Harrison glanced back over his shoulder again. Ready? he seemed to be asking.
Lainie fixed her grip on Harrison’s back. “Ready,” she said.
Harrison crouched, his muscles bunching, and then launched himself into the air. Lainie whooped, the wind whipping her hair back. Massive brown-and-cream-banded wings spread out to either side of her, blocking her view of the rubble—and then they were airborne, soaring out over the edge of the cliff.
Lainie dug her fingers into Harrison’s thickly feathered shoulders. She was flying. She was flying, riding on the back of a mythical creature. A mythical creature that wanted to be her boyfriend.
She wasn’t sure which of those statements w
as the most impossible.
Today is a day for the impossible, she thought suddenly, glee bubbling up inside her. Impossible griffins. Impossible treasure. Impossible possibility that all of this might turn out all right…
Harrison glided out over the water, and Lainie narrowed her eyes to see through the glare of sunlight glittering on the waves. Another soaring turn, and she saw the lighthouse, still holding on to the top of the hill even when the rest of the house had crumbled.
Harrison was holding his wings out stiffly, drifting with the air currents. He swung around again, and this time Lainie caught a glimpse of the small beach at the base of the cliff. From up here, the people standing on the beach were as small as peg dolls. She could just make out Mrs. Sweets in her distinctive lavender twinset. And a few other figures wearing nothing at all.
They must be the shifters who were helping search for the treasure. I don’t even know most of their names. I can’t just refer to them as… my naked, mystery helpers? A giggle escaped her lips and was whipped away by the wind.
She didn’t even know these people, but after Harrison had called them together, they hadn’t hesitated to help her.
Harrison wheeled back out over the waves. Lainie leaned forward until she could rest her cheek against his neck. His feathers tickled her nose.
From here, she could just see the beach again. What would happen when they landed? She was still sure something was going to go wrong. Or everything. Would she lose everything she’d found in the last two days?
Even the shifters who’d helped her find the jewels—they’d agreed to help before they heard what Mrs. Sweets said about her. Now that they knew she’d already been thrown out of Hideaway Cove once, would they still welcome her…or reject her?
Would she be the reason Harrison left his home?
Lainie held her breath, heart aching, as Harrison swooped down towards the beach. The sand and waves approached alarmingly fast, but ten feet above the ground Harrison flared his wings out and landed lightly on all four feet.
Lainie slid off his back, keeping one hand on him even once her own feet were safely sinking into the damp sand. The feathers under her palm rippled, and then disappeared, replaced with soft skin. Lainie smoothed her hand over Harrison’s human shoulder, then passed him the pants.
I’m never going to get used to seeing him transform like that, she thought with a pang. But oh, I really want to try. I want the chance. I don’t want to lose all of this, all of him, when I’ve only just found him.
She stepped forward, ready to speak, with Harrison at her side.
Harrison squeezed her hand “No more secrets,” he announced, staring coolly at Mrs. Sweets. “I’ve heard some things these last few days that have shaken my faith in the people of Hideaway Cove. Decisions made about our home that we had no part in making—that we weren’t even told had been made. It can’t continue.”
“You naïve fool!” Mrs. Sweets hissed. “Our rules have kept Hideaway Cove safe for decades. Security is even more important these days, when one phone video could reveal us to the world. And this woman has just threatened to sell off half the town to outsiders!”
“As a last resort,” Lainie cried out. “And that was before I knew about shifters!”
She bit her lip, acutely aware of all the eyes focused on her.
Which idiot said to envision your audience in their undies if you have trouble with public speaking? she thought, gathering her courage. Half these people are completely nude, and it is not helping.
She stepped forward, planting her feet with a confidence she didn’t feel.
“I didn’t come here planning to sell off Lighthouse Hill, but I knew it was an option,” she admitted in front of everyone. “I don’t know how many of you knew my grandmother, but she was very ill in her last years. Payment for her care had to come from somewhere, and the land is the only part of her estate that was worth anything.”
“Then what do you call that?” one of the lavender-rinsed women asked, her mouth pinched into a unpleasant knot. She pointed an accusing finger at the jewels lying in piles at Lainie’s feet.
Lainie stared at her. “I’m getting to that, ma’am,” she said as politely as she could. “You’re right. Selling the land is clearly no longer my only option.”
“So you’re choosing blackmail?” Mrs. Sweets sniffed. “What next—‘Play nice, or I’ll sell to a consortium of big-game hunters?’”
Mrs. Sweets’ eyes were acid with disgust as she accused Lainie. Lainie stared back. Understanding dawned inside her, and with it, a strange sort of peace.