The restive calm from the fireplace was gone. Now a fever burned in his eyes.
He’s ready for this war.
No, she corrected. He was ready for this to be over.
She’d known he’d always borne the mantle of responsibility like a personal vendetta and, after hearing his story, she wasn’t convinced he’d given over his life with stoic resignation and little choice. Not entirely. The burden of ancestral sin and the eternal ties that bound were only a part of what made the man. The rest was pure Kelan McAllister to the core.
The ramp eventually churned low enough for them to spill out.
Kelan called Devon and Armand to him, issuing orders as they went.
Lily’s gaze followed for a moment, her heart swollen with love and admiration. His damp hair curled into his collar. The tails of his coat flapped against his boots with each long stride of confidence. His broad shoulders, fierce determination and sheer arrogance were a compelling combination that might well be enough to carry the weight of this world.
And then the Cragloden welcoming committee was upon them, arresting her gaze from the man she loved so much, it felt like a physical ache.
Georgina, looking very much like her old self, even if it were in borrowed clothes — Lily definitely recognised the lace trimmed velvet riding coat as one of Evelyn’s — fell upon Neco with a flurry of concern and bossiness.
“Mrs. Locke sent for the doctor and he’s just arrived. Come, we’re taking Grey directly to his bedroom. How is he? Is he still unconscious?” She went up on her tiptoes, trying to peer over Neco’s arms as she swept in his wake up the portico steps. “Grey? Do you hear me? Grey? Goodness, Neco, have a care,” she snapped as Greyston’s booted foot banged into the doorframe on their way inside. “Has he woken at all?”
Neco didn’t get a single word in.
Ana blew straight past the commotion and nearly collided with Lily, skidding to a halt at the last second.
“I’m so pleased you made it here.” With a smile, Lily linked her arm through Ana’s, turning her back around so they could hurry after the others. “Neco told me you were out all night searching and hadn’t yet returned when Kelan arrived at Harchings Castle.”
“My primary directive is to protect you and I failed,” Ana said, sounding as miserable as her monotonic vocals allowed. “I lost you.”
“And now you’ve found me.” Lily folded her hand over Ana’s and squeezed with extra warmth. Celludrone skin didn’t have finer sensory awareness, but Ana could certainly comprehend the sentimentality. “Did you sail up from Surrey with Lord Harchings?”
Ana nodded. “With a detour through Glasgow.”
“That’s right, he went after the Gossamer,” Lily remembered. “What did you find?”
“A crater in the ground. Agares took the ship and torched the bunker.”
Lily pursed her lips, and didn’t ask about the bodies.
Inside, Mrs. Locke awaited them in the hallway. The usual dour expression scowled her face, but her hands were clasped fretfully in the bowl of her skirts.
“Dr. Barlow is with Lord Adair, m’lady,” she said. “They’re in the west wing. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Rustle up a meal? I intend to see his lordship eats before we set out again, but we don’t have much time.”
“There’s stew left over from last night that I could reheat,” Mrs. Locke said, her hands unclasping now that she had something constructive to get on with amidst the chaos.
“Thank you, Mrs. Locke, that sounds marvellous.” Lily’s stomach rumbled in agreement. She couldn’t even think of what she’d last had to eat.
To Ana, she said, “As soon as the food is ready to be served, take a message to Kelan. Tell him I need him to come find me.”
Leaving Ana with the housekeeper, Lily made her way along the short passage to the marble foyer of the guest wing. At the top of the staircase, she found Georgina pacing in front of a closed door.
“We’ve been banned from the room,” she informed Lily with an exaggerated roll of eyes. “Apparently I was far too loud and distracting.”
Lily’s brow arched. “And you let that stop you?”
“Not normally, but I’d prefer the portly doctor focussed his short attention span on Greyston and not on me.”
Lily pushed the door open, quiet as a mouse, and poked her head inside. The silver-haired doctor bent over Greyston’s naked chest and Neco…! Lily averted her eyes from where Neco was in the process of stripping Greyston from his breeches and popped her head back out.
