Chapter 10

Julian

"No, not Slinger." Arguing with Cricket is fast becoming my favorite pastime. "But I'll try it with you if you like." We've been chatting about gating since lunch, which was hours ago. He has so many questions.

"Let me get this straight." He quirks a brow. "You won't risk the horse, but you'll risk me?"

"I didn't say that, but essentially yes, I'd risk you before Slinger. She's innocent."

Slinger snuffles as if agreeing with me. Why do we even have a horse? Neither of us is riding her. Instead, the three of us make slow progress southward, walking day in and day out. Light fluffy clouds dot the sky, the sort that brings occasional passing shade but not rain.

Cricket bats his pretty eyelashes at me. "And I'm not?"

"Not even close. You're a menace."

"I'm a pleasure."

"You're a thorn in my side."

"You're the one following me. Or did you forget?"

"I wouldn't be if you'd hand over the coin." And we've come full circle. Always back to the coin. I need it. The farther south I get without it, the more uneasy I feel. "Speaking of which, we should stop early tonight. I want to claim my winnings."

"Tell me again why you want it so badly?" His tone is teasing. He isn't expecting a real answer.

This has become a game for us and another excuse for me to make up stories. With any luck, one of them will work on him.

Eventually.

"Why, to throw into a wishing well, of course. So I can ask for my heart's true desire."

"Which is?"

"A man-eating snapping turtle to guard our camp."

"Not your best work." Cricket gives me a courtesy chuckle anyway. "But seriously, if you can gate holding an object in your hands, and the object makes the journey with you, wouldn't you be able to take another person in the same fashion?"

"Is this your way of asking me to hold you? Because if you need a hug, you can just say so. We don't have to gate anywhere for that."

He huffs. "You're not the hugging type. It's obvious."

"That so?"

"And no, I don't want a hug. I was thinking you could spare us a lot of walking by simply gating us to Irondale."

A cool sliver of dread grips my spine. "It doesn't work that way."

"Explain."

"Do not presume to order me around."

"Sorry." More lash fluttering. "Please explain?"

"You rile me."

"Someone ought to," he mutters under his breath.

I shouldn't find his rude behavior so beguiling. "Gating somewhere I've never been is dangerous without help. Either I need to be familiar with the place, or I need an actual gate on the other end, and those are rare. Perhaps another mage who's expecting me would work, but I've never tried that. A magical object—like the coin—calls out like a beacon, which is why I can gate to you, or it rather, but gating is a finite skill, too temperamental to experiment with."

"You just said you'd try it with me but not Slinger. How is that not an experiment?"

"I meant from one hill to the next. A spot in plain sight, not halfway across Luminia, you lunatic. Who knows what would happen if we tried that? And aside from those caveats, the only place I know of in Irondale is a place I never want to see again." To my utter embarrassment, my voice cracks, and he flashes his brown gaze in my direction. "If you knew, you'd never ask it of me."

Our easy chatter dies away. We walk the next few minutes with only the sound of our footfalls on the earthen path for company.

Well, that and Slinger's heavy breathing.

"Jules." Cricket knocks the back of my hand with the back of his. "What happened to you? Will you tell me? Please?"

My lungs clench. "Must you know all my secrets?"

"I don't know any of them. You haven't told me a single one."

He has a point. "You first. Then I'll think about it, but I make no promises."

"There's nothing interesting about me."

"I beg to differ. I find you interesting enough." Not sure I should have admitted as much, but it's done now. "Tell me about your family."

"They're gone."

"All of them?" I'm prying, but no more than Cricket is. My nature demands I pick an old wound bloody. Curiosity settles for nothing less. "Gone as in somewhere else, or gone as in deceased? What happened?"

"Never mind," he says. "Point proven. I won't ask for your secrets anymore."

"You will."

I prefer it when our arguments are over lighter fare. This serious talk has brought down the mood. "Do you know of the Guild of the Dark Waters?" Just uttering their name rattles my nerves and dredges up an old, simmering rage.

"I've heard it whispered. Thought it was fake. Something you say to scare children into behaving."

