Episode 106
Shared Secrets
Rominy wakes before Elowyn again, but he keeps his lips to himself this time.
It’s cooler on this beach by the dream-version of the seaside cottage in Nunia than it is on their tropical island, and he shivers as he wishes for another blanket, which the heartlanding grants.
The cool breeze and calling of seagulls take him back to summers as a child when they would visit this beach.
His grandmother loved it here. Most of his strongest memories of her are here.
The little cottage behind them was hers.
Mother preferred the larger house with more modern luxuries, but Grandmother never was too sure about those gas lamps and copper pipes.
One thing both women agreed on was that pebble beaches are far superior to sandy ones.
Father humored them, but he always took off his stockings to feel the sand between his toes when they visited other stretches of the Nunian coast.
The memories leave Rominy feeling nostalgic and sentimental, which is fitting for a morning like this, as he wakes with the slight stickiness the briny ocean water left behind after Elowyn ran her magic over him last night.
He heats at the memory as he itches to reach for her where she curls against his chest, but he doesn’t want to wake her. Not yet. Let her sleep.
Now he’ll always associate that memory with this beach, though. This cottage. And it will be their secret to keep. A memory shared between them, meant for no one else.
He was hoping to wake here in the heartlanding the morning after their first time together. To have that buffer between what they shared here and the real world, where privacy is nonexistent for them at the moment.
Hopefully, she won’t mind waking here beside him in the heartlanding like this. At least not this time.
It doesn’t take long for her to stir in his arms, and he holds her as she regains her bearings.
Then she rolls to her back and looks up at him. For a moment, neither of them speaks. Her toes are warm on his legs, and it’s a surreal sensation. He’s always heard about icy feet, but Elowyn is pure fire, even when she’s not catching fire, and he won’t complain.
“You are perfect,” she eventually whispers as she runs a delicate finger across his brow and down his cheek.
He stares at her. “Of all the things I thought you might say this morning, that never crossed my mind. I’m hardly perfect, El.”
“Perfect for me.” She pulls him into a gentle kiss, and he tries not to set her on fire in case she needs more time to recover from last night.
“How are you feeling?” he eventually asks, and she sighs.
“Still a little tired. I fear trying to reach you in the real world took a lot out of me.” She looks away, and he pushes his fears aside. Tharios said she’ll pull through, and he needs to trust Tharios.
“You’ll probably hate me for this, but I think we should take it easy today. Let you recover.”
He waits for her to groan in frustration or dive into the water, but she just looks off toward the waves for a few moments before speaking.
“Will you rest with me? I’m not very good at—”
“Always.” He draws her to his chest, and she clings to him. “You’ll be so tired of me before the day is through. I’ll be like glue at your side.”
His response makes her laugh, as he hoped it would. Of course he’ll be here with her. Where else would he go?
But that’s not what she’s asking, and they both know it. She needs his help to not self-destruct in the quiet moments.
“Do you want to visit my grandmother’s cottage?” he asks when he lets her go. That seems like a pretty low-key adventure.
Her eyes light up. “Is that where we are?”
He nods. “I came here with Mother and Arisanna for a few weeks most summers until my grandmother passed away when I was ten. I think it was harder for Mother after that, and we didn’t come as much.
We always stayed in the big house, but my grandmother lived in this little cottage by the sea when she wasn’t with us in Levina. ”
“Your mother’s mother?”
“Yes. I don’t remember my other grandparents.”
“Like me,” Elowyn says softly.
It’s an odd thing to have in common. She’s an elf, after all. That only one of her grandparents still lives must be unusual among her people.
“I’ve never met Grandmera’s parents,” Elowyn says.
Rominy frowns. “They still live?”
“As far as I know. In Celesta. They don’t approve of my mother.”
Rominy lets that sink in. “Why?”
“She’s low born.” Elowyn shrugs. “Grandmera hasn’t spoken to them since my mother was an elfling. They had a falling out when my grandparents took Mother in as their own.”
“That...is horrible.”
“It is. But I don’t wish to dwell on that this morning. Today is a day for being sickeningly sentimental and obsessed with each other.”
