The Griffin's Mate

by Zoe Chant

  “I wish we could stay here forever,” she said quietly. “But we can’t, can we? I have to figure out what I’m going to do. Somehow.”

  Harrison rested his forehead against hers. “We’ll figure it out. Together. Remember, I’m on your side.”

  Lainie smiled up at him. “I remember.”

  ***

  Harrison made a pile of scrambled eggs for breakfast, flavoring them with fresh herbs and serving them alongside a loaf of crusty bread from Pol’s shelf on the shared work pantry downstairs. His own kitchen supplies didn’t extend much far past grilled cheese. He’d even snaffled the lemon and honey for the drinks last night from Pol’s shelf.

  I’ll need to step up my game now Lainie’s here, he thought, sliding the eggs onto two plates. …And head to the store before Pol notices his depleted supplies, he added.

  “That smells delicious,” Lainie said, coming in from the shower. She buttoned her blouse and sat down, dropping her shoes under the table. “Mmm.”

  “I’m better with a hammer and nails than in the kitchen, but I can manage some things,” Harrison said, grinning as he placed Lainie’s plate in front of her. “Simple, hearty meals.”

  “After the storm yesterday, simple, hearty meals sounds perfect.” Her eyes widened as Harrison put a cup of coffee down by her plate. “And you just made it perfect plus.”

  Harrison checked in with Arlo and Pol while they ate. *Is there much damage from the storm?*

  *Not a lot. A couple of windows smashed by falling branches. The old Eaves place is gone, though.* Arlo’s telepathic voice grew outraged. *Pol says you were out there?*

  *Lainie was in trouble. Hey, Pol—how did that job I gave you last night go?*

  Pol gave a telepathic groan. *I’ve had to auction myself off for Christmas lights this year… but everyone’s on board. They’re willing to listen, at least.*

  Harrison shoveled egg into his mouth, struggling to keep his feelings off his face. He didn’t want Lainie to ask what was going on before he had all the details sorted. He didn’t want to get her hopes up for no reason.

  Harrison could feel the embarrassed wriggle in Pol’s voice when he spoke again. *Look, boss… this whole thing is bringing out a lot of feelings in people, not all of them good. You do what you need to do, Harrison. I’m on your side, whatever happens.*

  A moment later, Arlo chimed in. *Me too.*

  *Thanks, guys.* Harrison didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t know how today was going to turn out. None of them did—and yet they were willing to back him up. And not because of any mate bond. Because they were his friends, and they trusted his judgement.

  All of them were outsiders of one sort or another, here in Hideaway. None of them had been born here, and some of them had blended in with the community better than others. Pol, with his casual friendliness and special talents, had made himself at home in Hideaway within weeks of arriving. Harrison knew he’d be able to charm his way back into their good books, even if he did back Harrison and Lainie in the face of the town’s judgement.

  Arlo was risking more by going against the Sweets and the rest of the town. He was a loner, and only had a few real friends in Hideaway. How many would decide he wasn’t worth keeping around if he caused trouble?

  Harrison blinked, and muttered “Damn it.” His vision was swimming. He tried to shake the tears away, but it was too late. Lainie was looking across at him, her dark eyes full of concern.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s nothing. I was just—” Harrison waved his fork, and paused. Ah. “I was just, uh, talking to the guys, using… my shifter telepathic powers…”

  “Your what?” Lainie dropped her cutlery and covered her eyes. “You know what—okay. On top of everything else, telepathy doesn’t seem that weird. What were your friends saying?”

  “Pol and Arlo. I don’t know if you’ve met Pol—tall, blond?” Lainie shook her head. “Well, you’ll see him today, anyway. Arlo you met yesterday morning, of course. And, uh. The night before. My, uh. The dog.”

  “The dog?” Lainie groaned, then chuckled. “Oh, the poor guy. And he had to pretend to be a real dog, because you weren’t expecting me to be at the restaurant… jeez.”