“Perhaps we’ll give them a moment of privacy.” She propped herself against the wall and folded her arms.
Her gaze roamed the small drawing room, pausing on each of the four doors that led to guest bedrooms, and her thoughts swept back to a million years ago. The day Flavith had attacked the Red Hawk and she’d sought refuge here at Cragloden, along with Ana, Greyston Neco and Evelyn. Then, Ana had been severely broken and Jean had died. Now, the Red Hawk was gone and Greyston was hanging on by a shoestring.
Kelan had it right.
The demons took and took and took…
She swallowed past a lump of frustrated anger and blinked her eyes on Georgina. “How was Evelyn when you last saw her?”
“Infuriated beyond reason.” Georgina flung herself down onto the sofa, sinking into the fat cushions and stretching her legs out. A smile played on her lips. “Devon refused to let her come with us. She told him exactly what she thought of that.”
“That sounds like Evie.”
“I sent an Aether message to Devon’s townhouse straight after Neco arrived earlier. Evelyn should get the news of your safe return in the late afternoon post.”
“Thank you, that was thoughtful,” Lily said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Georgina’s chin dipped. She hooked one ankle over the other, watching her boots with an odd intensity, then she peered up at Lily through lowered eyelids. “After everything that has happened, no doubt you regret it, but thank you, Lily. You traded yourself for me. You saved my life.”
“I don’t regret it for a single second,” Lily said firmly.
She didn’t pretend to understand how Georgina could have done what she did to Greyston, but she was prepared to let it go. They’d all suffered enough and there was more to come.
“We’re going to war,” she told Georgina. “Agares has amassed a following, close on two hundred demons.”
“Good God!” Georgina’s legs snapped in as she sat straighter.
“Cragloden is protected. You’ll be safe inside these walls.” When she saw the objection crease between Georgina’s eyes in stubborn silence, she pressed, “I need you to be safe.”
“Why?” That groove creased deeper. “Because I’ll be a liability if I try to help?”
Lily bit her tongue. Whatever kept the woman from enlisting in Kelan’s army. And in all honesty, it was possibly the truth.
Georgina slumped back again and Lily trained her gaze on the watercolours above the sofa, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. She had no right to dictate how others lived their lives. Or how they chose to die.
She opened her mouth to say as much, but just then the doctor came through the door, pressing it closed behind him. In one hand, he carried an enormous, black medical bag.
He’s leaving.
“How is he?” demanded Georgina, springing to her feet.
“As comfortable as I can make him,” the doctor informed them in a hushed tone.
“Is he still unconscious?” Lily asked.
“Your job is to make him better,” Georgina snapped, looking ready to pounce. “Not to make him comfortable.”
“His heartbeat is strong, there’s no reason for Lord Adair not to waken when he’s ready.” He swung his bag in front of him, grasping it defensively with both hands. “What he needs now is rest and calm—” His bushy brows speared toward Georgina, then he turned to Lily, “and for someone to stay with him at all times.”
He tipped his head and started making his way to the staircase. “I’ll return in the morning, but send for me if there’s any change in his condition before then.”
Lily didn’t bother glaring after the miserable man’s scurrying departure. She entered the room and rushed to Greyston’s bedside. He looked peaceful, as if he’d fallen into a deep sleep instead of into the ocean. The covers were pulled up to his throat and the temperature in the room had been turned up to blistering.
Georgina rounded on the other side of the bed, her face set in an angry frown. “For goodness sake, does it have to be so hot in here?”
“Doctor’s order,” Neco said from where he stood across the room, his back to the window.
“What is he trying to do? Suffocate Grey in his own sweat?” She yanked the covers lower, baring half his chest.
“What is this?” Lily looked from the bandage strapping Greyston’s shoulder to Neco.