Rominy laughs. “I’m pretty sure that describes me every day I spend with you.”
“Then kiss me, my love. Before we go quietly exploring this pebbled beach of yours.”
“The cottage,” he whispers against her lips. “I promised nothing else.”
She sighs. “It was worth a try.”
Fighting a smile, he closes the distance between them as he kisses her with a quiet, slow-burning passion that leaves her warm toes and feet tangling with his beneath their mound of blankets.
It feels good to just let himself love her without guilt filling him, even when her growing heat makes him pull away. “Save that thought for later, all right, love?” he whispers as he presses his forehead to hers. “You need a little more time than that to recover.”
She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. She’s all smoke and waterfalls again. “Show me the cottage?”
“I would love to.”
Anything to distract her from the waiting.
She stretches before pushing back the covers, and his eyes sweep over her. He doesn’t even try to hide it. He has no reason to hide it.
“I definitely want you waking up in my bed like this every morning,” he says. “And I’m pretty sure I flung your clothes in the ocean last night. I would say I’m sorry, but the heartbinding won’t let me.”
The look she gives him, full of contentment and affection as her silver hair hangs in a disheveled mess down her back, warms him to his core. He’ll spend all his days keeping that happiness in her eyes.
Or at least he’ll try.
When Arisanna wakes with her head on Cerian’s lap on their train as usual, a smile slips across her face. Especially when he looks down at her with his own lips tilting into the sort of smile that harbors shared memories between them. Secrets they’ll never tell anyone else.
“You look happy,” she says softly.
“I am happy.”
“And to think you glared daggers at me the day we met.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have fallen at your feet right there on the street and begged you to never leave me.”
His words draw out her laughter, as he clearly intended. “Can you imagine if you had actually done that?”
“I believe I would have scared you off worse than I did.”
“You would have.”
“You’re too far away down there,” he says as he runs his thumb over her ear.
After considering his words, she pushes herself to a sitting position and straddles his lap, draping her arms over his shoulders. “Is this better?”
“So much better.”
She leans her forehead against his. Breathes in his scent. Remembers the feeling of his skin pressing against hers before she fell asleep curled up in his arms in the real world.
“You know what I think?” she asks softly.
“I have not yet mastered the ability to read your mind. Unfortunately.”
“You did pretty well reading my mind last night.”
“I find it humorous that you believe I was reading your mind. It definitely wasn’t your mind I was reading.” He steals a kiss as his words send a flush to her cheeks. “What do you think, my human princess?”
“You’ve scattered my thoughts. I have no idea what I was planning to say.”
His lips stretch into a smile. He clearly doesn’t mind having that effect on her.
But what was she about to tell him?
“Oh! I remember. I think you should grow us a hideaway suite at Darlei where we can retreat when we need some space. Something a little closer than your treehouse.”
“You do, huh?” He kisses her again. “I like that idea.”
Before she can respond, the train slows as the brakes squeal, and Cerian’s hold on her waist tightens.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t stop this time,” Cerian whispers, and she laughs.
“Ready for another adventure?”
“Once again, you seem to have me confused with Elowyn.”
“Don’t try to convince me you didn’t enjoy our last two adventures.”
His lips threaten a smile, but he holds it back. Barely.
“Trust the heartlanding?” he says, and she nods.
“Trust the heartlanding.”
With one of his adorable exaggerated sighs, he helps her stand before wrapping his warm arm around her shoulders as they meander to the back of the train.
She frowns. “You aren’t catching fire, my fire wielder.”
“It’s getting easier to control. More or less. I’m still growing warm.”
“Delightfully warm.”
He takes a slow breath beside her as they turn toward the door.
But it’s just their moonlit lake in the woods.
“I was not expecting that,” Cerian says.
“Neither was I.” She looks around warily. This seems too easy.
“Are you ready?” he asks as he drops his arm to offer her his hand.
“I suppose so.”
He steps down first, and just as his feet hit the forest floor, her hand closes around empty air, and she nearly tumbles from the train.
Stars above. He’s gone.