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“Saph?” A thought occurred. “Is it because of the hovering?”
There was some hesitation. Guilt coated him once more at how far he had gone and how suffocating he had become before the incident with Silver—or what happened after it—had snapped him back to reality. He trusted her and should have kept trusting her, not acted like a maddening man who couldn’t trust her to take care of herself.
It’s your choice if you want me to think I’m a weakling.
She was right. He was an ass, and he had some making up to do. Klaus tried again.
“I’m sorry about the fight with your brother. I’m sorry for hovering. I let my worry take over and dismissed your concerns. I will try not to do that again.”
“Apology accepted,” was her prompt response, catching him off guard. Belatedly, he realized she didn’t even seem to be thinking about that, her expression distracted. “I have somewhere to be. I don’t want to be disturbed until I’m back. Can you do that?”
The off feeling still didn’t abate, telling him that whatever she was planning, it was big. Instinct screamed at him to be at her side and watch her every move, but the other side stopped him.
Trust.
If he trusted her, then he needed to earn her trust too, right?
“Sure. Inside Oslo, right?”
“Yes, inside. I can’t tell you more, but…” She took a deep breath. “I promise I will when it’s done.”
For the first time since dinner, blue eyes met his, unreadable but pulsing with pent-up emotions. It was very hard to nod his head and not ask questions, but he did it and glimpsed her shoulders relaxing. Then they tensed again, bound with energy, before she waved a hand. Seconds later, Sapphire was no longer in his line of sight, and he was antsy.
“Keep a lid on it,” he scolded himself.
Longing glissaded in. To distract himself, Klaus deliberately walked off and went to visit the others, who had decided to keep themselves secluded while their guests were present. A few of the teenagers came out to the lounging clearing now, continuing their builds, and rejoicing in the feel of the fresh air. Bernard and Olga wandered out to oversee the flurry of activities while Gerard approached him.
“They left safely and opened portals off-coast. The three sisters set something up just outside our shoreline.”
That perked him up. “What did they set up?”
“Rocks dug underwater to form a circle. There was some chanting involved and I was told that Sapphire asked them to do it.”
Sapphire’s mysterious venture became even more mysterious by the minute, baffling him that she wouldn’t tell him when she had been very adamant about her disapproval of her siblings’ invasion of privacy. But her promise washed over him again, a gentle reminder that he would know soon—that he just needed to be patient about it.
Trust.
He nodded. “Okay. Let me know if there are any magical activities in the seas. Other than that, don’t report anything about Sapphire’s whereabouts unless she’s out of Oslo or in danger.”
Gerard blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me.”
He wandered off, shifted, and flew to his cave, where he spent some time finishing some pieces of jewelry he planned to give out to the teenagers once they were done with their builds. When his shoulders began to ache from all the hammering, Klaus gave up on trying to distract himself and curled on the floor, finding a spot in the treasure that was comfortable enough. He thought of Sapphire once more.
Then he closed his eyes and succumbed to sleep.
No alarm woke him up, but the nagging in his shoulders had Klaus easing off his comfortable position and flying out of the cave before he was even fully awake. His sleepy state turned into a bewildered one when he spotted colors down the shoreline, then more colors floating in the water. A closer inspection had him deducing they were flowers, most of which came from his garden and others that had just been seeds in his tower and…had been accelerated into growth?
Sapphire,his mind deduced, then wondered if she was trying to make more gardens. He also wondered what she had been doing in his towers as he flew a circle and realized that most of the island’s border was now covered with flowers. He spotted a group of kids in a corner, digging on the sand and planting more. Klaus flew toward them, ready to ask his questions until he spotted Miko swimming to shore.
The man was in his shifter form, a mutated seal with sharp teeth that he rarely let anyone see, not even when he had been unconscious—which meant something was up to make Miko this careless and rattled. He watched the man gesture frantically and the kids running away, then watched as the man’s eyes flashed with something dark upon spotting Klaus. When Klaus finally landed, the kids were gone and Miko was entirely too pale for his liking.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded.
Miko finally shifted to his human form, still as pale as ever.
“There’s trouble at the border.”
