Page 114 of The King's Man
She nodded, but didn’t smile. “When other Neph come, they stay here. Luckily… luckily no one else is here right now.”
I nodded and stood, holding her to my side, ignoring the eyes that inevitably darted to us when I stood. I was tempted to manifest my wings, really give them something to stare at, but I didn’t.
“Well, let’s go,” I muttered, and took her hand, clamping mine around it so there wasnochance anyone would question that we were together. “Sounds like I have some friends to meet tomorrow.”
Then I drew her across to the doorway where stairs led to the rooms above, my heart pounding.
41.A Role to Play
~ DIADRE ~
Jann sauntered up the stairs to the room we’d been given like a cat on its way to a sunny corner, even grabbing my ass as we walked up the stairs in front of one of the housemaids.
But the moment we stepped inside and I closed the door behind us, he was a caged animal.
‘Don’t say anything out loud that sounds like anything except two lovers preparing for bed,’he sent worriedly, slipping across the room as silently as the cat, despite his size and weight.
‘What’s going on?’
‘I’ve been warned, the Fallen are here, and watching for me.’
I frowned, watching him sling our bags over his shoulder, then unlock the window and swing the wide frame inwards.
“It’s warm tonight,” he said in a low purr. “I want you in moonlight and the night air.”
I giggled like I was being seduced, and his eyes slipped to mefor a blink before he leaned out the window, looking in every direction. Then he turned to sit on the sill and reached up to grab something above the window, pulling himself out onto the inn’s roof.
When I realized he was actually going outside—leaving—I rushed over to the window and leaned out.
‘What are you doing?!’
A thick arm lowered from the gable above. I clasped his hand which engulfed mine as he lifted me bodily up onto the roof above.
He’d straddled the gable like a horse, gripping the front edge with his free hand while he lifted me with the other. His wings were out and extended behind me.
We were going to fly again.
He lifted me like a child and sat me on the roof in front of him, pulling those straps from his bag and wrapping them around us wordlessly.
‘Where are we going?’I asked him, feeling breathless even though we weren’t speaking out loud.
‘Noctharrow Haven,’he sent darkly.
A small jolt of alarm rocked through me, but I didn’t ask anything else until he wrapped his arms around me, braced his feet on the roof tiles, then launched us off the tall building, his wings snapping as they caught the wind. We were only feet from the street, but instead of lowering us to the cobbles as I thought he would, he flapped hurriedly, muttering about the noise, to raise us above the roofs of the houses and buildings on the other side of the street, then stretching out to glide down, down, down, following the curve of the city.
‘Why aren’t you going higher? We’re close enough for people to see us!’
‘There’s enough of a Neph presence here that if we are seen I hope they’ll assume it’s someone local. But we’re likely to beseen by far more people if I climb the sky. The moon is bright tonight. This way there are fewer chances. Safer.’His arms tightened on me, though there was no need with the leather straps pinning me to his chest.
‘What happened back there, Jann?’
‘Someone sent a message. One I’m not ready to respond to.’
‘Who?’
‘That’s why I’m not ready to respond—I’m not entirely certain.’
I frowned.‘If you know it was a message, how can you not know who it was from?’
