Reign of the Fallen (Reign of the Fallen #1)(96)

Jax reaches me first, lifting me off my feet and spinning me around until I’m dizzy. I bury my face against his shoulder, assured by the scent of his evergreen soap that it’s really him and not my mind playing a cruel trick.

Simeon quickly shoves Jax aside, squeezing the breath out of me in a rib-cracking hug.

Danial waves from over Simeon’s shoulder, looking tired but no worse off than the last time I saw him. “Hurt yourself again I see, Sparrow,” he calls. “I’ll heal your leg, if these two will let me borrow you for a little while.”

“Not a chance. Not yet,” Simeon murmurs to Danial, quickly refocusing on me. “What happened?” he whispers, pushing back his soggy bangs to better look at me. “You’re as soaked as we are, and we took a dip in the harbor!”

“You—what?” I stammer, realizing that both he and Jax are as damp and frigid-looking as I feel. But I don’t care if my whole body goes numb with cold right now, because my heart is soaring. “I was hiding from a Shade. Why were you in the harbor?”

“Hadrien ordered his guards to drown us. I guess so no one would find our bodies,” Jax says, slipping an arm around my shoulders so I’m pinned between him and Simeon. Just like old times. “The bastard. But it took ten of his men to do it.”

“It was more like five,” Simeon counters, grinning slyly.

“However many there were, they did a pretty good job,” Kasmira says, joining Danial with several of her crew in tow. “But I thought these two had brighter futures than serving as fish food.” She winks, tossing her many dark braids over her shoulder. “The crew and I dredged them up as soon as the guards had their backs turned. Hid them on the Paradise, and that’s where the princess here found them.”

“You saved my friends,” I mutter, beaming at Kasmira. “If there’s anything I can do to repay you . . . anything, just name it.”

She arches a perfect brow. “Before today, I might’ve asked you for a raising. But my dead are going to stay that way, I’ve decided.” Her cool gray eyes dart to the mess in the streets, then focus on my face again. “I wouldn’t mind a taste of royal gold, though, if we’re talking rewards.”

“Consider it done,” Valoria says firmly, gazing at each of us in turn: Jax, Simeon, and me in the middle. She holds out a hand to Kasmira. “And from now on, consider yourselves free to come and go from these waters as you please.”

Kasmira grins at her crew, then gives Valoria a long, thoughtful look. “That’s almost a better reward than the gold, Highness.”

“Actually—” Valoria’s cheeks redden as she boldly declares, “it’s Majesty now, but I prefer just Valoria.”

Kasmira blinks. “All right, Valoria.” She bows, and the other smugglers follow her lead.

I raise my voice. “Has anyone seen Meredy?”

I still have to find her, and while everyone around me looks relieved to see each other again, I can’t breathe easy until I know where she is. That she’s safe.

Danial frowns. “She ran off right before I found Valoria and the others . . .” He grimaces. “I wasn’t fast enough, and she disappeared on me. Before that, she was acting strange. Erratic.”

Maybe she’s still nearby. Even if she was in a feral state when she ran off, it may not last long. I’d better find her before someone else does. Someone who might not understand why she’s growling at them like a bear.

“We were looking for her when we found you,” Valoria adds in a small voice. “We thought she might’ve been drawn to the crowd.”

Jax nudges my shoulder, startling me. “Look.” He points to an oddly shaped shadow moving toward us through the late-afternoon gloom. My muscles tense as I wonder if another Shade got loose somehow.

But as Jax reaches for one of his blades, I shake my head. It’s not a Shade, but a large creature dragging a smaller one by the back of her cloak.

Lysander, and—

“Meredy!”

For the second time since leaving the palace, I forget everything happening around me. The steely water of the harbor at my back. The city already starting to heal.

Meredy looks so small and pale when Lysander drops her at my feet. I kneel beside her in the ash and dirt, pressing a hand to her cheek. “Meredy?” When she says nothing, staring at me blankly, a knife of panic plunges into my chest.

“Can a beast master’s magic make them forget their humanity for good?” I ask Valoria over my shoulder.

“I have no idea,” she says, her eyes glistening.

As I cradle Meredy in my arms, racking my brain for something that might help her return to herself, she pulls my face to hers and kisses me.

I kiss her back. Lightly, and then not so lightly, rubbing my thumb over the scar on her cheek the way she often does. She tastes different from before, like the wilderness, like new beginnings, like surrender. I run my hands up and down her back, over her hips, then slide my fingers through her hair.

And her heart beats against mine like it remembers.

She kisses me with a wolf’s hunger, hard and needy, breathing fire into my mouth. Her body bends and presses against mine, finding new ways for us to fit together as we trade kisses like bites of something sweet that only make us ravenous for more. I don’t ever want this to stop, because I’ve found a part of me I didn’t know was missing.