“I can take her on the broomstick,” Zorana offered.
Corvin’s hand came to rest gently at the small of my back. “She’ll fly with me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
We flew away from the mountain, leaving the manticores behind.
Our smooth downward descent was much more pleasant than the grueling upward climb.
The forest below was my path home, and so eventually I requested to be set down amongst its towering evergreens. “You traveled here through the Autumn Court?” Corvin repeated, clearly hesitant to leave me in the forest without an obvious path home, clutching me to his side even after we landed. “At least share a meal with us before you depart. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.”
“Food sounds nice,” I agreed, my voice strained. Ithadbeen a while. And I didn’t understand why…
Last we’d spoken, he promised to contact me in the mirror. But its surface had remained clouded ever since he left the island. Even after I broke down and tried contacting him myself, my calls went unanswered.
The rest of the group touched down, and Corvin took a small, reluctant step away from me.
Soon, I found myself sitting cross-legged in front of a campfire, luxuriating in the warmth of its cackling blaze and the fresh smell of pine needles as Nix slept curled up by my side. Corvin tended the fire with patient hands, feeding it another log. Across from me, Zorana slathered a thick herbal paste onto Tercel’s injured shoulder, ignoring his half-hearted attemptsto shoo her hand away. Farryn busied herself with the food, unpacking a small cookpot and the ingredients for soup.
“So—” Tercel’s gaze landed on Corvin, then drifted to me. “Howexactlydo you two know each other?”
I hesitated, thinking back to the first time I met Corvin, when he appeared in my study at midnight. Of course, I’dactuallymet him earlier that same day when he helped me escape the Spring Court in his raven form. My mind turned from our first meeting toward ourlastmeeting. That brief, intimate moment in front of my cottage, when we shared a passionate kiss. I stalled, waiting to see if Corvin would answer Tercel’s question first. When it became clear he wasn’t going to respond, suddenly taking his responsibility to tend the campfireveryseriously, I went with the less complicated answer and said, “He claims to owe me a debt.”
“Your father’s debts?” Tercel asked, his gaze snapping back to Corvin.
“Yeah,” Corvin responded, rising from a crouch, his eyes briefly searching mine. “That’s how we met.”
Tercel squinted at me. “You’rethe woman he keeps disappearing to help?”
“Why?” I asked. “I’m not what you were expecting?”
“Just seems odd you never mentioned she’s our age,” Tercel said casually, facing Corvin. “You’ve been…assisting her a lot.”
“Hey now!” I protested, feeling self-conscious. “I never demanded any assistance. Not once. Corvin’s been quite persistent about wanting to helpme, if anything. So—so there—”
Tercel raised an eyebrow, the ghost of a smirk upon his face. “Is that so? I can’t imagine why—”
“The debt!” Corvin suddenly exclaimed like he had solved a puzzle, interrupting our conversation.
“Huh?” Tercel and I muttered in unison.
“That must be what led me to you,” Corvin clarified, running a hand through his hair. “The debt, drawing us together. The reason I got confused about the way home, and led us into that cavern.”
“That would explain a lot! We’ve never disagreed about the way home before,” Farryn mused.
I replied, “The debt led you to me? I was trying to figure out how we both ended up in that cavern.”
Tercel’s eyes lit up. “Hey! Did we help you fulfill it then? By defeating those creatures?”
“To be fair, we also awakened them,” Zorana interjected, plastering a clean bandage onto Tercel’s wound over the herbal salve. “I’m guessing it doesn’t count if we’re the reason she was in danger in the first place.”
“The debt’s still there,” Corvin confirmed. “A subtle but ever-present pressure in my head. But…but that’s not all even, because it’s also…it’s also an invisible tether in my chest, telling me I’m not in the right spot, not where I’m supposed to be, that I should follow where it leads, to be closer to Elvira…” He cleared his throat. “I’m not sure what exactly needs to happen for its fulfillment.”
Farryn snorted, sprinkling some spices into the soup. “Have you triedaskingElvira what she wants?”
At that suggestion, a smile spread slowly across Corvin’s face. He moved away from the campfire, taking a seat next to me on the ground. With his arms extended behind his body, and his legs stretched out in front, he made himself comfortable. Then he slid his eyes over to me. “What do you desire most, Elvira?” he asked, voice dropping to a throaty growl, his gaze locked onto mine. A small, pleasant shiver ran down my spine at his words. The air between us grew heavy as our shoulders lightly brushed. I resisted the impulse to lean into him more fully. Did his body strain to touch mine too? I swallowed thickly as mycheeks turned pink, acutely aware that I hadn’t responded to his question, that everyone was staring at us.
I caught a look somewhere between intrigue and surprise cross Tercel’s face.
