uh … not really.”
A much smaller shape slides off the dragon and lands on the ground. It walks to the side, past the dragon, and I can now make out its silhouette. Tall, lanky, with a tuft of messy hair. “Yeah, that’s Gaius,” I say with a smile.
Chase raises his hands and forms a ball of light, dim as a dying candle, between his palms. It takes Gaius a few moments before he notices it. When he does, he ducks down immediately. “He doesn’t know it’s us,” Chase murmurs. He rotates one hand, and the light begins to shift and change. Slowly, it transforms from a ball into a zigzag. A perfect miniature lightning bolt.
Gaius jumps up and hurries toward us. He pauses to flatten himself against a tree, looking around, before continuing. “Chase?” he whispers once he’s almost at the rocks.
Chase allows his light to vanish as he stands. “Looking for me?” he asks.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
A second dragon arrives carrying Elizabeth and Lumethon, along with four gargoyles, one each for Darius, Kobe and Ana, plus a riderless gargoyle. Ana dashes through the trees, leaps over the rocks, and flings herself at Chase. “You’re alive, you’re alive, you’re alive,” she whispers as she hugs him tightly.
“Of course I’m alive,” he says as he embraces her. “It takes a lot to finish me off.” He meets my gaze over the top of her head. I look away as I try not to think of how close to death he was when I found him. How much longer would he have lasted without access to his magic?
Chase’s reunion with the rest of his teammates is more contained but no less heartfelt. “You braved the gargoyle cave for me?” he says as he clasps Darius’s hand. “Thanks, man. I’m impressed.”
“Yeah, well, don’t expect it to happen again. Damn thing nearly bit my arm off.” A low growl comes from the gargoyles’ direction.
“I think he heard you,” Ana says with a low giggle.
“Well done, Calla,” Gaius says as he pulls me into a brief hug. “We were all so worried after you suddenly stopped responding last night, but I told everyone you’d be fine. I told them you’d rescue Chase.”
“Oh, yeah, you sound super confident now,” Ana says, giving Gaius’s arm a playful shove. “You were just as freaked out last night as the rest of us.”
“Hey, can we all get down amongst the rocks?” I whisper. “Centaurs are guarding the forest, and if they weren’t sure where we were earlier, they’ll have no doubt now.”
“Your illusion told them to guard the trapdoor,” Chase says as we all crouch down and make our way back to the pool where the rocks form a natural barrier around us. “Hopefully they’ll continue to obey that instruction.”
Something soft touches my arm before a smooth, cold object is pressed into my hand. A little glass bottle. I look around and find Elizabeth just behind me. Thanks, I mouth to her as I wrap my fingers around the bottle. I know exactly what’s in it.
It’s a challenge to fit eight of us into the small space beside the pool, but somehow we manage it. As we shuffle around, I remove the lid from the bottle and tip the contents down my throat. By the time we’re all settled, the empty bottle is somewhere behind me and I’m already beginning to feel better.
Lumethon faces away from the group and raises both hands. I sense a prickle of magic in the air above us. “You talk,” she whispers to the rest of us. “I’ll fortify the area.” Kobe lifts one hand and adds his magic to hers.
“How long have you been searching for us?” Chase asks.
“Several hours,” Gaius answers. “We started on the ground, which meant we couldn’t cover much area, but we wanted to wait until nightfall before taking to the sky.”
“We didn’t know if you’d made it out of the palace, of course,” Elizabeth says, “but since we can’t get past that dome-like shield and back onto the palace grounds, we figured we’d just keep searching out here. Darius,” she adds. “The backpack?”
“Oh, right, the food,” Darius says. “And clothes.”
“The statue is here,” Chase informs the group. “The Monument to the First Mer King. Angelica’s obviously going to try to tear through the veil right here at the Seelie Court.”
r /> “I saw it too,” Gaius says, “from the carriage as we were flying away last night. That’s why we came back prepared. Flying creatures, more weapons, unbreakable rope, food.”
“Food,” Chase repeats with a low groan as Darius unwraps several delicious smelling bundles. Cold meat, fruit, a mixture of nuts.
“Yeah, we figured we wouldn’t be leaving here again without a fight,” Ana says.
“And given the, uh, state you were in when we last saw you,” Gaius adds, “we thought you might need some … sustenance.”
“What happened to you after Angelica pulled her insane stunt?” Darius asks. “We were running out of the dungeons so we missed it, but Ana filled us in pretty quickly.”
“I wasn’t aware of much,” Chase says as he passes me some food after pulling on a clean T-shirt. “I was taken to a room in one of the towers. I faded in and out of consciousness until Calla showed up some time this afternoon.”
Everyone turns to me to fill in the rest. “I, uh, stopped responding because I kind of … passed out. I think it was from overuse of my Griffin Ability. It drained a lot of my energy.” Which is the truth. No need to add that there’s a curse involved. I quickly fill the team in on everything that happened after I woke up amongst the rose bushes this morning. I crunch on a handful of nuts and add, “What happened to all of you?”
“We got out of the dungeons fairly easily,” Elizabeth says. “There was no guard by the tapestry. Plenty of screaming coming from the direction of the ballroom, though. We were completely visible as we ran back through the palace, but no one paid any attention to us. Once we saw the madness in the ballroom and the terrified guests flooding out, we realized why. Everyone fled to the carriages, so we joined them.”