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Groaning, I relinquished the bag to him, and he deftly secured it to one side of Scylla and lifted the other, securing it to her other side in a matter of seconds. “What’s in these?” he asked, quirking a brow.
I lifted my chin and narrowed my eyes at him, “I’ll need clothes, won’t I?”
He had the audacity to roll his eyes at me—but only playfully. I was about to shove him when Arrow came screeching out of the clouds to land on his master’s shoulder. The falcon followed Edris when he’d left the night before. He must be exhausted.
“Did he make it to the border?” Tiernan asked Arrow as though the bird could answer him and stroked the feathers on his breast. “Such a good falcon,” he crooned. Arrow didn’t seem miffed or distraught, so it was safe to assume Edris had made it safely to the border and Arrow didn’t see the need to follow him anymore.
Edris would announce our coming to the Day Court and wait there for our arrival. Though he maintained a very serious front, my father seemed more than a little excited to be allowed to join us.
Enya had her reservations about the Day Court and never would have sought to repair the tear between our court and theirs.
But Edris was different. More like me. Eager to carve new paths and curious to discover new things. I had been wrong about him… and my males were right, he was the only wind-Graced noble at court. It would be idiotic of me not to take the chance to develop that Grace—even if it meant telling him the truth about my Graces and trusting him not to tell others.
Eventually, a time would come where my court would have to know—or they would find out. But that time hadn’t come quite yet.
Arrow flew off Tiernan’s shoulder and went to land on a tall post outside the stables, pruning himself in the warmth of the rising sun. “How long have you had him?”
Tiernan smirked, “A very long time. Sometimes I think the rodent might somehow be immortal, too. He’s been with me nearly twenty years and was full-grown when I found him with a broken wing on my uncle’s estate.”
“He seems to fly well now. Did you mend it for him?”
“After he almost bit my fingers off, yes. I didn’t know it at the time, but it wasn’t only me helping Arrow to heal,” he said, staring fondly at his companion, “He helped me, too. I was in a dark place then.”
“What do you mea—”
“We should go,” Finn called to us, leading his horse from the stable behind Alaric. “Dawn is breaking, and we have a long way to go.”
“He’s right,” Tiernan said, looking away—his golden hair falling to shroud his face from me. “Here, let me help you up.”
I let him lift me onto Scylla, and bless the beast, she didn’t so much as budge. I sighed in relief.
“I’ll lead you out. Just remember to grip the saddle with your thighs,” he said with a wink, “Alaric means to set a cruel pace to make up for the time we lost this morning.”
I groaned.
“Chin up, Liana,” said Tiernan, “At least you aren’t returning to a court you relinquished all ties to. Going to see a queen you used to guard while now guarding another.”
A pang in my chest.
I hadn’t thought of it—how Tiernan would be returning to his home court as a guest. The last communication he’d had with the Day Court was to inform them he wouldn’t be returning. Queen Suriel never wrote him back. And as far as I knew he hadn’t heard from his uncle either. They let him go without so much as a word to even try to make him stay.
I’d never have let him go so easily. I’d have chased him across oceans if I had to. What sort of people didn’t know valiance and loyalty when they saw it? Who would toss it away so easily?
“I’m sorry,” I said.
He shook his head, turning away to lead me out of the stables with a hand on Scylla’s tackle. “It doesn’t matter. I didn’t belong there, and I think they all knew it.”
I nodded. I knew what it was like to feel as though you didn’t belong. It was how I felt most days in the palace. I belonged with my males—that I knew for certain. But I never got that sense of belonging I thought I’d find at court. I didn’t settle into my role as queen as snuggly as I’d hoped. And I never would.
“I don’t think you belong to a place,” I mused, “You belong to the people in it.”
He turned, stopping Scylla in her slow walk and smiled a close-lipped smile. A dimple in his cheek. The sunlight playing in his hair. “I belong to you,” he said, laying a hand over his chest.
I felt the bond tugging at my core. “And I, you.”
He turned back to continue leading me to where Alaric and Finn waited on the southern road. I got the feeling Tiernan has been waiting a long time to find someone worthy to belong to. Thank the goods that someone was me. I beamed feeling like the luckiest female ever to have been born.
“Hurry up!” Alaric called back to us.
