presence of the Council, I would have wrapped him in an embrace right there. Kissed him senseless until we were both breathless and lost in each other.
He offered me a heartfelt glance. “But we still had a deal, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about the bounty. I wanted to keep her out of it. She gifted me with a Gyss, and I used a wish to take care of a private issue. I had no idea that would backfire and land us here. Otherwise, I never would have put her through this.”
My eyes burned from the lack of blinking. Nessie was all I saw. The twitching of her nose. The fluttering of feathers along her ears. I knew in my heart what Noc said was true, but to have affirmation… To know without a doubt he hadn’t known about the outcome of his wish…
Green light showered from her gaze, and my chest heaved. Noc looked at me, really looked at me, and my heart throbbed in my throat.
My anam-cara.
Gaige prodded further. “Why did you need a Gyss?”
Noc’s eyes formed narrow slits. When he didn’t answer, Nessie stood on her hind legs, wings shooting straight toward the sky. No matter how collected he appeared on the surface, there was no telling if his heart had given him up. Even one infinitesimal flutter would alert Nessie.
Yazmin rested her fingers at the point of tension between her beast’s ears, and a faint glimmer of pale-pink light emanated from her emblem. “What are you hiding?”
“Something that doesn’t concern Hireath.”
Silence stretched on until Gaige spoke. “I see. Has anyone ever told you that you have a famous dead doppelgänger?”
My nose scrunched. “Doppelgänger?”
Noc brushed his comment off with a belittling chuckle. “You wouldn’t be the first, and I’m sure not the last.”
Gaige’s grin only sharpened. “I’m somewhat of a historian. Forgive me. I spend too much time with my books.”
Yazmin stiffened in her throne, turning her soft smile into a grimace. “Gaige, is your probing really necessary?”
Gaige tossed up his hands. “I digress.”
“Thank you.” She surveyed the Council, studying their faces and weighing minute nods of consent. After another stretch of silence, Yazmin’s expression turned remorseful, and she met my stare. “It’s obvious you’re not at fault here; between Nessie’s verdict and the Myad, you have been absolved in the eyes of beasts. As such, you will be absolved of all crimes in our eyes, too.” Relief made me light-headed, and I slumped against Noc. He pressed a feathery kiss to the top of my head.
But Kaori’s light voice sliced the happiness in my heart with the ease of a knife. “There’s the matter of Calem.”
Noc tightened his grip on my hip. “And?”
“If his symptoms become too much, send him here. I will teach him to control the feral magic in his blood.”
Yazmin braided her fingers together. “Speaking of feral…” She nodded toward the entrance of the grand hall where Wynn’s legendary beast, the Mistari, glowered at us.
Unlike the Scorpex, whose bond had been weak, the Mistari’s had been strong. Sheer agony dripped from his gaze, and a smeared path of wet fur lined the underside of his eyes. He wouldn’t know what his master had done, wouldn’t be able to comprehend the disastrous pain he’d caused. He only knew loss.
Unlike the rest of Wynn’s beasts residing in the realm, free to live out their days without returning to our world, the Mistari was stuck. Bond shattered, he would wander. He would never be the same as he was when he was wild.
I knew what Yazmin would ask before she spoke.
“He needs a home. A way back to the realm. Noc technically owns the claim, but as he is not a Charmer and already owns a Gyss…” She trailed off, and my knees trembled.
Noc hissed. “You’d ask her to care for the beast that belonged to her torturer?”
Torture. That’s what I saw in the Mistari’s eyes. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to call on him, but I could offer him a reprieve. “I’ll take him.”
Noc looked as if I’d slapped him. “What?”
“Look at him.” I turned to Noc, tears already heavy on my lashes. “He didn’t know. He didn’t do this to me. Just like Onyx isn’t responsible for the order I gave when he brought Calem to the ground.”
Noc stared at me for a long moment, and then brushed his thumb along my cheek. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
Leaning into his hand, I smiled, soaking in the warmth