Chapter 130

Kayla

Gray and his two cohorts lay side by side in the hole we’d dug. They were wrapped in sheets and placed six feet underground, a good half mile away from the cabin.

If it weren’t for the unfortunate circumstances, today might have been a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the temperature was fairly balmy.

If only.

But now, the nine of us were standing in front of a hole with three bodies in it.

We had spent the morning taking shifts digging the hole. The ground had been frozen, making it hard work, and now the sun had reached its zenith in the sky.

“It’s better this way,” Jade said with a firm nod as we all stared down at the three bundles. “He was a bad man.”

I glanced first at her, then up at Nicholas. He wasn’t looking at me, nor at the bodies, but rather at the swaying treetops overhead. His brow was shimmering with a faint sheen of sweat, and his chest was heaving slightly from the exertion.

Dead. Gray and his one remaining lackey had been dead this morning when we’d found them. It seemed that, in the middle of the night, they had taken poison pills—likely a lethal dose of silverbite, from the looks of things—that were hidden inside a ring on Gray’s finger that we’d never even noticed before.

Why Gray had chosen suicide over facing justice, we weren’t sure. We’d never planned on killing him. It was almost as if he feared leaving the cabin without Grace more than he feared death.

“There are others—those who would use the relic not to build, but destroy—who seek it as well,” he had said.

Was that who he truly feared? The others who might try to get to the relic first? If he failed in his quest to bring Grace back, who would he have to answer to? And what might they do?

I shuddered just at the thought.

We worked in silence after that, filling the hole with dirt until it was packed down flat, then finally returned to the cabin.

But when we made it back, Nicholas didn’t come inside with us. Rather, he veered toward the new stack of boards and glass panels that had been dropped off by trusted Nightshade couriers, and he began to work.

I hesitated, staring at him from the porch. Emma suddenly appeared by my side and placed a hand on my arm.

“It’s better to let him work,” she said softly. “It’s how he copes with stuff.”

I nodded and followed her inside, knowing that she was right.

Inside, Grace was knitting in front of the fire while the others milled around, finding various tasks to keep themselves busy. When I sat next to her, I could see that her fingers were trembling around the needles.

“You’re safe here,” I said, reaching out to touch her hand. “We’ll make sure no one else finds you. You won’t have to leave.”

Grace set down her knitting and turned to me. “It’s not leaving or being found that I’m worried about,” she whispered. “It’s what he said last night.”

I blinked, recalling all too well the vitriol that Gray had spat—about Grace’s mother. “He was just trying to throw you off,” I said.

But Grace shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think there was merit to it. My mother…” She swallowed hard and looked away. “In her journal, she said it was best if Luporath remained a mystery, if the secret died with her and Nicholas’s mother.”

“Do you feel that way?”

She shrugged. “I… I don’t know. I’m the only one left who knows anything, and I…”

“Don’t tell me you’re planning on making a swift exit like Gray did.”

Grace shook her head again, this time more vehemently. “No, of course not. But if there are bad people who want it so badly…” She met my gaze, and there was something harder in her eyes now, something more intense. “Maybe it should be protected. Not hidden away.”

My throat bobbed. If Luporath was real, then perhaps Grace was right. Perhaps we needed to find it before someone truly awful—like the person that Gray may have feared—found it. And we needed to keep it safe.

“It almost sounds like a weapon,” I said with a chuckle that had no humor in it.

Grace just blinked at me in response, and her gaze turned steely once more. I felt my stomach twist nervously. “Do you even know what it is?” I whispered.

She shook her head for a third time.

I sighed, moving to get up for something to eat, when Grace suddenly caught my wrist. I looked down to see her staring at my charm bracelet again, her fingers brushing the small, broken compass.

“Where did you say you found this again?” she asked.

I shrugged. “My mother’s jewelry box.”

“Oh.” Grace released my wrist. “I could have sworn my mom had the same charm. But compasses are common charms, so I guess it’s just a coincidence.”

I frowned, opening my mouth to say more, but Grace had already returned to her knitting.

For the remainder of the day, Nicholas stayed outside, the forest echoing with the sounds of hammering and cursing. When I glanced through the window at one point, he was shirtless, his muscles rippling and gleaming with sweat and dirt.

I wanted to go to him, touch him, comfort him… comfort both of us.

But I kept my distance, deciding to give him some space. And around dinnertime, he came bursting into the cabin in such a state that we all jumped with surprise.

“Greenhouse is done,” he said by way of greeting, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he strode over to the sink—still shirtless, with his flannel slung over one shoulder—and filled a glass of water. He chugged it in one go.

Grace abruptly stood. “I’d like to see it.”

We all made our way outside, where the small greenhouse sat in the backyard. It wasn’t very big—just enough for a few rows of potted plants—but the way Grace’s eyes lit up as she turned around inside the small shed was enough to set my heart on fire.

“You like it?” Nicholas asked, bracing one forearm against the doorframe above his head.

There were tears in Grace’s eyes as she murmured, “It’s… It’s perfect. Thank you, Nicholas.”

Nicholas merely nodded and turned on his heel, brushing past me—although, much to my pleasure and surprise, he paused momentarily to press a brief kiss against my forehead before he headed back inside the cabin.

As I watched him go, Emma met my gaze and shrugged, smiling softly.

I guess she was right about Nicholas’s coping habits.

We left the following morning after a relatively sleepless night. Beforehand, Nicholas took the liberty of scouting the surrounding woods himself, ensuring that the cabin was safe. Jade placed more charms in the trees and sprinkled some kind of mixture she’d made of salt and ash around the cabin’s exterior, claiming that it would help ward away outsiders.

I wasn’t so sure if that would work, but it seemed to make Grace feel better, so none of us argued.

When he returned, Nicholas promised Grace that the perimeter was secure but he’d be sending two more Nightshade warriors to stay with her, totalling four warriors at all times. Grace seemed happy to have the extra company, although she kept telling Nicholas that he didn’t need to waste precious resources on her.

“It’s worth it to have you as an ally,” he simply said, waving her off.

I knew what he meant, and so did Grace. I spoke for all of us when I said that Grace had become a friend, but there was more to it than that.

If Luporath was real, and if we were serious about finding the relic and protecting it before anyone else could get their hands on it… then we would need Grace’s help. She promised to spend her spare time researching it, although it seemed she was still hesitant to share too much information.

Not that I could blame her, of course. It seemed her mother had made it clear that Luporath was not to be discovered, and it left Grace wary. I didn’t want to push her too much, and neither did Nicholas, so we opted to give her some space to consider her options. And ours.

As we were saying our goodbyes, though, Nicholas turned to us. He looked at each and every one of us in turn. Even me. Especially me.

“No one speaks of this,” he said darkly. “What happened here… We’ll take it to our grave.” He held his hand out, palm down. “Do we have a pact?”

We all exchanged looks, the implication settling over us. Finally, one by one, we placed our hands in a pile on top of his. Grace was the last, her eyes darting around nervously, before she added her own.

Over the following days, life was surprisingly… normal. Gray’s disappearance was noticed, of course, but local news outlets—and the guild, it seemed—believed that he must have left the territories in the wake of his scandal.

We were in the clear for now, and life went on. But Nicholas did throw himself into his work with a newfound fervor, barely eating or sleeping. He stopped coming to my bed as often, too, although I chalked it up to how busy he was rather than a lack of interest.

Two weeks later, he returned home in a much better mood than I was expecting; he’d been brooding lately, distracted by his work. But now, as he swept into the living room, that cocky grin was plastered across his face once more.

“The guild announced the finalists for the campaign,” he said, stopping in the doorway. “And I’m one of them. The debate will be in two days.”