Page 15

Chapter 15

A Happy Ending

(For Some and Not for Others)

Maggie

E vrard lit on the stony beach of a small island, setting her gently down.

It had few features to distinguish it, but it was the type of place that attracted sea birds to nest and sunning mammals to rest, and it smelled like it.

“Maggie!” Kaspar, who’d been crouched down poking at something with a stick, jumped to his feet, rushing over to them.

Evrard gave a warning growl before he got too close.

Kaspar slowed, then stopped, frowning.

“You won’t let your brute leave me here to die, will you? You must have that much loyalty to our kind.”

She crossed her arms over her clammy, scorched clothing.

“I don’t let him do anything. He does what he wants. It’s not as though I can make him carry you to shore.”

“What does he want to let me off the island? He must want something.” Kaspar stared ahead pensively, as though he could look right through her.

She waved her hand in front of his face until he focused on her.

“It’s me you should be worried about.”

Kaspar’s lip curled.

“You? Why?”

“Because what he wants is for me to be happy, and I’m very unhappy with you right now. If you thought I’d be an inconvenient wife? Trust me, I’m a much more inconvenient enemy.”

“When did I become your enemy?” he wheedled.

“Our families have done business. You were content to have me as your husband for a moment. You begged to marry me! Surely some of those soft feelings remain in your heart.”

Evrard’s dark resentment flooded her mind, and she reached back to grab his hand before she answered Kaspar.

“Any compassion I had for you went up in smoke when you set the Wolfhunter ablaze. You owe me a ship.”

“You can have one of mine,” he blurted, pouncing on the idea like a life preserver.

Maggie felt Evrard’s fingers tighten around hers, then the movement of air as he stepped forward behind her.

Kaspar quickly amended, “Fine, both of them. But in return, I’d expect any value you receive from the salvage of the Wolfhunter’s carcass—”

Evrard growled threateningly, and Kaspar broke off, eyes going wide.

Maggie felt the smallest margin of sympathy for him.

But she didn’t have quite enough sympathy to bend.

Even added together, his two ships didn’t equal the Wolfhunter .

He was getting off easy.

“And two barrels of fish from your stores,” she added, for Evrard’s sake.

“My stores burned in the warehouse fire, same as everyone’s,” Kaspar protested.

“This isn’t a negotiation,” Maggie reminded him.

“I’m not stupid. You might have left a few things to burn for appearances, but you’re too greedy to have left them all. You stashed them somewhere.”

He dropped his playacting.

“Fine. Two barrels. Take me back to shore, and I’ll fetch them for you, along with the ships’ deeds.”

Evrard stepped past her, picked up Kaspar by his collar, and gave him a stout shaking before setting him back down.

Kaspar, who seemed to receive the silent message, staggered a little to regain his footing and produced a ring of keys from his pocket.

He showed Maggie a small, numbered key to a second warehouse where the fish were stored, the heavy iron key to his rented rooms, and a third key to open the strongbox in his headboard where he kept the deeds.

“Collect what’s yours,” he said queasily, holding them out hesitantly, like Evrard might take his hand as well as the keys.

“Just come back. Please, have some honor.”

“Honor,” Evrard scoffed.

He snatched the ring of keys and presented them to Maggie.

“You’ve shown little of the virtue to be speaking of it with such conviction,” Maggie added tartly as she threaded the key ring onto her bodice laces, tying them tight for the quick sea-flight.

“Shrew,” Kaspar muttered under his breath.

She was pleased to see that the backdraft from Evrard’s wings knocked him on his ass as they left him behind.

Once on shore, she and Evrard easily found what they were looking for.

Kaspar hadn’t lied about the items or locations, and she was soon in possession of two seaworthy ships and enough fish to feed her favorite gargoyle for weeks.

Once everything was stowed safely, Evrard picked her up and flew them both toward the stone cottage where her parents slept.

The keys jingled against her bosom as they landed on the edge of the cliff.

The horizon had lightened the faintest amount.

Less than an hour until dawn.

Just enough time for Evrard to retrieve Kaspar from his island imprisonment, although Maggie would have preferred to keep her gargoyle to herself.

She sighed. “I suppose we shouldn’t leave him there.”

Evrard shrugged, and she felt in her mind that it wouldn’t weigh on his conscience.

She had to admit that she didn’t want to see Kaspar’s face again, either.

But leaving him to another day of thirst and exposure was cruel.

Though Kaspar deserved it because he was a cruel man, Evrard wasn’t.

Neither was she. So she untied the keys, anyway, and handed them over.

“Send him somewhere far away so he won’t trouble us anymore. And kiss me before you go, my love, in case I don’t see you again before the sun rises.”

Evrard obliged on both counts.

When Maggie woke in the morning to her mother’s gasp, the bright light of newly opened shutters stung her eyes.

“Margaret Sparhauk, where were you last night? And why is there a gargoyle perched outside your window?!” A kitten was dumped onto her pillow.

Maggie smiled as she stretched her limbs, basking in sunlight that was almost as warm as her mate’s arms. She decided not to worry her parents with the long story and gave them the short one instead.

“I was at the tavern, of course. And that gargoyle is my husband.”