The Arrival (Birthright Trilogy #1) (20 page)

'I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about the cold.'

Alek’s lips brushed my ear when he spoke and the skin flared hot. I looked up at him wide-eyed.

Oops, hope he didn’t notice that.

'It’s okay, I’m a big girl I should have thought of it myself,' I said as I clutched the cloak around me.

He tucked a couple of strands of my hair back behind my ear, which was totally ineffectual—the wind whipped them straight out again. Alek laughed and I caught a whisper of the noise before it was snatched by the wind.

'Shall I show you some of the sights?' he offered.

I attempted an enthusiastic nod and almost convinced myself that I wasn’t entirely terrified.

'Would you like to sit in the front seat? It’ll be easier to show you that way.'

Alek watched as Catherine considered for a moment then bit her lip and looked up at him, “tomorrow” she mouthed.

He leaned to her ear again.

'I’ll still point out the sights. Sit close.' Alek intentionally brushed his lips past her cheek again and watched as the skin flared with color again.

'Are you over heating?'

I narrowed my eyes at Alek.

So the lip brush wasn’t accidental.

I assumed a nonchalant look.

'I’m good thanks.'

He did that annoyingly sexy smirk and turned so he was back facing Loushka’s head. I was tempted to stay put, but concluded that would only make me look like a child, so scooted forward again and hunched against his back.

‘Stop teasing her Alek,’
Loushka thought reprovingly.
‘Honestly how old are you?’

He had to resist the urge to retort, and Loushka knew it and snorted in amusement.

Alek began to point out some sights, or I guess the correct term would be landmarks. It was strange to only see forests, small (tiny) towns, lakes and rivers. I half expected a proper city with skyscrapers to pop out somewhere, but it didn’t. I began to relax more. At least, while I held on to him, I didn’t have vertigo.

Alek had a nice voice.
My eyes got heavy as I leaned against his back, trying to pay attention to what he said.

Bleah, can’t pay attention, I thought, and dozed off.

Alek felt Catherine slump behind and twisted to see if she was okay. Her head lolled against his chest and he realized from her breathing that she was asleep.

‘Look at that,’
he thought in astonishment to Loushka.
‘She’s managed to fall asleep mid flight? And I thought she was terrified of flying.’

‘Her aura is a lot calmer now, Alek, and they’ve had a stressful time since their cross-over to our world,’
Loushka thought back.
‘I think it was your voice that made her sleepy in the end. She trusts you a lot more than she realizes.’

Alek asked curiously,
‘Could you sense it when they came through? Like Elena?’

There was a pause as Loushka considered whether or not to share that information with her friend. She decided as Elena hadn’t asked her not to, there shouldn’t be any issues.

‘Yes of course. You know griffons have their own form of magick; we can sense others who do too. And these four women have a kind of magick I haven’t seen before and Elena hasn’t seen for centuries. That’s why she was so insistent we rescue them.’

Alek thought about her words as he turned and in a fluid move pulled Catherine into his lap while shifting himself to the back seat on the saddle.

I really hope she doesn’t wake up all of a sudden, he thought, concerned for a moment. But Catherine’s breathing didn’t change so he leaned her head on his chest and adjusted his seat slightly until it was comfortable.

‘Have the women used their magick since entering our world? Is that how they managed to hold off the gragnolls for so long?’

‘Yes and no. They haven’t deliberately used their powers but I do think that’s what kept them going for so long.’
Loushka paused,
‘And its how we spotted them.’

‘What do you mean?’

She sent him an image of what she’d seen that night. Alek could see through the rain that pelted down and even through the heavy canopy of trees. Four shimmering lights could be seen; yellow, red, green, and blue. The next image was of the four women when they had landed around them. He could see their exhausted faces like he had seen that night, but this time, each of them was surrounded by one of the shimmering lights. Catherine’s light was red.

He looked down at her.

She was still out of it, head resting on his chest-plate as she slept. A strange surge of protectiveness came over him as he watched her. She looked so delicate and, well, gentle. It was hard to imagine that the four of them had fought off so many gragnolls.