  “Yeah. He’s not going to let me live that down for a long time.” Harrison laughed, then grew serious. “They were saying that they’ve got our backs, whatever happens today.”

  Lainie visibly shuddered. “That’s really nice of them,” she said quietly. “But I still don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do, except try to make everyone understand my side of the story.”

  Harrison reached across the table and took her hand. “We’ll do it together,” he reassured her.

  She sighed and grabbed her shoes. “Well, there’s no point putting it off,” she said. She smiled across at Harrison, but even from across the table he could tell it was wavering.

  He watched while she pulled on one ankle-boot, and then the other.

  “Ugh, these are still wet—ouch!” She kicked off her right boot, and grabbed her foot. Harrison swooped over and knelt by her chair. “Damn it, I forgot. There was a bit of gravel in there yesterday, cutting into my foot. I forgot to knock it out. It’s really sharp.”

  Harrison picked up her shoe and turned it over. A small, grime-covered object fell out. He frowned. Some of the grime had been rubbed off by Lainie’s sock, but what was underneath it didn’t look like gravel. It gleamed.

  Harrison rubbed the object against his pant leg. “This isn’t a stone,” he said, wonderingly. “Look.”

  He held it up to her. Lainie’s eyes widened. “A ring!” she gasped. “But that looks like—”

  “—The ring from your grandparents’ portrait.” Harrison finished her sentence.

  The ring twinkled in the light pouring in the kitchen window. It had a slender gold band, and was topped by a diamond the size of Harrison’s thumbnail. Smaller stones were set on each side, catching the light and sending it back broken into glittering shards.

  “But where—oh, my God,” Lainie breathed. “When I fell over, I knocked something out of that alcove, do you remember? The ring got lodged in my shoe after that.” She met Harrison’s eyes. “Harrison… how much would a ring like this be worth? And what if the rest of the Eaves treasure is there, too? What if it really exists?”

  Her eyes were lit up with hope. Harrison slid the ring into her hand.

  “I asked Pol to gather my friends together so we could talk to them this morning. Figure out some way that we can stay together, and solve your debt problem,” he told her. “But I just thought of another thing they can help us with.

  “Let’s go,” he said, and pulled her to her feet.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  LAINIE

  Lainie wriggled her toes in the sand. She’d been holding her grandmother’s ring ever since Harrison handed it to her. It felt warm in her hand.

  That’s just because you’ve been holding it for so long, she reasoned with herself. But it still felt like something more. So many magical things had been revealed to her in the last twenty-four hours. Who’s to say it wasn’t an accident that this ring fell into my boot?

  She blushed and looked around. Harrison had reassured her that shifters’ telepathy didn’t mean they could read her mind, but she didn’t want anyone overhearing her thinking that her grandmother’s spirit might have sent the ring to her.

  How else could she explain what was happening?

  She was standing on the same beach she and Harrison had fled from the day before. Today, at low tide and with only the lightest breeze coming off the sea, it was idyllic. The sun shone on the small waves, glittering as they broke on the tiny beach and the rocks to either side of it. The sand was warmed by the sun. Even the cave looked welcoming.

  Lainie could hardly believe that this was the same place where she’d stood, shivering, trying to decide whether to risk racing over the cliff path and being swept off, or hiding
in the cave and succumbing to hypothermia.

  She and Harrison had walked along that path just half an hour ago. It was lovely. At no point had she been terrified that a wave would pick her up and slam her to bits on the rocks.

  They’d searched the cave first, of course. They hadn’t found anything, not even the remains of whatever box or crate Lainie had knocked off its secret shelf. The waves had washed everything away.

  Lainie had been ready to give up hope, but then Harrison had paused, a distant look on his face. And he’d smiled.

  He’d told her that Jools, the girl who’d been her waitress the first night she spent in Hideaway, had found something. She’d been flying—oh, had he mentioned she was a gull shifter?—and seen something glittering in the water. A necklace.

