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“Almost finished?” Alaric called from outside the bathing chamber.
“Almost!”
I vaguely heard him mutter something aboutfemalesbefore he moved away from the door to wait with the others.
Since discovering my Grace of fire, drying my hair had been a breeze. Sending a gentle wave of dry heat up through my body and into each hair follicle was enough to have it fully dry and tumbling down my back in ebony rivulets. I slipped into the dress Aisling lent me, pulling the laces at the front tight across my chest. The sleeves belled near the ends, and the hem was a little long, but other than that, it fit almost perfectly.
And at least the hem would hide my boots. They were expertly crafted and anyone who knew a thing or two about cobbling would realize their value on sight. I beheld myself in the mirror before leaving, happy with the look of the female reflected at me. She was plain and yet pretty. Her dark hair accentuated her currently lavender eyes. And her simple dress hugged her curves as though it had been made for her.
She was a peasant girl. Through and through. No one would think otherwise.
I swung the door open and traipsed into the parlor where my males waited by the terrace—the two Draconians stretching their wings—readying for the flight.
They turned one by one. And one by one they froze, slack jawed at the sight of me. Alaric was the only one who maintained composure, a silent applause in his eyes and the quirk of his lips.
“Well done,” he finally said. “You look—”
“Normal?”
“Yes, that. But you’re still the most beautiful female I’ve ever seen,” Alaric cleared his throat. Turned to Tiernan, “Keep a close eye on her. I’ll be watching from a distance, but even looking like that, you’ll be fighting off males left and right.”
“Don’t worry. She’ll be well looked after,” he promised, a sly smile stretching across his face.
I huffed, rolling my eyes at them. “Are we all just going to stand here or are we ready to go?”
The flight was a little awkward. Since the five of us were going, Kade and Finn had to take turns carrying Tiernan as well as either me or Alaric. We also had to take regular breaks along the journey, stopping every twenty or minutes or so for them to rest their wings.
“I should have just ridden there on horseback,” Tiernan said for the second time, Arrow coming to land on his master’s shoulder, “I could have already been there waiting.”
“We’re almost there now,” Kade panted, stretching his wings wide and then tucking them in tight against his back, and then out again. “Just another fifteen minutes or so.”
“Come on,” Finn said, reaching out for me, “The memorial will have already begun.”
“You should rest a little longer,” I said, but he shook his head, “Look.” He pointed into the distance, out into the night. We were resting atop a flat plateau of rock and could see in almost all directions. “Higher,” Finn said, tilting my chin up.
And I saw it, a mountain, twice the height of the one we stood on. The top of it vanished amid the clouds. But I could see it, the glow of what I was certain must have been a hundred fires through plumes of white. And I could hear it, too, the cacophonous roar of music, and voices, and the pop and sizzle of flame.
Chapter Twenty
Ididn’t know what I expected, but as we rose through the damp clouds and the memorial came into full view, it wasn’t this. It was so unlike anything I’d ever seen. Not a bunch of Fae sad and mourning, no, this was acelebrationof life. The top of the mountain didn’t peak as I’d have thought, either. It ended in a wide flat expanse of stone. A plateau.
And at its center was the largest fire I’d ever seen. A hundred yards in diameter at least, with the tallest flames reaching for the stars. The gathered Fae drank and danced and shouted and sang. There seemed to be no differentiating between rank or importance. Nobility and peasant alike wove seamlessly together. If the palace was the head of the Night Court, this was its heart.
And all around, flying in entrancing patterns, or hovering in the air were Draconians. It must have been every single one that remained in my court. Come to memorialize their lost kin.
Alaric nodded to me from the arms of Kade before the Draconian took him in another direction. Finn flew Tiernan and I around the outer edge of the gathering, landing lightly behind an outcropping of rock. Arrow swooped by us, screeching his goodbye, before the falcon dove from the mountainside.
“Alright, take her in,” Finn said to Tiernan, “I’ll follow behind you at a distance.”
I grabbed Finn’s hand in my own before he could shove us off, “This isyournight. Don’t worry about me. I’m no one,” I said with a wink.
Though he nodded, and even offered a smirk, I knew he wouldn’t let me out of his sight. At least, not until Alaric took over watch.
Tiernan tugged me away, “Let’s go,” he said, radiant in the light.
We rounded the corner of stone and were nearly swept off our feet by passerby. Tiernan tugged me out of the way, hollering at the others to watch where they were going. I beheld the throng of Fae before me. Some looked at me and some didn’t, but those who did only gave a cursory glance, their eyes flitting away to admire something else. I laughed. I couldn’t help it. And couldn’t seem to make it stop.
This.Thiswas freedom. Wild and unchecked. A people come together for one purpose in peace, reveling in one another and in the beauty of life. Incredible.
