“So you agree that he’s not the horse’s arse I thought he was originally?”
“I do. He’s proven himself.”
“He has.”
I hug her, and she jolts with surprise before tightening her arms around me. It’s not half bad to have real friends and a lover who might end up being my true mate. I suppose if I do end up hurt—as Grandwitch always warned me about feelings—at least I will have had a lovely time before the pain.
Chapter 27
Argos
Ifinish nailing the tiny plate of midnight adamant to the waterwheel. The stuff was painfully challenging to file down. I hope this works and that the stress I put on the magical stone didn’t negate its psychic connector functionality.
“All right! Let it go, Cyrus! Halvard, release the rope! Rom, you can let go!”
The dragon shifter, orc, and gargoyle release the holds they had on various points in the waterwheel system, and the wheel creaks and rotates. Water shushes through the system.
“Argos!” Tully’s voice rises over the sound of the water and the conversation filtering from the back deck of the Goat and Dragon tavern.
I meet her farther up the riverbank and we walk toward the deck.
“How are things faring here?” she asks.
The wind is cold, but now it smells of melting snow instead of ice. It smells like spring isn’t more than a moon away.
“Great.” I open the side door for her and we take a table overlooking the river. The wheel is turning nicely.
Cyrus, Halvard, and Rom are drying themselves and laughing. I give them a wave and they shout some congratulations back.
Once Tully and I order two pints of the last of Grumlin’s winter ale, she sets a sack on the table. I frown and poke at it.
“What’s this?”
She tugs open the top. Gold, silver, and copper glitter from the bag.
“There has to be a year’s worth of a common fellow’s wages in here,” I say, puzzled still.
“It’s for you. For your mother and the estate.”
“What?”
Tully nods, her red hair lifting in the breeze and her hat shading her brilliant eyes. “I didn’t tell anyone what it was for. Your privacy is secure. But the folks of Leafshire Cove listened when I said someone needed it, and they all gave. Every last one of them. Even that nasty old pixie female, Jinian.”
I shake my head, my heart pounding for this amazing witch. I take her hand and wrap her hand in mine. “Tully. I… I don’t know how to thank you.”
Her cheeks pink and I lean in to kiss her. Those soft lips will never not do me in.
“You’ve never once blushed,” I whisper in her ear.
“Well, between your work, Kaya’s, and Laini’s, I’m becoming a great ball of mush.”
“But you’ll still murder me if I hurt you.”
“Exactly.”
“Good that we are on the same page.” I kiss her again, wishing we weren’t in public.
She pulls away, smiling. “Tell me about your waterwheel contraption.”
