“I’m coming back. When I didn’t do what the black dog wanted, the forest turned its back on me, but I’m going to do its bidding. It will keep me safe until then.”
“And after that?” Ianto demanded. “When it has no use for you anymore?”
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Ellery
I gulpedas my gaze shifted back to the hillside. “There’s a balance in this realm, or at least there was supposed to be. That balance has been skewed for hundreds of thousands of years, and the Revenant Woods is trying to make it right. I have to trust that.”
“You could be wrong about all of this.”
“You saw that black dog lead me there and then turn away. What do you think it meant?”
He pondered this for a minute, but he knew what it meant as well as I did. “We agreed not to release the gargoyles.”
Luna gasped, and her hand flew to her mouth. “That’syour help?”
“I hope so,” I muttered.
“There’s a way to free them?”
“I think so.”
Luna gazed at all of us as she remained leaning against Ianto’s side.
“But we agreed not to do it,” Ianto said. “We agreed we had no idea how they’d react after being trapped for so many thousands of years and that it was best to leave them there.”
“But that wasbeforethe black dog, before they took Ryker, Callan, and the others, and before the duke invaded our encampment. We’re not safe in these woods anymore, and even if we were, we can’t create a life for these children beneath the earth. Plus, Ryker, Tucker, and Callanallknow the location of this encampment; what if one of them reveals it?” I asked.
IknewRyker wouldn’t; he’d withstood a lot of torture in his life, and so had Tucker. The duke wouldn’t break them, but Callan… well, Callan was kind, and he’d mostly led a pampered life as a minstrel.
He was strong and a far better fighter than any of us would have expected, but he’d never withstood the kind of adversity he faced now. Who could blame him if he broke?
I didn’t say this. It would only irritate Luna, and I had faith in Callan to hold strong, but I couldn’t deny that a part of me worried about it too.
“And we might all die from those beasts ripping us apart,” Ianto said.
“The forest wants them free,” I stated.
Ianto looked at me like I’d sprouted two heads and one of them was a ghoul. “And I want a big steak and twenty tankards of ale, but I’m not getting them.”
My mouth twitched toward a smile. “Once we’re free of this, you can have them.”
“Ellery—”
“I’m not asking for permission.”
“You’re riskingallour lives.”
“Our lives are already at risk.”
“You’re not thinking this through.”
He was right about that, I wasn’t, but… “There are times when thinking things through is more of a hindrance than a help.”
There was a time when I was reckless about almost everything I did, but that changed after I robbed Ryker and he started hunting the Hooded Robber…me. After that, I had to reevaluate how my life choices could hurt others.
If I stopped to think about whatthiscould do to the others, I’d never go to the gargoyles, and we’d be trapped here with no way to move forward. If I waited to get help, we’d lose this war before it started.
