“You’ll have to figure out how they came to be and duplicate it,” Nyfain said as I pulled a leaf free and then studied it to see if the strange light would fade from the natural waxy surface.
“I’d rather not drag a demon into a private garden to kill it.”
“Maybe we could take it from here and plant it there. It wouldn’t like it, but I might be able to keep it alive with song.”
“Thanks, babe, but that’s okay. They’re happy here. Probably. I don’t know. It’s like a super everlass plant or something. Maybe it’d be happy anywhere. We shall see.”
I watched the leaf a while longer and then put it into the tray before bending to pick another. Nyfain started to sing, and the others joined in as I worked my way around the plants, feeling in my bones that this was the plant to do it. This was the one that would make one helluva difference.
I just wished I knew how it came to be.
NINETEEN
Finley
“Content?” Nyfain asked after we’d reached the castle grounds again and stabled the horses.
“Yes, thank you,” I said as I watched Vemar pull the cart toward the everlass shed so he could unload the contents. Arleth had had the foresight to bring covers for the trays. Dash got to sit in the cart and hold on to them, something he found incredibly fun.
“Finley, darling…” Hadriel called from behind us, holding the reins of his horse with Sable still in the saddle. “Sable wants lessons. Do you mind?”
“Me too!” Dash yelled, running out from the stable. I hadn’t even seen him duck in.
“Don’t let them get hurt,” I said.
Hadriel put his hand to his chest. “What do you take me for?” he responded indignantly.
I rolled my eyes and let Nyfain take my hand and walk me back to the castle.
Before we’d left the field, I’d pulled Hannon aside quietly and asked if he knew anything about those glowing leaves. I’d watched him closely, very good at reading him after all this time. When he’d answered no, I pushed him until he admitted his animal thought they might’ve been transformed by a burst of power he’d given off when preparing to rescue Sable. He’d felt it happen but didn’t understand it.
“Can you do it again?” I’d asked.
A little crease had formed between his brow as he studied me. “I don’t know,” he’d said. “I think someone I care about has to be in grave danger. I don’t seem to be able to turn it on and off. But I can try.”
“Try,” I’d said, “but not for me. You need to learn to work with your animal, whether you shift or not. Trust me, it’ll help down the road.”
He’d studied me for a moment, then said, “My animal says we’ll try so that you can have the everlass in your garden.”
Great, my dragon had grumbled. I can handle him being the better sibling, since you’re a nutcase, but his animal is more gracious than me, too? Bullshit. Disown him.
I wasn’t in complete disagreement.
“Where to?” Nyfain asked, releasing my hand and wrapping his arm around my hip.
I wrapped my arm around his waist. “Library. Dirty book. Remember?”
“Just making sure you didn’t change your mind.” He was quiet for a moment before he said, “You and my mom work exceptionally well together. I thought you’d take offense to her barking orders at everyone when we got to the field.”
“She knew what she was doing. Might as well let her do it.”
“And when you told everyone to stay out…she did.”
“I knew what I was doing. She was letting me do it.”
He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “I feel like I’ve died and am living in the goddess’s paradise. Harvesting like that, with my mate, Mom, your family—”
“Don’t forget the dick jacket. No harvesting is complete without a man wearing a bunch of dicks hidden in the design of his jacket.”
“My fa—the mad king is probably turning over in his grave.”
“As long as he is rotting in hell, I don’t much care.” I slowed him so I could look up into his golden eyes. “You deserve this happiness, Nyfain. You refused to let the dark path you were forced to walk consume you, and you finally found the dawn. We’ve worked for this, you and me. We’ve fought for it. So let’s enjoy it to its fullest and not let a single day pass where we don’t love hard, laugh hard, play hard, and fuck hard.”
“Fuck, I love you.” He swooped me up into his arms.
I laughed. “I wondered how long it would take you to pick me up again.”
We crossed the threshold into the castle. “I was trying to give you your space.”
“That was your version of space?”
“It wasn’t yours?”
I laughed again as he carried me to the library, making everyone scatter as he walked through the halls. After all his blustering earlier in the day, the staff apparently preferred not to be in his company. I was not complaining.