  Now, less than an hour later, the water was full of animals. No, not animals—shifters. She tried to count them through the waves, but couldn’t. She knew there was a sea-lion shifter somewhere out there, and Jools and her brothers and sisters were alternatively flying above the water and diving into it. She was pretty sure there was a ray on the team, as well. A ray! She’d never even seen one of those before, not outside of Finding Nemo.

  And there was Harrison. She had thought he would join the gulls in the sky, and he had—and then, like them, he’d dived beneath the waves.

  Why are you surprised? She’d asked herself. A griffin is, what—part eagle, part big cat? Both of those species go in the water sometimes. Well, some species of eagle, at least. And some cats.

  Besides. Until yesterday, you didn’t know that griffins existed. Now that you know they do, why is anything about them surprising?

  A black-striped gull swooped down from the sky and landed beside Lainie, transforming into a young woman.

  “Jools!” Lainie cried. “I—oh, you’re naked.” She blushed and covered her eyes.

  “Jeez, don’t worry about that,” Jools said breezily. “Harrison sent me over to pass on a message. He says they’ve found something!”

  Hope filled Lainie’s chest. “Did he say what it was?”

  “He says…” Jools’ eyes went unfocused, as though she was listening to something far away. “He says it’s the box, or, most of it. Maybe. He’s bringing it up now.”

  Lainie turned wide-eyed to look at the water. A dark shape formed under the waves, growing larger as she watched. At last it broke through the waves.

  Harrison was in his griffin form. Saltwater sheeted off the feathers of his head and fore-legs, and then off his wings as he spread them above the waves. His eyes were more gold than hazel, burning with pride.

  He was holding a small, brass-bound wooden chest in one massive claw.

  “Harrison!” Lainie cried out, racing down the beach towards him. Her feet sank into the sand, slowing her down. By the time she reached Harrison, he had transformed, and had arms for her to fall into.

  “Lainie,” he breathed into her hair, dripping saltwater all over her. “I haven’t looked inside it yet. And it’s broken. I don’t want you to get your hopes up…”

  “It’s too late for that.” Lainie took the chest as he offered it to her. It was heavier than she expected. Please let that mean it’s full, and not just water-logged, she begged silently.

  She staggered back up to dry sand and dropped to her knees with the chest. Harrison jogged up the beach to where a pile of clothes marked where he and the rest of the search-party had shifted earlier, and pulled on a pair of pants. Then he joined her, his hand on her back. She looked up at him. “Ready?”

  He smiled back. “Ready.”

  The chest had a heavy lock on it. The lock was still intact, but the wood was mostly rotten. At one corner, it was completely rotted through.

  “That must be where the ring fell out,” Lainie said.

  “And the necklace Jools found,” Harrison added.

  “Well, I don’t think there’s much point calling for a locksmith,” Lainie joked. She traced the design on the face of the lock. “Wait a minute…”

  She rummaged in her pocket and pulled out her keys. There it was: the small silver key that had been folded into her grandmother’s will, according to the lawyer who’d given it to Lainie. She’d wondered what it was for. The will hadn’t mentioned it at all.

  Lainie inserted the key into the lock and held her breath as the twisted it. Click.

  “Oh, my God…” Lainie breathed as she opened the lid of the chest.

  Lainie’s mouth hung open. The old wooden chest had hidden treasure. Not just any treasure: the legendary Eaves jewels.

  Lainie sifted through rotten velvet bags and cases, pulling out glittering handfuls of gemstones. Some were set into necklaces, and earrings, and even a tiara, but many were just loose stones: clear diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies.

  Harrison’s arm tightened around her. She looked up at him, speechless.

  “This is incredible,” she breathed at last.

  “It’s yours.”

  “It—but…” Lainie shook her head. “Grandmother’s will mentioned jewels, but I never thought… this is way more than in any of the records the lawyers found. Some of these I recognize from the portrait, but most of them…”

  Harrison chuckled. “Magpies.”

  “What?”

  He laughed and kissed her. “Magpies,” he said again. “I never met your grandparents, but Tessa said they were magpies. Collectors of shiny baubles.”

