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“Ah, don’t worry.”
The fae turned his head to finally look back at me, and I swore I saw a faint shimmer over his features. Oh, was that the glamour? Fascinating. I hoped that if we spent a lot of time in the Verdana Isles I’d be able to learn more about it.
“Don’t worry? Something you want to tell me?”
“I have several scent neutralizing spells in my repertoire considering I spent four years hiding my shifter status at Fort Canid. Unfortunately, I don’t have my healer bag anymore, but we were able to synthesize a base cream out of supplies at the safe house.”
Aodin’s grin was full of appreciation. “Tricky, tricky. You always have something up your sleeves, don’t you, Healer Everton?”
“When I’m wearing them,” I joked back. “But you should get out of the habit of calling me that for now.”
“Right. Right. Well, fingers crossed we don’t have to fight our way into the city. That wouldn’t be the best foot to start on.”
“No, it most certainly wouldn’t.” Closing my eyes, I focused on keeping my heartbeat steady and my ketones from spiking. Appearing stressed was just going to make us look more suspicious when we needed to be as benign as possible.
“What’s going on?” Darla asked, sleepily lifting her head. I noticed that she’d been sleeping a lot in the past two days and hoped she was just recovering from the strain of using her abilities against an entire group at once.
“We’re about to reach a checkpoint.”
She yawned, then made quite a dramatic stretch. “Let me guess. It’s not one that’s normally here.”
“Not at all.”
“So, they’re definitely searching for us,” Kai remarked, putting down one of the books we’d taken from the safe house. It wasn’t the nicest thing to do, but Aodin had assured us that it was fine, and they’d be replaced soon.
Goodness, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been able to just sit down and read a book. My mind lingered on what it’d be like to sit by a roaring fire in a comfy living room, sprawled out on a couch while reading out loud to Kai, his head resting comfortably on my thigh. It was a fleeting image, but such a compelling one that I couldn’t help sighing.
“Are you all right?” Kai asked, setting the novel that’d birthed the daydream to the side.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” I said, putting that mental image away for another time when I could luxuriate over every detail and let myself linger in the wonderful longing and contentment inherent in the scene. “Let’s just hope these glamours do their job.”
“I trust Aodin,” Kai said bluntly, and wow, that was a marked difference from how he used to talk about him. My mate declared he’d trusted my opinion of the fae several times, but there had always been a wariness to that statement. Now the two were seeing eye to eye.
“Me, too.”
For what it was worth, the five of us weren’t exactly acting like fugitives on the escape. We’d put away the cover over the back of the wagon about an hour earlier in an effort to make it look like we weren’t trying to hide. We had comfortable pillows, arranged clear activities laid out like we were regular, everyday travelers, easily bored over a long journey, rather than terrified citizens fleeing from guaranteed execution. Kai had his book, Oren was sewing—I had no idea he even knew how to do that—and Darla was sketching something lazily across a pad of paper. I personally didn’t have anything, but I figured it’d look strange if we all were so occupied. So, I was lying on the pile of cushions I’d arranged underneath me.
It was more than disquieting that so much of our fate relied on a simple checkpoint going right, but I’d found that’d happened often since our journey started. There were huge, staggering odds against us in so many ways, but it was the little things, like four guards at a city entrance, that carried the most weight.
“State your business,” one of them said, stepping forward in front of Aodin and holding his hands up.
“Come to see my sister, actually. She’s about to bring in the first of the new generation for the Lanolyne family.”
Lanolyne? That was such a specific name, and Aodin didn’t so much as hesitate, that I thought it was an established cover. It seemed the diplomat was much more equipped for subterfuge than I’d ever expected.
If anyone could keep up with Seraphina, he could. I hoped that one day they’d get a chance to interact again.
But thinking about her was the wrong idea because I could feel my mood sour instantly. I tried checking myself out of my body’s reaction to that onslaught of regret and worry.
I wished we hadn’t left the princess behind, but we’d had no choice with how everything panned out. I had no doubt her family was going to be even more unpleasant with her, but I hoped that Mad Dog or even Felicity was helping her… if Mad Dog had avoided capture, that is.
Whoops, there went my mood again, and I could see Kai’s head turn toward me in my peripheral vision. I needed to think happy thoughts before I endangered all of us. It was ridiculous that I couldn’t get my mind and pheromones together for just a few minutes.
“It’s okay,” Kai said, reaching over as he rested his big, warm hand over my own. I looked down at the sweet display of support, drinking in the veins in his hand, the contrast between his beautifully tanned skin and my borderline luminescent pale complexion. The way his bones and sinew moved just underneath the surface as his fingers gently interlocked with mine.
Thank the Gods for Kai, really, because at his touch, I felt myself settle and find my center. I could worry about my friends in just a few minutes. First, I needed to make sure I survived.
“Your wagon is obsolete technology.”
