After another week of bliss with baby Fee—short for Phoebe—it was time for Erin to return to Tannoran’s manor. The separation anxiety hit hard, even when she told herself she was only really changing where she slept at night, since she’d still be working at the Aerie most of the day.

Even so, when her last afternoon in the barracks came, she wrapped the heck out of that little gray keet and gave her the snuggling of a lifetime. The finality of it nearly killed her when she shut the baby into an unoccupied cage in the apartment that the keets would share until they were big enough for their own rooms.

Fee let out a querying trill, pinning her ears and pawing at the bars that separated her from Erin. Several of the other confined babies peeped and squeaked along with her, their big eyes searching frantically for their bondmates.

“It’s a little scary right now, but you’re tough. You’ll get used to it,” she said, more to herself than the keets. “I’ll be back soon, I promise,” she told Phoebe.

Having been unable to use its alarm while she slept in the barracks, it had been so long since she thought about her tablet that Erin almost forgot it existed until she was just about to leave the Aerie. Luckily, there was enough battery left to sneak a photo of the little griffin to take home with her.

She left the Aerie with Kaleit, looking back often while the Aerie was still in sight. She was glad Tannoran had assigned her to the Aeriemaster. Unlike most of the others who’d have to make a special trip to the Aerie each day to feed and spend time with their babies, she’d have plenty of opportunities throughout her workday to visit Fee.

Once the Aerie was out of view and there was little to look at except endless green grazing pastures, Erin looked off toward the ocean instead, refusing to attempt smalltalk with Kaleit. That big purple moon, the crystalline Crylis, had been slowly climbing higher and higher in the sky, yet it was still barely any further from the horizon than it’d been when she got to Emerrane. The dividing line between water and sky seemed to have moved along with the moon, or else she was crazy and imagining things. Not only that, but the horizon was less… flat than she remembered, as if the planet’s curve had been exaggerated, stretched and squished outward toward the moon.

It got weirder when they reached the outskirts of the city proper. Several tired-looking people were gathered outside of one of the larger houses, packs on their back, a cow on a leash and a few handcarts among them. As she and Kaleit passed them, Erin heard them haggling over prices to rent rooms in the house for the next couple of months. That in itself wasn’t too odd, but when she started seeing other similar groups just about everywhere, and an extra glut of them standing around in the main square, the girl became a bit worried.

Swallowing her pride, she caught up with Kaleit and kept her voice low as she asked, “What’s going on with all these people?”

“They’re from the harbor,” he said, not a single smidgen of concern in his tone.

“What?” She drew back in surprise. “What happened to it? A fire?”

She was appalled when the boy laughed derisively and said, “It’s about to be underwater.”

“How can you laugh, then?” she berated him, trying to keep up with his long strides. “All of those people are going to lose their homes!”

Oh, he was achingly cute when he laughed, just like she’d imagined he’d be, but when he did it again, the sight made her stomach clench in the worst kind of way.

“I should tell Tannoran that you’re still in need of those children’s lessons,” he said, the humor draining from his tone. His face was slower to lose the same, she was both dismayed and—mortifyingly—somehow delighted to see. Why couldn’t he ever smile for normal reasons?

“Just tell me what’s going on,” she huffed, crossing her arms. “It’s pretty well established that I’m not from around here.”

Kaleit abruptly stopped walking and turned to her, his presence suddenly feeling overwhelmingly large as he loomed over her, looking down with an almost comically-contorted face that said he wasn’t sure whether she was being serious or not. “Maybe Koben’s merling story wasn’t as far-fetched as I thought,” he said. “No matter where you came from, you’d have to be affected by the floods. Crylis raises them to cover everything, almost all the way to Nilvar itself.”

She vaguely remembered something from her school days about the moon controlling the tides, but that was a little excessive, in her humble opinion. The cliffs they’d scaled using the elevator platforms were so high that she couldn’t fathom the amount of water that would be needed to reach those dizzying altitudes.

Erin thought that would be the end of it, but Kaleit was still staring at her, his expression so genuine that she felt a twinge of terror and went momentarily mute as she realized the egregiousness of the error she’d just made. Her mind was spinning, but she couldn’t come up with anything that could explain her mistake away.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” was what she settled with, “other than that there are places out there that are very different from where you grew up.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

He stared so long that she feared he hadn’t bought it.

“Where did you live, in a cave?” he finally sneered, and walked on.

Erin sagged with relief as soon as his back was turned. They continued through town for a while, the girl struggling with her reckless curiosity. He still hadn’t satisfied her questions completely. She caught up a second time, wincing a little as she dug at the dangerous topic again with, “So they’re okay, then? The people from the harbor?”

“If not, it’s their own fault. They chose to live that way, moving back and forth with the seasons.”

Good enough. She relaxed and trailed along behind the boy, letting her mind wander. She pined for Fee, suddenly jealous of Leslyn’s being able to stay at the Aerie with Valiant. Poor little guy, she thought. Everyone’s still talking about him… and Valiant, too. It was lame, admittedly, but she couldn’t help but snort at her own wit.

