A quick nod was all I could manage. I glimpsed his perfect smile before his lips gently touched mine. I felt a flash of heat and perfection, closed my eyes, and then . . .
My hands were no longer spread across Niel’s chest. Someone was shouting, and something on my belly was very heavy.
I blinked and squinted at an eerily glowing face suspended in darkness. Gradually, the shouts I heard synchronized with the mouth’s movements: “Let go! Put it down! What do you think you’re doing? You might have killed it! Oh, I’m dead! I amsodead!”
Arabella
We were two days into the Magic Council War, as I’d begun to call it, with no sign of Pukai or her intended rescue team. What could be keeping them? At present, the battle was pretty much a stalemate. A few of our troops had vanished, more likely enchanted than killed, but the enemy had also sustained losses. So far, our defenses were holding, but whenever I tuned in closely, I sensed how the enemy’s magic constantly searched for weak points, working to convince our allies that joining the all-powerful Mirror was both desirable and inevitable.
Concern for Beatrice distracted me more often than I like to admit. Had she found the eggs and their nanny? I couldn’t sense her anywhere, so I decided she must be inside the Forbidden Lands. For all I knew, she’d been at the palace for days or weeks. I could only hope and pray for her safety and wisdom, adding maybe one or two pleas for the Almighty to give the girl the wisdom she needed and bring this situation to a happy ending. I knew Beatrice was deeply attached to the Gamekeeper, but to fall in love with and promise to marry a shadowy not-quite-human? That was asking a lot. I desperately wanted—no,neededher to look past appearances to his courageous, loving, faithful heart, but I also empathized with the “eww” factor. I mean, he was a large magical beast who was human . . . and yetnot.
And whose fault was that?
17
BEATRICE
Realization dawned, and bitterdisappointment flooded through me: I was back in the cave with Winifred, who was shouting again. Her hands snatched at but never quite touched the heavy object on my belly, and her words glanced off me.
I couldn’t think clearly of anything except Niel’s touch and voice and smile. I knew he wasn’t here in the cave, yet I looked around . . . and the first thing I saw was the unwrapped golden egg clasped between my hands. As I watched, its bright glow faded to a shimmer. Slowly sitting upright, I stared down at my egg, tuning out Win’s harangue. Maybe I really would die for touching a griffin egg, but just then I didn’t care.
My heart and thoughts were too wrapped up in Niel, who was gone, lost in the distant past.
The egg’s gentle vibration paused, and a sleepy voice spoke into my mind:Nee not lost.
I shook my head in disbelief. My egg could read my thoughts?
Winifred was still ranting. “You’ve killed it! You idiot know-it-all! You’ve killed me too! Vlad will pulverize us! Mirka will tear us to—”
I looked up to say, “You told me you were dead the last time I held it. Reports of your demise are losing their shock value. And the egg isn’t dead either.”
Her rant cut off. “What?”
I dipped my head toward my lap. “She’s fine.”
“She?” Win echoed in dismay. “You can’t possibly know its sex.”
I shrugged. “Honestly, Win, I didn’t touch the egg on purpose. When I fell asleep, she was still wrapped up inside my pack.” All true. However, we both knew the egg couldn’t move herself.
Or could she?
Seeing Win’s face screw into another ferocious scowl, I quickly asked, “Do griffins purr?”
“Of course not!” she snapped. “Lions don’t purr, and eagles obviously wouldn’t.”
Eagle head and wings, lion body. Like the statue I’d loved as a child. That’s what griffins were! “Huh.”
Smiling, I gently hefted my egg and made the effort to stand up gracefully. I was stiff in every limb, but Win didn’t need to know that. “My griffin egg sure feels and sounds like she’s purring.”
“It’s not your egg.” She looked as though her teeth were grinding. “It’s my egg! They’re both my eggs.”
I pondered her claim, then reached into my backpack to check on the second egg. His shell shimmered like moonlight on a lake when I stroked it with one finger, and I sensed drowsy pleasure from the fetal griffin. “Since we’re so far into the cave now, I’ll trust you to carry the silver egg for a while. He’s a sweet little guy.”
Her hopeful expression twisted into a scowl. “It’s a griffin. It—”
Her correction broke off when I raised a brow. “If you want to carry him, no more talk of being torn to shreds or any of the other dire fates you delight in describing. We need to focus on escaping from this horrid cave. Then we can worry about returning these eggs to their parents.”
To my surprise, she nodded. “Since webothslept already—”