“A piece of wood arrowed through his back just below the collar bone,” Neco told her. “Doctor Barlow confirmed the cut was clean and missed vital organs and bone.”
“Any other injuries I wasn’t informed of?” she said sharply.
“No. The doctor wouldn’t believe he’d fallen from the sky. Said no man was that lucky, and he didn’t even know about the crash that came before the fall.” He walked to the foot of the bed as he spoke, his eyes on Lily. “What are we doing about Agares?”
“Kelan’s organising his men.” And as much as she wanted to be here when Greyston woke, she couldn’t linger. She leant over him, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead and a whispered, “Come back to us.”
“You should go,” Georgina told her. “You’re needed elsewhere. I’ll take care of Grey, I swear. I won’t leave his side.”
When she turned a hesitant look on Neco, he nodded. “I’m of more use out there than here. Besides, Grey will prefer to see your face to mine when he comes around.”
“I’m not so sure.”
“I am,” Neco said with a blank expression. “Eighty-five point three percent sure.”
“How on earth do you figure that?”
Lily left them to it, hurrying from the room, breaking into a run as an idea formed and stuck. In the wing on the opposite end of the castle, she darted into her bedroom first, stripping down completely to change into leather breeches that fitted and a fresh shirt. She didn’t own a spare pair of knee-high boots, so she kept the mismatched ones on, needing the inset sheath for her sword.
Then she made her way to Kelan’s study and the accurately painted world map covering half of one wall. She found the crack that splintered deep into Scotland’s land mass, the Forth of Firth, then traced a finger up to the Tay.
What had Kelan said? They’d been stranded approximately ten miles north from there? She took a closer look at the map’s scale indicator, then used the width of her index finger to measure the miles. When she was satisfied she had the correct cliff top, she grabbed the inkpot from the desk and smudged a small circle on the spot.
She stood back, studying the terrain. A series of hillocks dotted toward the south and west, following the line of the Tay Water. Above that, a single mountain range stretched, also in a south west direction, nearly parallel to the hillocks with a narrow, flat plain between.
With those markers in mind, she searched the demon glass, selecting one of the layered, pulsing tunnels instead of the dominating whirlwind that belonged to Agares.
She stepped through the canvas into the momentary swirl and came out into…
…a disorientating press of bodies, elbows jabbing, heavy breathing, muttered conversations, the dank smell of sweat and the acrid taste of sulphur, booted legs punching straight through her, spinning her around but they couldn’t touch her, couldn’t see her, couldn’t feel her. Of course they couldn’t. She swallowed a cry, willing herself to fly, to float above the swarm that moved to a single beat like a many-headed, many-legged creature.
Once she was above the melee, she could breathe again. She looked up at the sky and went higher, higher, until she was about thirty feet above the ground and could go no farther no matter how much she willed her ethereal body. But it was high enough for her to see what she’d come for.
The ocean lay to her right. To the front, a gentle slope covered with heather and scrubby bush that jutted suddenly near the top into a rounded peak. To her left, a wide gap, perhaps a couple of hundred yards before the next hill began.
She pulled out, before any symptom of the poison could affect her, and stained another inky smudge on Kelan’s beautifully crafted map. She didn’t think he’d mind. Agares hadn’t covered much distance, and the path they were on might simply be the easiest route down from the cliff top and no indication of their destination. But at least Lily had a location, a starting point from which to track.
The study door banged open, nudged by Kelan’s shoulder as his hands were occupied by a steaming bowl of stew and a plate of thick-crusted bread.
He saw her standing by the wall and grinned. “You lured me inside under false pretences.”
“Not anymore.” She pointed to her latest smudge.
“Agares?” He came forward, studying the map. “They’re coming here.”
“Or…” Lily dragged her finger around the base of the hill to the wide plain that stretched up to the mountain range behind. “If they’re heading for Perth, this plain will give them relatively flat ground. If they’re heading here, the shortest route is the rocky cliff edges all the way to the Tay Basin. We’ll know when they pass or take the valley between the hills.”
