TWENTY-ONE – GREGORY
I stayed with them long enough to finish my drink then I excused myself back to my own table. There is so much about the world and my village that I was blind to. I am no longer as confident about keeping Ash’s secret, or my own, while we are here. After all, my own father is a Ridder. I must tell Grant, as soon as possible. I can’t risk him mentioning anything.
Den and Stann really shocked me. They are both prominent members of the town and I would have never expected them to be so close-minded or hateful.
Ash is, without a doubt, the shifter they are looking for. They know her hair color, but that alone is not enough to convict her, or at least I hope. Thank god she has been so private and no one else knows where she came from. If they knew she was from Naven, I guarantee they would have already snatched her.
At least one thing is a relief, we are no longer in the dark just waiting. The enemy is here and we know who they are. That gives us a leg up. We just need to convince them that no one here is a shifter and that the person they are looking for is in another town.
I desperately want another pint, but I can’t risk being tipsy. But I need to look like I am here for a reason. I can’t just sit at a table and not eat or drink anything. I motion over at Ash and she nods. She will head over as soon as she has a chance. When she gets here, I will order dinner and another drink, though I doubt I will touch either.
I watch her and find myself wondering what our lives will be like after this crisis is over. Ash is strong and I have plenty of confidence she will rise above the heartbreak she is bound to be feeling. We could be happy together, though we will be forced to hide half of our identity for the rest of our lives. That is what it would take to be safe. We will make sure no one else knows about us and only fly at night.
How normal will our lives be?
We will get through this. I want to see her years from now, surrounded by love and family. I want us to be happy and we will.
Lost in thoughts of our future, I watch her finish up with another table, then saunter her way over. When she nears, I see the strain on her face. “Gregory, I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can. Just keep going and as soon as they are gone, I will get you out of here.”
“They are all dead. My whole clan.”
“I know, my love. I know. It is better than them being captured though, suffering at the hands of those monsters.”
She pales, “You are right. You don’t know how bad I want to sneak behind Ted and slit his throat, right here, in front of everyone. I am so angry.”
“And he would deserve it.”
“But as soon as I did, Cliffden would be swarming with Ridders and we would be hunted.”
“Yes. So be strong love, when they are gone, we will go somewhere where you can grieve and release that anger.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“You’ll see. You should head on from me, can you bring me another pint and some dinner? I need to look busy.”
“I will. I hope they leave soon.”
“Me too,” I say, and she turns to walk away. I am so grateful she chose to trust me. The longer I am around her, the more I grow to admire her character. She has had to be so strong, her whole life. I don’t think I would have been able to make some of the decisions she made.
In fact, I know I wouldn’t be. I wasn’t strong enough to leave my family. She was.
I was so busy, watching her walk away, I didn’t notice Grant until he was sitting right next to me.
“I knew I would find you here.”
“Because I told you I was coming here.”
He is smiling, “Yup! How’s Ash doing?”
“Not good. You see that man sitting next to Den and Stann?”
“Yeah, I noticed him when I walked in. He is something. He set my hairs pricking when I first saw him.”
“You are an amazing judge of character. He is a Ridder.”
“Seriously?” He sputters out, “How do you know?”
“Because I just spent a few minutes talking to them. They made no effort to hide it.”
Ash showed up with two drinks and dinners. “I saw Grant coming in, I figured he would be hungry too.”
“You would be right, I am starving.” He has a bite in his mouth practically before Ash even set it down on the table. “This is great!”
“Thanks, for bringing these,” I say, “I was just filling Grant in on the situation.”
“What situation?” She asks. Oh crap, I forgot to tell her I told Grant about both of us this morning.
“I didn’t have a chance to tell you, with everything going on. I shifted in front of Grant this morning and filled him in on the danger you are in.”
“You told him my secret?” She looks furious.
I gulp, “Yes. I needed his help. Keeping you safe is not going to be easy and I wanted to reduce any risks.”
“You had no right.” With that, she stormed off.
I wanted to punch Grant, he decided that moment was a good one to laugh out, “Good luck recovering from that one. She looks pissed.”
“Way to state the obvious,” I grumbled. Great, another thing for her to be upset about. I need to make this up to her while trying to distract her from all the other troubles. “She will have to get over it. Telling you needed to happen. I feel more comfortable with it too, after what I just found out. Grant, dad is a Ridder.”
“You’re kidding,” he starts, “I can’t believe he kept that hidden from us?”
“I wish I was, my best guess is he didn’t want us to know his bloody past. Stann told me our father was the best. Apparently, he killed the most shifters.”
“Thank god we didn’t tell him anything that is going on. You know what this means? He can never know who you really are.”
“I know. The game just became much more dangerous.” At this, Grant starts eating again. I catch a quick smell of it and my mouth starts watering. My appetite came slamming back, though it probably never went away. I dig right in and we stay silent while eating. Not for any reason other than talking would distract from shoveling the next bite in. What can I say, we are big eaters. I contemplate getting a second portion when I see the Den, Stann, and Ted stand up. Looks like they are done.
“Grant, can you follow them?”
He nods, “I’ll see if they have any others with them and find out where they are staying.”
“Thanks. If they catch you, just say I told you what is going on and you want to help. It’s not perfect, but they should believe it.”
“You’re probably right, I guess we are lucky to have father’s legacy for this.”
“I am going to get Ash out of here and take her back to the house. Don’t linger around them and as soon as you get back, come find us.”
“I will.” The group is slipping out the door, so Grant stands up, getting ready to follow, “Good luck, brother,” I say to him.
When he is out the door, I go find Nash. I need to convince him that Ash is not well, she is having a breakdown from the memories of the attack. It should be easy, considering Ash looks the part right now. She broke down as soon as they were out the door. It’s time to get her out of here.
He is behind the bar, so I walk up in front of him. “Nash, do you see Ash? She isn’t doing too well. Do you mind if she has the rest of the night off? I would like to get her out of here.”
He looks over at her, and I can’t tell if she is acting for his purpose or not, but she is shaking so bad we both see it from across the room. “She looks like she is going to faint. I will be fine for the rest of the night. Take care of her, son.”
“I know just the thing to help her. I am going to teach her how to defend herself.”
“That is a wonderful idea. Make her feel safer.”
“Exactly. Thank you, Nash.” I turn to Ash, then nod my head at her and start to head towards the kitchen. She catches my meaning and follows. Time to go.