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Griffin had used the path her blood rose ability had forged, and they’d made it out.
“We’re free!” she shouted.
Yvonne, to Sandra’s surprise, let out a loud whoop as well, that resounded over the Dauphaire Mountains below.
“I’m going to ease each of you onto one of my boots, give us all a little more stability. Yvonne, you first.”
Sandra felt the slight shift sideways as Griffin adjusted the troll’s feet.
“Your turn, Sandra.”
He hefted her up with his extraordinary vampire strength until she was able to settle her feet on his right boot. She began to relax.
Griffin sustained his speed as they flew. The man was determined to get them to safety. Plus, they were running out of the cover of the night. It would be dawn in less than a half hour.
“Thank you, Sandra. Your timing was perfect. And the path you were able to detect through the spell was exactly what we needed to escape. We couldn’t have done this otherwise. You did this for us.”
She reached her arm over Griffin’s shoulders and settled her hand on Yvonne’s arm. “We’re free, Mistress. We’re free!”
“Yes, we are.” This time, Yvonne’s voice was much softer and Sandra was pretty sure she heard the former fortress housekeeper issuing a couple of solid sobs.
Sandra’s throat grew tight as well. She’d spent thirty years serving a monster, watching fellow-slaves tortured and killed, or those that survived, bonded to wraiths. Yvonne had been in the fortress twice as long.
Then Griffin had arrived and now she was flying above the snow peaks of the Dauphaires.
Yvonne asked, “Where are we headed?”
Griffin’s deep voice hit the air once more. “To Juniango to find your daughter, Eva, of course.”
Sandra smiled and her heart swelled. She had a good man and she knew it.
This time, Yvonne didn’t hold anything back and she wailed into the cool, early morning air. She was so lost in her emotions that her shaking caused all three of them to rattle around a bit. It was both poignant and amusing at the same time.
Griffin, you’ve done such an incredible thing tonight. And I hope more than anything we find Eva alive and well.
I know that you’re the fae in our partnership, but my instincts tell me we will. Maybe I got that from you.
Well, for heaven’s sakes don’t tell her. She might really start to sob and send all three of us catapulting into a series of aerial somersaults we’d never recover from.
Oh, we’d recover.
His strong, masculine voice in her head and his confidence in his physical ability, worked on Sandra in a very female way. She caressed his back and shoulders. Thank you. For everything.
~ ~ ~
Griffin had a couple of bruises. That’s all. Nothing serious as he flew Sandra and the good-hearted housekeeper toward the mountain village of Juniango.
He couldn’t believe this had happened, this miracle of an escape. Fulton and his men would have taken him down had it not been for Sandra’s strange gift and his own advanced abilities because he’d bonded with a blood rose.
He could recall one of the rumors that had made its way through the enslaved portion of the camp, talk involving the blood rose phenomenon. Many believed it had arisen specifically, coming from the Goddess herself, to counteract Margetta’s intention to bring the Nine Realms under her control.
He knew one thing for certain: He couldn’t have escaped the fortress without Sandra. He’d followed her video-like images to the letter, which had allowed him to defeat Fulton and his men as well as to navigate a very specific pathway through Margetta’s mist. He’d always sensed there was an escape route through the Ancient Fae’s spell, but he couldn’t have found it by himself.
Yep, the whole thing was a blood rose miracle for which he’d be eternally grateful.
But Margetta’s fortress wasn’t the only thing he’d escaped. Until he’d met Sandra, and become her friend, his life had been a burned down forest where new growth would never take root. Battling for the past century had been his life, and he’d been happy to serve, built as he was for facing off with bad guys of any kind.
He was a protector and he’d been proud of it.