  Lainie stared at him. “Really? I had no idea…” She ran her hands through the sparkling jewels again. “Someone from the town emptied my grandparents’ house after my Gran went into care, and put everything in storage. The jewels were never found. And that cupboard was in front of the passage down to the beach, but I don’t remember it being there when I was a kid.” She frowned. “I wonder…”

  “What is going on here?”

  Lainie felt Harrison’s arms tighten protectively around her as Mrs. Sweets’ voice cut through the air. Lainie frowned.

  I wonder if my grandmother wanted to keep the jewels safe from someone in particular.

  The old woman was stalking along the cliff path, looking completely out of place in her twinset and pearls. Her husband was following her, and behind him were a few other faces Lainie recognized from the surprise meeting.

  “Do they always walk in a crocodile behind her?” Lainie muttered to Harrison. He laughed, but didn’t move from where he was kneeling protectively beside her.

  Lainie was glad. She was angry at Mrs. Sweets for the way she’d treated her, but anger alone wouldn’t get her through this. She needed support, as well. The knowledge that someone was on her side.

  She grabbed Harrison’s hand and squeezed it as Mrs. Sweets walked up to them. She had to clench her other hand in her lap to stop herself from sweeping up the jewels to keep them out of the old woman’s sight. They’re yours, she reminded herself. There’s nothing she can do to take them away from you. Even if she’s already taken so much.

  And who are her cronies, anyway? Lainie looked behind Mrs. Sweets, for the first time getting a really good look at the men and women who tagged along behind her like ducklings.

  There was Mr. Sweets, of course, somehow looking like he was asleep even when he was standing up. Two older women, one thin and one chubby, with matching lavender rinses, peered down at Lainie and Harrison through matching spectacles.

  And behind them, to Lainie’s surprise, was another woman, who must have been at least fifty years younger than anyone else in the group. Unlike the others, whose faces all held expressions of mingled glee and curiosity, she looked miserable.

  “Did you not hear me, Ms. Eaves? I asked what you were doing.” Mrs. Sweets’ smile had too many teeth in it for Lainie’s liking.

  “I heard you,” Lainie replied, her voice cool. She swept her hair back off her face as she looked up at the old woman. “I was just too busy wondering what you were doing on my land to answer straight away.”

  Two red spots appeared on Mrs. Sweet
s’ cheeks. “Young lady—” she began, and then stopped. Her eyes narrowed, and she let her breath out slowly through her nose. By the time she opened her mouth again, there was no trace of rage on her face. “I came to offer my condolences about your family home. How terrible, for you to see it destroyed only one day into your visit.”

  Lainie’s confidence wavered. Something about Mrs. Sweets’ swift mood change unnerved her. “That place hasn’t been my family home in a long time,” she said quietly.

  “But you know all about that, don’t you?” Harrison curled his hand protectively over Lainie’s shoulder, his gentle touch in stark contrast to the growl in his voice.

  Mrs. Sweets’ lips narrowed. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” she sniffed.

  “You destroyed my family!” Lainie cried out. Murmurs broke out around her, and her breath caught in her throat. Don’t listen to them. Don’t pay any attention to what they’re saying. “You forced my grandparents to send my mother and me away from Hideaway, because I didn’t turn out to be a shifter. I’m surprised you didn’t come down on my father when he married Mom in the first place!”

  Mrs. Sweets looked down her nose at Lainie. “You really don’t know much of your family history, do you? Your father was always flighty. He met your mother while he was travelling. By the time he introduced her to his parents, it was too late. If it had happened here, the town would have had something to say about it, believe me.”

  “You mean you would have had something to say about it,” Harrison growled. “I used to think this place was paradise, a place of safety. But the way you’ve treated Lainie is far worse than any human ever treated any shifter I’ve known.”

  Lainie held on tight to Harrison’s hand as he stood beside her, feeling as though he was the only thing anchoring her.

  “I stayed with my grandparents most weekends when I was young. I might not know much, but I do remember that,” she said firmly. “They welcomed me in their home.”