Page 46 of Vicious Little Vows
Feeling hopped up on magic, I went to him. I braced my hands on his chest so I could stand on my toes with the grass tickling my feet. “We’re all in this together, okay?”
I watched his throat bob as he swallowed, then he nodded. He met me halfway, kissing me slowly at first, but when I didn’t pull away his hands went to my hips, crushing me against him. I had an image of a glittering stream in a moonlit meadow as his magic seeped into me, and the sunlit glow of my skin turned a cooler hue.
I was breathless as our lips parted, his hands feeling far too good on my hips. I knew I should have been a little bit embarrassed, but neither of the goblins commented, just as they had never commented on what they’d walked in on in Mistral’s bedroom. I wondered if they’d had a nice chat about it all and had come to an agreement. Knowing Mistral and Gabriel, they probably had.
Crispin’s smile was so genuine, I would have kissed him even without the need for a magic boost. “We won’t go far,” he promised, then released me to kneel and pick up Ringo.
Ringo looked at me pleadingly from Crispin’s palm.
“You should probably go too,” I said. “Sorry.”
Gabriel kissed my cheek as he passed, and Mistral squeezed my hand. I followed them toward the wall, keeping Mistral’s hand in mine. Even though he had supported the idea the most, he seemed the most reluctant to let go, but he finally had to when it was his turn to climb over the wall, stepping out into the gray.
Once they were all separated from me, I started to have doubts. But I had to do this. I wasn’t just going to let Sebastian wither away in some stone box somewhere.
“Good luck,” Mistral said.
Gabriel looked like he was about to protest when I turned away. I had enough magic within me now that if I got putanywhere I didn’t want to be, I could jump out to the guys. It was fine. Everything would be fine. I just had to break some stuff.
NINETEEN
With my boots back on in case I needed to haul ass to the wall, I looked around for something to push over. Hopefully that would be enough for the guardian to come back and protect its waypoint. I was starting to get a really bad feeling about its absence. Because why give me back the other guys and not Sebastian?
Unless it hadn’t realized I could escape the first stone room. Maybe it had wanted me to die down there too.
I hoped not. I hoped it was just trying to fix whatever was draining magic from its little realm.
I stopped next to the empty stables, the strong scent of hay itching my nostrils. With how long the guardian had been alone, I assumed magic was used to keep the hay fresh. And the jarred food for that matter. I may very well have eaten hundred year old carrots.
There was a small trough with fresh water next to the stables, and it seemed as good a place as any to start. I crouched and grabbed the edge, heaving, nearly throwing out my back when I realized how heavy it was. The water sloshed all over the ground, splattering mud onto the side of the stables.
I stood up, panting, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, I took a rake and tossed it onto the stable roof.
Feeling ridiculous, I turned around. The water trough was back upright, filled with pristine water.
I put my hands on my hips. “Huh.”
I took a step toward the estate, then tripped when there was stone where the grass should be. Oh gods, not again. At least when I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in pure darkness.
This room was larger than the others, and there was light at one end. The sound of tinkling glass and flickers of stars let me know it was the guardian. Its shape was erratic, no longer resembling a human in the slightest. Beyond it, someone lay on their side, but if it was Sebastian, I couldn’t sense him.
I set your companions free, but this one cannot leave. He knows something of what attacks the waypoint.
I held a hand to my brow. It was surprising how disorienting an extra voice in your head could be. Especially when that voice came from a dizzying display of swirling stars. “He doesn’t know any more than the rest of us.” I took a cautious step toward the creature, and Sebastian finally lifted his head enough for me to see his face through the stars and darkness.
He lies to you as well.
That stopped me, but just for a heartbeat. I still couldn’t sense Sebastian. There was no golden cord between us. “Once I find the vortex, the gray will stop advancing. But you have to let us all go to do that.”
The swirling stars formed enough shape to have a head, and that head whipped back in my direction.Not the gray. The unraveling. If it continues, the way will be severed. The waypoint will be lost.
I stopped short again. The unraveling? Did it mean what had been happening in the Bogs before the vortex? It would makesense, I supposed. If the vortex could affect this place, so could the magic of the Bogs.
“What do you think he knows about it?”
Sebastian looked like he could barely hold himself up, but he still glared at me past the guardian.
I lifted my brows expectantly. If he knew something that could help Mistral and he hadn’t told me—
