Page 94

She followed Petal and Bramble up the ladder, sternly informing her eyeballs that if they watered, she would toss them in the sea to be eaten by kelpies. No crying. Not here.

The crew were gathered on deck, shards of witch glass glittering under their boots. There was the definite burn of magic to the air. When Petal teetered, four sailors and a satyr instantly appeared to help her. Godric still managed to wink at Briar before he noticed Ethan glowering. Bramble bared her teeth at them all. Rabbit magic wrapped around her and Petal, swallowing them in a misty blurriness.

“Back off,” Ethan sighed.

His crew dispersed, starry-eyed but cowed.

Petal frowned at her sister. “Um, Briar?”

“Yes?”

“When did you start glowing?”

Briar blinked at her. “What?” Then down at herself. “Oh.”

She was, indeed, glowing.

It was like the moon was touching her. Only her. It gilded her in silver, shining on her hair, her grass-stained dress. The darkness deepened around her. She was salt-white, bone-white. Moon-white.

“That’s probably not a good thing.”

Ethan cursed and sent the clouds scurrying over the moon.

It did not help.

Nor did the rain he called down, or the blanket her sister tossed on top of her head. Even Bramble’s rabbit magic had no effect whatsoever.

The moon had found her.

And so had Aidan Hunt, Lord Coventry.

Ethan’s dragon tried to eat the museum curator without any prompting from Ethan.

Briar was glowing like the moon, bright and beautiful and so vulnerable it made his teeth hurt. He tried to unclench his jaw but it was not happening, not with Briar in danger. Maybe not ever again. The sound of her screams echoed in his skull.

So when Aidan stepped out of the rose-scented shadows of the cliff and said her name, just her name, Ethan exploded. His hands were full of daggers between one breath and the next. There was no thinking, no planning.

Only the soul-deep certainty that anyone coming for Briar would have to go through him first.

And his dragon. His ship, his crew. A herd of kelpies.

Anais had her sword out and Cosette pointed her crossbow at the earl.

Aidan held up his hands, solemn as a scholar. He did not look as terrified as Ethan would have liked. He wanted the man to piss himself in fear if he even considered taking a single step closer to Briar. She, for her part, only peeked around Ethan and looked at Aidan as though she were prepared to offer him tea. There were still flowers in her tangled hair.

Hard to drink tea without a throat.

Ethan’s dragon roared, lightning slashing at the sky. He had no idea what Aidan’s familiar was but, sparrow or shark, his dragon would feast.

“Swansea,” Aidan said. Ethan realized it was not the first time he had said his name when Briar tried to edge around him, her hand on his arm. The blood faded from his vision and he tucked her back where she was safe. “I’m not going to hurt her.”

“I know,” Ethan said. Icicles of magic shot from his dragon, slamming into the ground between Aidan and the ship. Between Aidan and Briar. They glowed, sharp as swords and full of menace.

“Good evening, Lord Coventry,” Briar called out.

“Don’t talk to him like he’s a friend,” Ethan muttered.

Briar ignored him.