It was true, though. The number of rumors surrounding the pair was still climbing, the talk almost constant and rarely covert. Most recently, it was being spread around that Leslyn had purposely goaded Wrath into attacking them so that Valiant might be “accidentally” crippled and give them a pass from joining the Guard.

In light of how highly the Nilvarans esteemed their griffins, it was no surprise that particular rumor had blazed through the Aerie like a wildfire. Leslyn was officially persona non grata with just about everyone who hadn’t known him before Wrath gave her keets away.

Even in spite of his own predicament, Leslyn had been more worried about Erin’s returning to Tannoran’s manor, but she couldn’t see why it was such a big deal. Maybe it was just her usual stubbornness, but she’d refused to even try to persuade the captain to let her stay at the Aerie, though staying with her keet would have been amazing. Leslyn’s reason for his concern wasn’t all that convincing, anyway.

When she’d pressed him, he wouldn’t answer at first, but finally admitted that he believed Kaleit was the one spreading rumors about him and Valiant. While she was certainly incensed over it, she couldn’t see how it affected herself. There hadn’t been any rumors about Erin going around, after all.

As they carefully weaved through another group of refugees who were riding in on horses, Erin gazed at Kaleit’s back, a funny feeling in her stomach. He’d been pretty hateful toward her from the beginning, what with all that nonsense about Erin and Leslyn not having citizenship, even before getting their keets. Wasn’t that where all those rumors started? Why was he only making them up about Leslyn, and not Erin?

Before she knew it, she was biting her lip, a grin beginning to widen her mouth. There was a thing her mom once said, about how boys didn’t know how to express themselves when they felt a certain way about a girl. If it was accurate…

Struggling to wipe the grin off her face, Erin sidled up beside Kaleit and tried not to look hurried as she matched his long-legged strides with two or three strides of her own for each. He ignored her at first, but when she stayed abreast of him, he started giving wary side-eyes in her direction.

“So,” she said, “those rumors you’re slinging around about my non-citizen friend...”

“What about them?” he asked, clearly lacking shame enough to deny it.

“Did you forget that I’m not a citizen either? Where are my rumors?”

“You don’t get any, unless you want to spread them yourself.”

She quickly turned away, pinching her lips together in an emergency maneuver to stifle the broad smile that had tried to break free. A moment later, when she had her face back under control, she gave him what she thought was a sly look. “Why ever not? I didn’t think you liked me all that much.”

“I don’t.” He stopped and crossed his arms, looking down at her with that look. “You are the stupidest girl I’ve ever met, but the fact is, you live in my father’s house, so your reputation reflects onto his, and onto mine as well. I’m not interested in bringing that kind of shame on myself, and I’m even less interested in you.” With that, he continued on toward the manor.

Erin flashed cold, then flaming hot. That bozo had the nerve to say that, and just walk away like it was nothing. She chased after him. “I’m not interested in you, either,” she yelped as she scurried alongside. “Who said that I was, anyway? You’re nothing but a big jerk!”

He turned that pretty smile on her again, using it as a cruel taunt. “You keep using that same word for me. Is ‘jerk’ some kind of commoner slang for ‘irresistible man?’”

“You—!” Erin gasped, then glared and brandished her fists, ready to swing at the next hint of slightest provocation. “Come here, jerk, I have something for you.”

Kaleit pointed a finger at her and laughed, a legitimate belly laugh that drew plenty of eyes from nearby people. It worked exactly how he no doubt intended, silencing the girl with the purest embarrassment.

“I really hate you,” she said for his hearing only, just barely above an angry whisper.

“I don’t care what you think,” Kaleit replied, giving her a flippant salute before moving on.

Erin steamed away for the rest of the walk to the manor, shielding her face against the sudden gust of wind and dust and grumbling under her breath when Captain Tannoran and his black griffin flew over about twenty feet above their heads. Why was he the only one who got to keep his griffin at home, anyway? There was definitely enough extra room in that mini-aerie for a couple of babies.

Even with the head start, after the time it took to remove the griffin’s saddle and settle him in his apartment, the captain was only a few paces ahead of Erin and Kaleit when they reached the house.

As usual, Tannoran had paused in the entryway to take off his gloves. Kaleit started past him, but the captain whipped a freshly-shed glove into the boy’s chest, barring him from going any further. “You’ll use the guest room across from the ward from now on,” he said flatly.

Kaleit stiffened, staring at the man without comprehension. He did something amusingly reminiscent of a double-take when it clicked, and his eyes slid from his father toward Erin. It lasted for the barest sliver of a second, then he huffed and stormed off toward the stairs to the guest wing without an argument.

Yeah, I saw that, Erin thought smugly. You do care what I think, liar. Just as she completed the triumphant thought, she caught eyes with Tannoran. The captain’s gaze was unexpectedly severe, and sent her scurrying up the stairs after Kaleit.

His door slammed before she was halfway up, and she stared at it as she slowly sidled by to reach for the handle to her own room, wondering what in the world he’d done to get banished from his own house.

Whatever it was, he definitely deserved the punishment, she was more than sure. She put it from her mind and locked herself in for the night, already looking forward to the next morning when she’d be able to see Fee again.