"I never thanked you for the assist."
I was lost for a moment before I knew what he was referring to, and then smiled back at him, only to have it cut short as the memory came fully back. The battle with council. I'd missed the majority of it, at first tied to a wall and then overtaken by blackness, but I had fought a little. A bird had flown over and I'd jumped to it, able to see them all below in the fray. Grey had been trapped as I was, vines wrapping him in place, the long thorns piercing his skin, flames surrounding him. I had found his attacker and gave Grey the few precious seconds he needed to escape. The horrid scene filled my mind now and as I looked at it with the fresh knowledge, it had changed slightly. I couldn't help but wonder if they actually had been fighting to protect me.
And then the last little bit of the memory came back, the moments just before the blackness had taken me. Asher, watching from outside the battle. I could see his lips moving swiftly, a quiet flow of incoherent words.
"Frey?"
Grey had been talking to me, though I had no idea what he'd said. I answered anyway. "Yes, of course."
He laughed. And then he was gone.
I shook my head, trying to focus, because I knew I was about to be smacked in the back of the head or have a leg pulled out from under me when he reappeared.
I was wrong. A punch in the gut.
Yet, to my surprise, he was still standing in front of me. He was confused, as was I, and we both looked down to see that I had my hand wrapped tightly around his wrist. He was lightning fast, I'd usually only known he'd attacked because of the actual strike, but somehow I'd grabbed him, almost unthinkingly.
We stood there, staring at the offending hands, unable to relax at first. And then I breathed, a breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding. Grey flexed his fist open and I finally eased my grip on him.
We didn't speak.
"Frey," Ruby started as she bounced up to us. And then she noticed the uncomfortable atmosphere. "What's going on?"
Grey spoke up, smiling a genuine smile at her without looking me in the eye. "Hey, Red. Just finishing up here." He gingerly reached up to pat me on the back of the shoulder. "The girl's really picking it up. Impressive."
Ruby looked at me, perplexed. I smiled and squeaked out a nervous laugh. She glanced back and forth between us a few times before she shook it off and resumed her original announcement. "We've decided to move on. Frey, I'll get your things together. You can keep practicing until we have everything ready."
She threw one distrustful glance back to Grey, an eyebrow raised inquisitively, before bouncing off in the direction of my tattered hut.
When I turned back to Grey he was watching me. I felt my shoulders come up in shrug.
"Do it again," he commanded and I wondered if I heard a hint of excitement in his voice.
Almost too fast to see, his fist was coming at me again. And then it stopped as my palm came up to meet it automatically.
Grey smiled.
My hand still blocking his, he twisted to take my fingers, leading me by the hand as he walked from the center of the temple. Further from the others.
He spoke in a low voice. "When did your instincts return, Freya?"
I just stared at him. I had no idea what he was talking about.
His smile turned apologetic, but at the same time unrepentant, a face I was sure only Grey could get away with. "Seems the wicked Francine is helping you out more than herself."
I shivered a bit at the mention of Fannie. I had plenty of awful memories of her, mean as she was, but nothing had compared to the simple look she'd given me in her panther form. Just a dream, but the way she looked at me...
The words came out almost as a thought. "What does she want with me?"
He looked incredulous. I couldn't understand why. I was missing something obvious again? She intended to punish me for what I'd done, my imagined part in her binding and imprisonment?
Grey turned to me and placed his hands on my arms. "Frey, you are the leader of the North."
What did that have to do with anything?
He could see he wasn't getting through. "Do you remember what you read of Fannie in the diary?"
Had everyone read it? I waited.
I could tell he felt as if he were explaining something to a child. "Fannie is in line for the throne, Freya."
I let that sink in.
"After you."
Instead of the shock or pain that should have followed the revelation that my mind took its sweet time getting to, anger flooded through me. "She plans to kill me?"