“I wasn’t trying to sacrifice myself. I was trying to speakthe truth.”
“On a tiny island in the middle of a loch full of Kelpies, facing a creature that’s been trying to murder your family for centuries.” Sophie’s voice rose. “Alone. In the middle of the night. Without telling anyone.”
“Ummm.” I had nothing to say to that. What could I say?
Quilliam flew to my shoulder and made a disgruntled noise.
“I’m sorry, Quilliam?—”
“Don’t.”His tiny claws dug into my shoulder hard enough to hurt.“Don’t you dare ‘Quilliam’ me. I have been bonded to your bloodline for hundreds of years, Agnes Wright. And you…you are the stupidest, bravest, most self-sacrificing of them all.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“It’s a statement of fact.”His voice cracked.“I thought you were going to die. I thought?—”
He couldn’t finish. His small body was trembling against my neck, and I reached up to stroke his scales with fingers that weren’t entirely steady.
“I’m here,” I said. “I’m alive. We did it.”
“We did nothing. You did it. You and your ridiculous heroics and your complete inability to ask for help.”
“I’m working on that.”
“Work harder.”
Faelan had settled Graham onto one of the long benches near the fire, and now she was working on him properly with both hands pressed to his chest, golden threads sinking into his skin, her face tight with concentration. Gloam, her fox familiar, sat at her feet, his russet fur bristling with anxiety.
“How is he?” I asked, crossing to them.
“Waterlogged and hypothermic. There’s minor damage to his lungs that I’m repairing now. We’ll work on the cuts to his feet after.” Faelan didn’t look up. “He’ll live. Though I could have really done without having to heal him, again, this soon.”
“I didn’t ask him to follow me?—”
“Of course you didn’t. Because you didn’t tell anyone you were going.” Faelan’s voice was terse. “Do you have any idea what it was like, Agnes? Waking up to the Kelpies screaming, hearing you were gone, watching Graham run toward the loch like a man possessed? We thought we were going to find your dead bodies. Both of you.”
Guilt twisted in my gut. I’d been so focused on breaking the curse, on fixing this, that I hadn’t thought about what my actions would do to the people who loved me.
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I really am. I thought?—”
“You thought you could handle it alone. You thought you were protecting us by not involving us.” Faelan finally looked up, her eyes fierce. “Sound familiar? Sound like something you’ve been doing for, oh, I don’t know, years now?”
The words hit like a punch to my gut.
Because she was right.Of courseshe was right. I’d spent years pushing Graham away to protect him, and then, at the first real crisis, I’d done the exact same thing to everyone else. I’d slipped away in the night and faced the danger alone. Somehow, I’d decided that my sacrifice was worth more than their help.
“Oldhabits,” I said weakly.
“Break them.” Faelan turned back to Graham. “Now let me work. He’s still got water in places water shouldn’t be.”
I retreated to one of the chairs by the fire, wrapping the blanket tighter around my shoulders. Icouldn’ttell Faelan about my hurt ribs. The pain would be a reminder for me on not making stupid decisions and leaving everyone behind. Shona came over and pressed a cup of tea into my hands, her pretty face creased with worry.
“Drink,” she said. “Brice put something in it. Something to help with the shock.”
I took a sip. The drink was warm and sweet and burned slightly going down. Almost immediately, some of the tension in my shoulders began to ease.
“You scared the hell out of us,” Shona said, settling into the chair beside me. “Willow was having visions all night. She kept seeing water and darkness and you standing at the edge of something terrible, I guess. We didn’t know what was going on until the Kelpies started shrieking.”
“I didn’t mean to scare anyone.”
