His heart strained as if it could get closer to her.
She stood for a few moments between his legs, cradled in his arms, her head tucked against his neck and collar with a satisfied sigh as her body grew more relaxed.
‘Come on,’ he said softly.
She didn’t move for a long moment, then nodded wearily. He fought the urge to carry her through the bar and upstairs, then stalk to her father’s door and demand more answers. She was his priority, and that talk was hers to have. Even if Kyan knew he’d be discussing it with Callum as soon as possible.
Inside their room, Nicole grabbed her notebook and Verin’s old book from her bag. ‘We should plan.’
They’d already decided to keep the goddessblood vial in the torc for now. It had been safe in there for thousands of years, after all. They just needed somewhere to keep it …
He paused. ‘Do you want to talk about your father?’
‘What’s there to say?’ she asked, sniffing. He could see her grappling for the control her Empyrean urges offered: the calm, the confidence. But she couldn’t suppress her emotions without consequences. ‘Hehelped found the Wake. The thing that killed Mum. That binds every Empyreal. He’s a god. And I’m – I’m—’
‘You’re an Empyrean mythographer who’s going to save the world.’
Her eyes closed and silver lined her lashes.
He cupped her face, stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. ‘But it’s okay to be tired and confused and overwhelmed.’
She shook her head softly.
‘You don’t have to have everything figured out,’ he said, kissing the side of her mouth.
‘I do,’ she whispered, eyes opening and full of overwhelmed tears, clutching her notebook. The gold of the Empyrean in the brown of her irises was like a flare in the dark. ‘Because if I haven’t thought of everything then these things happen. We get blindsided again and again. Your face.’ She took his wrist in her grip, a tear skating down her cheek that broke his heart. ‘Your face when the Druid told you she was your sister … you were heartbroken. And I hate it. I hate not knowing things.’
‘No more for tonight,’ he said, unable to resist holding her any longer.
He scooped her up and set her on the bed. She slumped back against the sheets as he pulled off her heels.
‘We have our plan,’ he said as he cut around the heavily carved four-poster bed to get to her, kicking off his shoes and dragging off his jacket – the torc glinting in the low light on the bedside table. ‘And we have two of the artefacts and know where to look in Skye for the harp and the weapon that should kill Alexander. We’ll find out how to break these oaths and your father can share information with us that will help us destroy the Wake.
‘Logan is gone, and you’re safe. Everyone is safe. This is just a surprise.’
He scooped her close and turned the lights lower. Her heart was racing beneath his fingers.
‘In just over a week?’ she whispered.
Nine days until the Wake came knocking.
‘We’re close, Nicole. Tonight, just sleep. Then we’ll find the Druid, and she’ll tell us everything this time.’
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
Dylan
DYLAN STEPPED OUT INTO THE WARM NIGHT,TO FINDCallum sitting with his eyes closed and face to the dark sky.
The hotel’s unusual entrance was a stone courtyard, which invited guests in from the sloping street. It was a simple space, with two chairs and old walls adorned with plants.
Callum didn’t stir, but Dylan knew the Empyreal didn’t need his eyes open to be lethal.
He hadn’t been able to budge Callum’s grip on his father. And theragein his eyes … it had been like starlight. Terrible, powerful.
It echoed something in Dylan that he hadn’t realised had been there for his whole life, since the moment he saw his mother killed and could do nothing about it.
So, he said nothing and took the seat opposite.
