Riggs now dropped my hand as though scorched. “Message received.”
The Watcher peered up at him. “I just meant that you two are supposed to be strangers thrown together by the volcanic eruption and the academy. So a more natural progression would be wise.”
Progression? My heart raced. Was she implying what I thought she was?
Either way, Riggs seemed to have backed off. We walked the path to the field in silence. Most students had left, but a few persisted with their game.
“I will be teaching you two as a team,” Cara said after a few moments. “I think that will develop both of your talents nicely.” She gestured to the sword, once again strapped to Riggs’s back. “I don’t need to tell you to take good care of that? It wouldn’t be the first time it has been stolen.”
“Sounds like it has quite the history,” Riggs said.
The Watcher nodded. “It does. And you will be adding to it, I think.”
His dark brows lowered. “In what way?”
But she only shrugged. “Suffice it to say that it never chooses its bearers unwisely.”
That cleared up precisely nothing. Which was such a grumpy thought that I wondered if it came from Caliel, but I couldn’t be sure.
I was worried about him. We’d been working together so perfectly, and now, it seemed like we were going backward.
It gave me an idea. “I have something to do.” I glanced at Cara.
“I need to sit down with you and ask you some questions about your time with Victor,” she said. “But it can wait a bit.”
That wasn’t a conversation I looked forward to. I gazed up at Riggs. “I’ll see you later?”
He nodded, his expression an odd mixture of disappointment and relief. My heart constricted as I left them in the foyer and climbed the stairs as rapidly as I could. I sailed right past the fifth level.
The turrets on the academy’s flat roof reminded me of the stronghold I’d shared with Victor and the guys. For just amoment, I was swept up with a memory of galloping across the grasslands with them, of laughter and music.
Of family.
But they weren’t my family any longer. Isobel had taken that from us, as surely as she had taken our Centaurs.
I stood on a parapet and spread my arms to the breeze. It was cold, and smelled of the snow held on the distant mountain peaks.
Want to fly?I asked.
At first, Caliel didn’t answer. But then, pain shot through me.
This time, I welcomed it, knowing that it would bring the Gryphon with it. Caliel, with his scales, fur, and feathers gleaming a deep blue.
He spread our wings, and took us to the sky.
The setting sun painted it with reds and golds, and my heart lightened as I turned him free. He took us beyond the meadow, lake, and forest, and pointed his beak toward the mountains.
Through it all, he remained silent, and I left him alone. We were flying quite a distance, but if he needed to work something through, I would give him the time to do it. I was just happy to be a passenger, flying through the sunset with him. Being together filled the cavity inside me with warmth.
The mountains rose beneath us, and he banked, passing between the peaks, seeking the route between them.
And suddenly, we were no longer alone.
Two red forms dropped in behind us. Wyverns, flying strong.
My first reaction was one of mild surprise that wild Wyverns frequented these mountains. But then, I didn’t really know much about this realm, or its creatures.
Then Caliel swore.Hellfire.And I sensed his sudden panic. For just a millisecond, it confused me. But when another appeared between the peaks to our left, I realized who they were.
