Gabriel visibly calmed himself.“I’m still going to kill him.”
“I think you’d be doing the world a service,” she replied with a smile that felt genuine this time.“Although, he means to supplant his father, so you could let Lord Sammael do it for you.”
“And deprive myself of the pleasure?”Gabriel’s lips crooked in a half smile, but his eyes held lethal intent, deadly danger in his magic.She shivered despite herself.Silvery calm and black as the dark side of the moon, that was her wizard.
“We should probably move on,” Alise said from where she and Han had been walking the horses to cool them gradually, apology in her tone.
Nic went to her sister, hugging her hard.“Thank you for coming to rescue me,” she said.“I didn’t get to say so before.”
Alise held on to her a long moment, her grip nearly desperate.“Was our father there?”
Surprised, Nic let her go.“How did you know?”
“I sensed him.This changes a great deal.”
“You have no idea.”Nic hesitated.“Maman was with him.”
Alise’s face lit up.“Oh, such good news!How is she?”
Much as she hated to break the bad news—and Alise’s heart along with it—she shook her head.“Not good at all.I’ll tell you everything.But we have to save her.”
Alise searched her face, then nodded crisply.“We’ll find a way.There must be one.”
When Nic went back to Salve, she found Gabriel had attached the mare to a lead behind Vale.“Ride with me,” he suggested.Mounting up, he held a hand down to her.
Nic hesitated.“Won’t that be hard on Vale?”
“Just for a short time,” Gabriel coaxed.“I need to hold you for a little while longer.”As if agreeing, Vale swung his great head around and snorted at her, clearly disdainful of her concerns.
With a laugh that was only a little watery, she patted his muzzle, pressing a kiss to the velvety skin.“You’re my hero, too,” she told him.“Every time.”Taking Gabriel’s extended hand, she let him lift her with his easy strength to sit crosswise in his lap, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning in.He put one strong arm around her and urged Vale into a fast clip.
It was better this way.Wrapped in Gabriel’s arms, she began to believe in the reality of her escape.Parts of her she hadn’t realized were tense, braced in anticipation of crushing disappointment, finally relaxed and calmed.For his part, Gabriel held her tightly, pressing his cheek into her hair, seeming to need the contact just as much.His magic smoothed out, no longer churning with spikes, the moon turning to its brighter face, the rippling sense of him under her skin like an intimate caress.In turn, she embraced him with her magic, letting it flow without reservation, so grateful he could receive it from her again.
They rode withonly short breaks, otherwise not stopping until they reached the Dubglass River, where they’d left a barge secured.Though Gabriel had hidden it with a spell of reflective moon magic, everyone was relieved to find it still there.
Unfortunately, Selly and Jadren had yet to catch up with them.Gabriel stared off the way they’d come, trying to conceal his worry, looking as if he were trying to sense where they might be.Alise had sent a spirit to look for them, but she was exhausted, and even with Han’s help, her range was too diminished for her to send it far enough.The fact that the pair were beyond her reach was a distressing sign in and of itself, though no one wanted to articulate that.
Nic slipped her hand into his.They’d loaded the horses onto the barge, Alise already lying down to rest, her head propped on Han’s knee, eyes closed.“They’re strong and smart,” she told Gabriel.“Selly knows how to survive, and Jadren is a powerful wizard, whatever his magic is.”
“He’s a shitty fighter, though, did I tell you?”Gabriel essayed a smile.
“Maybe you can tell me about it on the barge,” she suggested gently.“I don’t want to strand them either, but they have horses, supplies, and weapons.Selly knows the land and can find her way back.They wouldn’t thank us for rendering their sacrifice moot or jeopardizing the safety of everyone back at House Phel because we waited too long for them.”
Sighing, he nodded.“Ever my practical Nic.”He studied her face.“There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“There are a lot of things we haven’t had opportunity to tell each other,” she replied, her heart quaking.She dreaded confessing how she’d betrayed the secrets of the House Phel arcanium, but there was no way around it.Even now, her father might be there, greedily gorging on the stored magic, Maman an unwitting accomplice.The thought of him taking what she and Gabriel had spun out of their purest connection and taking it for his twisted ends made her feel ill at the violation.
Gabriel watched her, no doubt sensing her tumult of emotion.“Whatever it is, we’ll handle it together,” he told her, silvery cool magic soothing and caressing.
“And if we can’t?”
“Then we’re still together.That’s what matters most.”
She nodded, stepping with him onto the barge, their hands still joined, feeling the truth of it.“I can’t believe you’ve managed to get me to voluntarily step foot on another barge,” she said archly.
He grinned, real humor in it.“Romantic, yes?”
“No,” she answered firmly, but when he gathered her close for a long, lingering kiss, she melted into him.The barge moved under her feet, lurching a little as it caught the current, his water magic moving them upstream.It was difficult to remember the time when she was consumed with keeping her distance from him, especially now when not touching him affected her with a physical pain.Fortunately, he seemed to need it, too, both of them clinging to each other to keep from drowning.It would take time, she suspected, for them to recover enough to feel safe separating.
Until then, she was more than happy to curl up in his lap, even if it meant telling him the terrible news.