Curious now, Alek asked,
‘Loushka, how many gragnolls did they hold off?’

She thought about it for a moment,
‘I would guess about twenty. It was a good sized group that moved away when they heard us coming.’

‘How the heck did they learn to fight like that?’
Alek wondered.

‘Perhaps it’s normal for such instruction in their world,’
suggested Loushka.
‘It’s not unheard of here.’

‘Well I’ve heard of women having sword and archery instruction before but they must be very skilled to have survived that long.’
Alek paused as he considered,
‘How long did you say you thought they’d been fighting before we reached them?’

‘A good two hours.’

Alek fell silent, lost in his thoughts and Loushka let him be. She knew where he’d like to set up camp for the night so continued on while chatting with the other griffons. There appeared to be the beginnings of attachments between the other three riders who had the women with them.

Phroma was grateful that Gredel had his lovely wife to go home to and a little concerned at the intensity already being expressed between some of the couples.

'After all'
she reasoned to Nesha
'we only met them the other day, and we still don’t know what their powers are. For Elena to be so interested they must be either very valuable, or very dangerous.'

Nesha politely acknowledged Phroma’s concerns, though personally felt the women weren’t dangerous to them.

Kerak butted in, furious that Phroma would insult Kassandra.

‘I think the women are really nice, and I like Kassandra.’

‘Settle down, Kerak’,
admonished Tomiar gently.
‘Phroma’s not saying Kassandra or the others aren’t nice, just that we don’t know much about them yet.’

Nesha moved positions so he was closer to the young griffon.

‘C’mon, Kerak, I’ll race you to the next town sighting. I could do with a good stretch.’

Nesha and Kerak shot ahead of the others, eliciting surprised whoops from Sian and Kassie.

Catherine stirred in Alek’s arms.

'Whhtd?'

'Shuushh,' he whispered in her ear. 'You’re safe, go back to sleep.'

She relaxed back down again.

The rest of the flight was peaceful. Nesha and Kerak ran a few races, then Phroma insisted on racing the winner which Audrey thought was great. She yelped at Kerak the whole time Phroma raced him. Tomiar obliged Kerak with a race as well and the men were pleased to see the griffons felt up to strength again. The effects they had felt from their leap appeared to have faded fast.

‘Alek,’
Loushka’s voice shook him out of his meditative state.
‘We’re going to locate a suitable camp site shortly. You’d best wake Catherine now.’

Alek shook her gently, 'Catherine, wake up we’re nearly there.'

She mumbled against his chest and sleepily looked around. Then she registered where she sat and her head snapped up. Wide emerald eyes stared up at him in shock.

WHOA!
When did I get to the front of the saddle!?

I gripped the sides of it and stared around for a moment, it was a hell of a scary view if you weren’t a fan of heights. I looked back up at Alek and attempted an "I’m cool with this" smile while the silly voice in my head did the insane giggling for me.

Better in than out I guess.

Catherine gave him a tentative smile, her lips pressed together. It made her cheekbones jut out and a tiny dimple in each cheek show. Alek was enchanted and gently pressed his lips to her forehead.

I sat very still in Alek’s lap while my insides did somersaults.

He just kissed me on the forehead!

And that look… That smile…

Well that was the most efficient way to distract you,
my rational voice was amused.
Just imagine what you’d have done if he’d kissed you on the mouth.

The silly voice was all for that idea.

I swallowed hard—surely it wasn’t possible to fall for someone this quickly? And really he was practically taking advantage of me considering the situation.

I worked on the indignant feeling while my rational voice laughed at me;
why not just go with it?

I considered that.

Oh what the heck, let’s just enjoy it— after all it might amount to nothing.

Alek’s voice interrupted my thoughts, 'Catherine.'

I looked up. He did that slow, wide smile again, making my toes curl.

'We’re about to land, so hold on,' Alek continued.

Hold on? To what?

He wrapped one strong arm around my waist and gripped the saddle with his other hand. Then we dropped from the sky.

Still clutching Alek tight while making choked gasping noises, I was stunned when he announced, 'Well that was nice and smooth, well done, Loushka.'

The griffon made an appreciative noise at him.