Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Daphne!" I gasped.

The white mare swiveled her head to examine me with a bright blue eye as a robin flew from where it perched between her ears. I glared at the bird as it twittered and returned to its nest in the yew bush. "Tattletale."

"Be glad Gertrude is. Sir Alec sent a scout ahead to herald his and his men's return. What if he sees you out here? Flora's speeches are inspirational, but Cernunnos said—"

"First, it's just Alec—he's most definitely not a knight—and second—" I never got the other half of my protest out because Daphne's nostrils flared before she threw up her head with a trumpeting neigh.

"Do I smell a cat ?" Her front hooves pawed at the air in fright. When she landed, her teeth snatched the foraging bag and yanked.

I tumbled to my knees as the strap slipped from across my chest, and the foraging bag joined me on the grass a second later, ejecting the cat with a flurry of stripes.

"Daphne!" A feral honey badger darted into the little colonnade of cedars, her fur standing out every which way. "What's with the neigh of panic? You said you'd only be gone a second— Jumping hop-toads," Flora shouted. "Is that a cat ?"

She bared her teeth with a snarl, her tail pointing straight to the sky, the muscles in her shoulders bunching. "Get away from our cider witch, you filthy feline."

Despite her greater size and strength, Sawyer flattened his ears and arched his spine with a ferocious hiss. I scruffed the tomcat before his challenge could really piss off the honey badger and stuffed him into the foraging bag, clutching it tightly to my chest.

"Quiet," I snapped. "All of you! Do you want the whole castle to hear?"

"I told you to sneak out of the castle, not get beheaded for consorting with a cat!" Flora fired back.

With only his head sticking out of my foraging bag, and his ears still plastered against his skull, Sawyer hissed again.

I flicked him on the top of his head. "Don't make it worse. Daphne, Flora," I introduced, forcing calm into every word, "this is Sawyer, my cat. And as my friends, I'm hoping you'll keep quiet about this."

" Your cat?" Flora demanded, shoving her nose right into his face and sniffing. To his credit, Sawyer knew one whisker twitch out of line and the honey badger would have his head in her jaws. He stayed perfectly still as she examined his collar and tag. "‘Sawyer.' Huh. Well, I'm a little surprised you actually followed my suggestion and snuck out, cider witch. You're usually such a rule-follower. You, Stripes, did you encourage her on this little fieldtrip?"

"I did," he said stoutly.

"Ooo." Flora sat back with a grin, waggling her eyebrows. "I think I like you. Even if you are a cat."

"What's the meaning of this, dear?" the white mare whispered. She tossed her head up to look over the yew bush at the castle before continuing. "There've been no cats in the Court of Beasts in, in forever! How is it that you now have one?"

"I-I think I've had him since before I met Ossian," I said. "The memory—" I clutched my head as the maelstrom fought my attempt to search deeper.

But my friends knew all about my affliction and the one who'd cursed me.

"If I ever see your grandmother again, I'm going to chew on her leg like I would a chicken bone," Flora vowed.

Daphne bent her head, lipping at Sawyer's head and inhaling his scent with large twitches of her velvety nostrils. Like with Flora, the little tomcat remained still, his eyes slitted against the mare's tickling chin whiskers. "Fascinating. Your scent is all over him, and it's not recent, either. But if Cernunnos should discover him—"

"He's not going to." I gave the cat a little tap on his head. Sawyer eagerly yanked his head back into the foraging bag, disappearing from view and my friends' scrutiny. "He can't. He might forgive me for leaving the courtyard, but he'll never forgive me if he finds out I let a cat take me to a farmhouse halfway across Redbud."

"Farmhouse? Whatever for?"

"I've been told I can revive the Hawthorne hearth ember there."

Flora spat on the ground. "Whatever for? Those witches made it clear you mean nothing to them."

I winced; that truth was still sour in my mouth no matter how much time passed. "That may be, but the ember was responsible for freeing the first part of the net. It was already weak then, but if I can get it back to full power, it might just free the entirety of me this afternoon!"

"Seriously? With your magic unlocked… why, you could go after Wystan!" Her beady black eyes positively sparkled. "You could kick all the butts!"

"Where is this farmhouse?" Daphne asked, ears pricking. "Certainly beyond the town, for I've never seen such a thing."

"It's to the east, like four or five miles from here."

The mare swiveled her head up at the sky and then back to me. "You'll never make it there and back again before nightfall, let alone before Alec returns. And where is your coat?"

"That's what I said," came Sawyer's muffled voice from my foraging bag.

"Well I certainly won't if I keep standing here talking to you both," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and sticking my hands into my armpits to keep them warm. Did everyone doubt my abilities here? I started off for the cedar trees. "If you'll excuse me."

Daphne trotted in front of me, halting my exodus. "Flora," she prompted.

"I got it, I got it," the honey badger sighed, pretending she was the most put-upon beast in all existence. Then a predatory light came to her eyes and she snapped her vicious teeth. "I'm on delay-Alec duty." With a malicious cackle, she padded off in the direction she'd come.

"Well, get on my back, dear," Daphne told me.

"Wait, seriously?" I sputtered.

"I'm an old girl, Meadow, but I'm not lame. I can get you five miles there and back again a lot quicker than you can get there yourself. Besides, you won't know how much time you need with the ember. And my absence from the estate won't be strange in the least. As the game warden, I'm constantly running around."

I shook my head. "It's one thing if Ossian finds out I went on this little fieldtrip alone. It's another thing entirely if he finds out you helped me."

Quick as a flash of lightning across a black sky, the mare whipped around and bit me on my right buttock. "Do not make me repeat myself, Meadow! Get on."

" Ow ," I told her, smacking her in the neck. Then I grabbed two fistfuls of mane and hauled myself onto her back. She might be fine-boned, but I could tell she was stronger than I gave her credit for. "Why are you helping me, Daphne? I mean, we're friends, but…" Ossian will kill you if he finds out.

The unspoken words startled loose a thought I'd never considered before: how could I love a male who would kill my friend for helping me? The maelstrom guarding my suppressed memories flared, and I quickly released that line of reasoning to spare me the pain.

"I never liked how Cernunnos keeps you under lock and key like a prized pet," was her reply, her lean legs speeding into a smooth canter. "You are a woman. And a woman is like a bird—she is never to be caged. Only encouraged to fly as high as she can."