“I’m sorry I ran away earlier. I, I’d like that is, I want…I just want to see you again. You didn’t even tell me your name.”
Silence.
Neridia licked her dry lips. Then she edged into the water, shivering at its cold kiss on her skin. She went as far out as she dared, until the lake rose to her waist. Currents pulled at her, trying to tug her off her feet.
“Hello?” She looked down into the dark water, and saw nothing except her own reflection looking back. “Is anyone there?”
All seas are one sea.
The water carried her face, her words, on hidden currents across the ocean. By the time the ripples reached a palace deep under the sea, the news of her existence was the barest whisper.
But it was noticed.
Chapter 5
John ignored the first knock on his hotel room door, and the second. He could not, however, ignore the third.
It wasn’t exactly a knock. More a kick. The door slammed back against the wall with a crunch of splintering wood.
“Right,” Griff said, lowering his booted foot. Chase and Hugh flanked him, their expressions as grimly determined as if they were about to charge into an inferno. “What’s wrong, John?”
John didn’t pause in his packing. “Nothing, oath-brother. All is well.”
Griff’s golden eyes narrowed. “John, it’s the middle of the night, you’re dripping wet and practically naked, and you’re flinging your hoard into your backpack as though the room is on fire. All is very definitely not well.”
John gripped his favorite golden chain, the worked links digging into his palms. He forced himself to meet his oath-brother’s eyes. He knew it was futile to try to dissemble—the griffin shifter’s piercing gaze could see through any lie.
“On my honor, I swear to you that it is not a matter with which you can help.” He made himself speak levelly, forcing back the melody of grief that wanted to weave around the human words. “But I must go.”
“What, right now?” Chase said. “Where?”
“Home,” John said simply.
They stared at him.
“Well,” Hugh said, after a moment. “I for one am not going to volunteer to drive you to the damn seaside at one o’clock in the bloody morning.”
“I shall swim.” He could tell the lake joined up with the ocean eventually, though the distant song of the salt water was whisper-faint.
“Through a canal?” Hugh countered. “Through the
middle of Inverness? It’s a city, John. Even invisible, you’ll be like a whale trying to squeeze down a drainpipe.”
“Then I shall walk!” His roar rocked all three of them back on their heels. John took a deep breath, trying to steady his voice. “I must go. I must go now!”
Chase’s jaw dropped. “My God. You actually found some trace of your missing Emperor, didn’t you? In Loch Ness?”
“No—it is not that.” John shook his head in quick denial. “I found something else. Something much worse.”
Griff’s brow furrowed. “Is there some sort of danger here?”
“No! I assure you, it is nothing of that nature. You need not fear for your mate’s safety, nor that of any dry-lander. But I must report at once to the Knight-Commander of my Order. Please. Let me go.”
The three other shifters exchanged baffled glances. He could sense the silent flicker of telepathic communication as they conferred with each other.
All mystical shifters could commune psychically with each other, but he kept his own mind closed, his mental walls thick and high. If his comrades sensed his inner turmoil, they would never let him go until they knew what had caused it.
“John,” Chase said. John had rarely heard the mercurial pegasus shifter speak so seriously. “If you must go, then of course we’ll help you any way we can. But we’re your friends, and we’re worried about you. Please, just tell us what’s going on.”