“Special watching. Active watching,” Kieran insisted, putting his arms around my waist and pulling me into him, nipping at my neck.
A ghost of a smile tugged at my mouth.
Below us, the plan settled into place: four points, four anchors. We’d inform everyone we needed tonight, spend the evening practicing and going over the ritual, and then execute. It would be wards drawn not just to protect, but to hold.
The wind howled through the trees, carrying the distant weight of the storm that had trapped Ronan beyond the mountains. It was warm here, but the power was just as tangible; the wind had a bite to it, and the animals were still in their hidey-holes.
And beneath my hand, the child moved again, strong, insistent.
“First light,” Kaida said.
No one argued.
Chapter Twenty-Four
RONAN
The sky used to be the only place that made sense to me.
Up there, everything felt clean. Decisions were simple. You either held your altitude or you didn’t. You either adjusted to the wind or let it throw you around. There were no expectations, no arguments, no watching eyes waiting to see if I’d fail again.
As we left Hoveria and said goodbye to Georg, and Varun, and his lykoses, the air pressed heavily against our wings and scales. Veskor flew behind me, ears flattened against his skull. He didn’t trust us yet, but he had nowhere else to go. I think deep down, he wanted to step foot on Lyoness, no matter what it cost him.
I clutched Perri to me tightly even as she pouted the entire time.
“I want to be carried by Veskor,” she whined.
I ignored her.
“I’m hungry.”
I focused on the horizon.
“RONAN.”
“Little one, we will stop this nightfall. Then we will eat and rest, I promise,” I reassured her.”
She grumbled in my arms, but went still.
Behind both of us, Nasi and Canavar flew steadily, their wings cutting clean arcs through the air despite the tension. Canavar hadn’t said much since we left, but he didn’t need to. His silence carried more threat than words ever could.
Veskor had insisted he was well enough to travel.
The second day of flying saw him struggling to keep up. The snow was mostly gone below us, but the cold lingered. The landscape was changing from dry dirt and rocks to forest again, but slowly.
“Do we need to carry you?” Nasi asked him over his shoulder, the question sounding somewhat threatening.
Veskor shook his head and tried to fly faster, but his muscles were quivering.
“Doesn’t matter. They’re going to kill me anyway,” he rasped, dipping in altitude.
I flew to his side and grabbed his left arm, supporting his weight while I held Perri in the other. “No one is killing you.”
He gave a breath that might have been a laugh if it hadn’t sounded so hollow.
I glanced back just long enough to catch Canavar’s face twitching with a smirk, but he shook it off as Nasi flew up on Veskor’s other side, grabbing him for me. Nasi supported his weight fully and he sagged, his scales too hot and pale for my liking.
“That was before,” I reassured. “You’re under my protection now. No one is killing you, I promise.”
