Page 55 of The Ferryman’s Rest Inn & Grogshop

“Miserable, isn’t it? At least you have her voice recorded. I’d give anything for that.”

Clive turned and found a man in dark robes. He was tall and broad, with long, black hair tied at the nape of his neck and dark eyes that seemed to see into Clive’s soul.

“It is.” Clive wasn’t sure who this was, but he felt power radiating off the man.

The man—god—patted Clive on the shoulder. Clive remained standing, but just barely. “It’s only a little under three days for you,” he said. “I remember when I was still measuring time in days. I thought perhaps she’d changed her mind or had run off to escape me. At least you know where she is and that she left to help someone.”

The god crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Trust me; it could be far worse.” He took a deep breath. “Tell me. The reports I’ve heard don’t fall in line with what I know of humans. Megaera tells me that your wife isn’t one to give up when it gets too dangerous or painful. You know her better, I would assume. Will your wife make the safe choice?”

Clive didn’t want to consider what was being asked. “As much as I would love to say that Sam will keep herself protected so she can return to me unharmed and live out our long lives together, that’s not who she is. She has an iron will and an unshakable moral compass. She also has a maddening, irritating habit of self-sacrifice. She will, without thought, put herself in danger to help others. It doesn’t even need to be someone she knows and loves.”

Clive fingered his wedding ring, spinning it slowly around his finger. “It makes me insane but is also part of why I love her so.” He cleared his throat, pushing down the longing that was choking him. “Do you know? Is Sam all right?”

The god nodded. “I do know.” He glanced over at Clive and then back out at the sea. “Is she all right?” he echoed. “No. She’s not, but she says that you won’t mind the changes. I suppose my answer depends on how well she knows you.”

Clive’s chest tightened. “She knows me inside and out.”

The god nodded. “In that case, she’s fine.”

Clive turned to the god again but was unable to look on his face. “Why Sam? Why is she here?”

“Because I lost someone very dear to me and it was foretold your wife would be the one to find her. I hope, for all of our sakes, we have the right woman.”

A moment later, Clive was standing alone on the cliff, puzzling over the god’s words. Sam wasn’t all right, but she was fine.

Fyr tossed and turned in his bed. Like the others, he’d gone to his room hours ago. They’d left the vampires in the bar, while they’d turned in for the night. Fyr had been staring at his ceiling fan ever since, going over the previous days, months, decades.

What consumed him were thoughts of Coco. Had he screwed up? He’d hoped this would help her break free of the guilt keeping her caged in the past. He hadn’t wanted to endanger her. He was trying to be a good friend, trying to put her first. She was, as much as it embarrassed him to admit, the first and only real friend he’d ever had. Now, though, alone in the dark, he doubted himself. He wondered if he’d suggested she go because he was trying to prove to himself that he wasn’t in love with her.

He hadn’t wanted to do anything to screw up their friendship. It meant everything to him. He’d spent his childhood alone in the dark, locked in a filthy cell, dreaming of his family, of freedom and sunshine, of friends and laughter. When he had finally broken free, though, his isolation and manipulation by the fae had continued. It embarrassed him to consider how easily he’d been used.

Rolling onto his side, Fyr stared out the dark window. His dream of being reunited with his parents had finally been put to rest when Benvair had informed him that they had been killed on the night he’d been abducted. All those years, when he’d thought he’d lose his mind in his cell, when he’d wished for death, a small part of him had still held out hope that his parents would bust through the walls and breathe fire on every guard who’d hurt and starved him.

It had been seven months since he’d learned that he was completely alone in the world, that no one had ever been looking for him. As far as he knew, he was the last of the Fyr line of dragons. He referred to Benvair as his auntie, but that was the dragon way. They saw all clans across the globe as family. There were so few dragons left in the world, they clung to any sense of kinship.

Fyr never spoke of his profound loneliness, would never tell anyone what that was like for him now, or what had been done to him then. No one, that is, until he and Coco had started to spend their sleepless nights in each other’s company.

Watching the shadow of the curtain sheer flutter in the breeze off the sea, he thought of her kindness and endless patience. They didn’t always talk when they met in the middle of the night. Sometimes words were the enemy, so they’d lounge on the couch and watch mindless movies. She’d introduced him to TV shows she’d thought he might like.

On the nights when a lamp didn’t turn on to signal she was awake, he’d tried watching them on his own. It was never the same, though. The shows felt boring and pointless without her sitting beside him.

And then Sam was standing behind her bar, worried about going to Greece to help her friend, and Coco’s name was on his lips. Coco had told him she’d frozen in the woods when she was a child. Alec had been abducted while she’d watched and ever since, she’d felt paralyzed on the inside. He’d thought—he realized now, stupidly—that this trip was what she needed to break free from the guilt that bound her.

Sighing, he closed his eyes, hoping for sleep, but found only Coco’s face. It wasn’t until the early morning sun hit him that Fyr finally drifted off.

As Fyr slept, Benvair gave up on it and moved to the little table by the window. The sun was rising and the colors were extraordinary. Poor sleep was familiar to her. For the twenty years Alec had been missing, Benvair had had trouble sleeping soundly. Her brain seemed to keep her just barely below the surface, so she’d be ready to fight for her grandson. Quiet footfalls on the first floor of her home, she’d wake. A car driving by the house, she’d wake. A phone ringing in the house next door, she’d wake.

Once Alec had been rescued, her body had finally let the tension and fear go and she’d slept deeply. She couldn’t believe it, that first night in the keep with Alec in the room beside her, she’d slept straight until morning.

Now, though, with Coco missing, the familiar wakefulness had returned. She sighed, emotionally exhausted as she stared at the cerulean sea, her mind wandering back to the Drake keep in Wales. She considered calling her son to tell him that Coco was in the Underworld but decided not to.

After Alec had been found and Benvair had taken George and Alec home to America, she’d expected her son Griffin and his wife Smoke to follow. They’d said they just needed to close up the keep and they’d be on their way.

Months of excuses followed, but still they had yet to stir themselves. She knew Alec called once a week to speak with them. She also knew George and Coco did not. They’d grown up with her, their parents half a world away and unable to think of anything besides their missing son. Alec was abducted, but Coco and George were abandoned. By their parents. Never by her. She could tell, though neither Coco nor George had actually said it, that both believed that their parents didn’t call or visit because they blamed the two of them for allowing Alec to be taken.

Benvair didn’t think that was it. She believed that Griffin and Smoke were broken in ways she didn’t understand. She grieved for them, but right now, she had her grandchildren to look after. Someday, when she felt it was safe to leave them on their own, she’d fly back to Wales to check on her son and daughter-in-law. Not now, though. She was needed now.

Benvair rose and dressed for the day. George had found the steps to the Underworld the previous day. She’d mentally marked where he and Owen had appeared. Not wanting to be stopped by anyone, she set out before the others woke. She needed to see for herself where Coco had gone.