Kelan jabbed a finger on the map. “We’ll ambush here, either on this side of the hill or on the plain. If Agares makes good enough time, we can strike before we lose daylight.”
He backed away from the map, spooning up a mouthful of stew. “Have you eaten?”
“I’ll get some in a minute.”
“Come here.” He perched on the edge of the desk with his thighs parted, welcoming her to step up.
Lily shifted in between his legs, placing a hand on each knee, her mouth watering at the aroma of stew and her body slightly melted from the wicked grin sliding over his jaw. His gaze settled into hers, heated and intense, a sensual caress that stroked her spine and curled into her toes.
For every spoonful he fed himself, he fed her one, and she didn’t know how the entire bowlful didn’t end up on the floor because his eyes didn’t leave hers, not once. Then the spoon disappeared from sight and his mouth descended slowly. His palms cupped her backside, pressing her closer, the air suddenly thicker, time paused for the minute they truly couldn’t afford.
Her arms slid around his neck, her fingers pushing into his salt-crusted hair as their lips crashed into a deep, thorough kiss that filled her blood with desire, her heart with love, her mind with promises that this was only the beginning.
They came up for air, and time moved again.
Kelan’s palms dragged from her backside, down her thighs, then away and Lily slipped her arms from around his neck with a breathless sigh.
They were already moving apart, readjusting to harsh reality and urgent agendas, when Kelan looped an arm around her waist and nudged her chin up.
“I love you,” he said gruffly, almost fiercely, looking into her eyes. “I love you with all of my being.”
And then he was gone, striding across the room, calling over his shoulder, “Be ready to leave in a quarter hour.”
One hand slammed to her racing heart, a finger pressed to her smiling lips, Lily stared at the door swinging closed behind him. Honestly, when it came to Kelan, some things never changed. He had his say and then he walked out, oblivious to the fact that she might have anything to add.
“I love you, too,” she muttered, springing into action. If they were leaving in fifteen minutes, she needed to let Georgina know. She didn’t want Greyston to awake without knowing what was going on.
In the guest wing, her hand about to turn the knob, she heard v
oices from inside Greyston’s room.
“When I saw no sign of you this morning, I assumed you’d run off to Cairo or somewhere equally exotic and far.”
Her heart leapt at the sound of Greyston.
“I went into the village, Grey, to report the farmhouse fire to the constable and make necessary arrangements.”
“Your uncle… Georgina, I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have had to do that alone.”
“You know me. I’ve never needed anyone to hold my hand.”
“Yes, that I do know.”
Silence.
Lily hesitated, wanting to see Greyston before she left, not wanting to intrude on a private moment.
Georgina spoke again. “I don’t expect forgiveness, and I’ll be gone as soon as I’ve seen this through, but you’ll have to put up with me for a little while. Everyone else is too busy to play nursemaid.”
“I don’t need a damned nursemaid.”
Lily took that as her cue.
“Bear that thought in mind,” she said as she entered, her eyes lit on Greyston propped upright in the bed, “the next time you plan to kill yourself.”
A grin snaked across his jaw as he turned to her. “I didn’t plan on dying. There was a ten percent chance I’d survive. Neco’s given me far worse odds than that for years and I’m still here.”
“So you are.” She walked up to the bed and dropped right over him into a hug. “Don’t you ever, ever do that to me again. I was terrified.”
“I had to.”
She strained away to look at him.
“There were too many, Lily, thousands, and they didn’t stop coming.”
“You saw?” Her gaze prodded, asking him the other question. You rewound time? You saw thousands of demons flooding from the Gossamer and you went back to undo it?
Greyston nodded, pulling her back into the hug. “None of us would have survived.”
“Oh, Greyston, you shouldn’t…” She pressed her cheek to his shoulder, swallowing her protest. You shouldn’t have what? Saved us all? She was just grateful he’d somehow managed to do all that and save himself.
The Dark Matters Quartet Page 87