"They're real." It's more of an answer than I've given to anyone and the first time I've spoken of them aloud. "And they are what happened to me."

Another silence ensues.

Cricket stops, bringing Slinger to a halt with him. I slow my pace to a crawl but continue forward. Silence I can manage. Stillness too. But not both at once.

"Your fingers, you mean?"

"And my wings." Easier to admit with my back to Cricket and my face toward the sky. The sky I shall never soar through again. Clouds cover the sun, leaving us in shadows.

"Your wings?" He speaks the words so softly I barely hear them.

"Hadn't you wondered?"

"I should have, but no. I don't have wings. I just figured you didn't either. But you did once."

"Once."

"Were they black like your hair?"

"Yes." And like the Gatekeeper's…

"I can picture them," says Cricket quietly. "No wonder you don't talk about it."

I turn to face him. His expression has gone soft. Concerned. Full of pity. "Did your parents have wings?" It's a roundabout way of asking about his heritage. Cricket looks human, but he has magic. Meaning there's probably fae in his line somewhere.

"No."

"You're mortal, then?"

"I imagine so." He lets go of Slinger's reins, and she wanders off to snack on whatever's growing at the edge of the road. "But I'm part fae."

Thought so. "A grandparent?"

"Yes. My dad was only half."

"He left you?" It wouldn't be uncommon. A fae sire and a human mother, the human abandoned when the fae moved on to another lover.

"He died."

"Oh. I'm sorry." I'd thought even half-blooded fae to be nearly immortal. "How?"

"Murdered for siding with humans." Cricket kicks at the dirt beneath his feet, causing a dust cloud to arise. "It was long before the revolt. I barely remember him. My brother and I were only five when it happened. Mother shielded us from the worst of it for as long as she could."

A brother. Both of them the same age. "You have a twin?"

"Had. His name was Hopper. No more questions."

Slinger goes on munching as if we didn't just bare our souls to each other, both raw and scabbed over.

I bite my tongue. "I'm sorry about your family."

"I'm sorry about your wings." He watches me, his expression contemplative.

I open my arms. "Come here."

He narrows his eyes. "What for?"

"Don't be so suspicious." I beckon with my remaining fingers. "I'm going to gate you like you wanted."

"You said no experimenting."

"I think I can do it."

"And if you can't?"

"We die a terrible death. Not like either of us cares. Come here."

I'm not sure what to expect. Cricket has no reason to trust me, and yet he approaches.

The sky remains cloudy, the pines remain green, but the entire world shifts as he places himself in my arms, his chest against my chest, his face against my neck.

He wraps his arms around my waist and sighs. "Try not to kill us."

"Duly noted." We breathe, ribcages expanding and contracting in unison. His hair smells like me. Specifically, like the periwinkle soap I loaned him to bathe in the creek this morning. "Ready?"

"I'm nothing more than cargo." Damp air puffs against my collarbone as he speaks. "It should be me asking if you're ready."

Thump, thump. Thump, thump,our hearts thud, racing each other. I can't tell which is his and which is mine. "Ask me, then."

"You ready, Jules?"

"Not in the slightest." I harness the energy swirling around me constantly and bend it to my will. With Cricket held tightly in place, I fold space and slide us through. The familiar rush of magic tingles under my skin.

Cricket stiffens and gasps, clenching the fabric at my lower back. His eyes are pinched shut. "Oh, my stars. It worked?"

"It worked."

"Where are we?"

I chuckle and loosen my grip on him. "Open your eyes and look, poppet."

Without letting me go or stepping away, he straightens and peers around.

We're approximately ten paces from where we started, just on the other side of Slinger, who's still eating as if nothing were amiss. She may not have even noticed we moved.

Though ten paces is nothing to brag about, I'm delighted.

Laughing, he drops his head back to my shoulder. "At this rate, we'll be setting new travel records in no time."

"Better to start simple. You did tell me not to kill us."

"I did." He gives my waist a squeeze, then lets go and walks toward Slinger. "Perhaps you are the hugging type after all."

Perhaps I am.