Chapter 28
There was something about early mornings that I’d come to enjoy. It was as if waking up with the birds gave me a few hours to clear my head.
The base was dead quiet as I wandered the familiar path to the forest exit. I’d tried to erase the memories of those weeks I’d spent in the cage I had to pass every time I wanted to leave the base.
I’d almost considered asking Hannan to get it moved, but as he’d already graciously helped me stay and keep my head, it would be pushing my luck to the breaking point.
I sighed in relief as I watched the cobbled stone turn to dirt under my boots. As much as I knew the increased number of people was positive, the crowded and tense atmosphere made me jittery in a way I hadn’t been able to shake since the mission to Orken.
“Prue?”
I jolted and looked around to search out the low voice that had uttered my name.
Daegal stood leaning against the wooden arbor that framed the hole in the fence around the base.
His hair fell in messy curls over his brows, his dark eyes so intensely fixed on me that it made my face feel flushed.
A black linen shirt clung to his body, accompanied by a pair of loose pants hanging low on his hips.
“Hi,” I breathed, running a hand through the hair I’d been too lazy to braid before I left. His lips curled into a lazy smile. “What are you doing out here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” he answered, pushing off the arbor to stroll towards me, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his dark pants.
My pulse quickened as he came close enough for me to reach up and kiss him if I wanted to.
He hesitated for a moment before his arms wrapped around me, pulling me flush against his body. Relief and heat rose inside me.
I tilted my head up to look at him, and he caught my lips in a soft yet eager kiss.
“You don’t regret it then?” I asked between the kisses he planted on my lips, my nose, and my heated cheeks.
“Regret you? Never. Never again,” he answered, flashing me a smile that melted my insides.
His arms slid down to rest around my waist like he knew he’d made my knees weaken with a simple twitch of his lips.
I leaned against the warmth of his body, feeling the muscles tense under my touch as I ran a hand down his chest.
“Again?” I asked, letting my fingertips trail the fine threads of his shirt.
“When you first arrived, and I knew you were lying. Which I was right about, by the way,” he chuckled, the soft vibrations beneath my hand making me grin.
“I almost regretted knowing your secret. How much more fun my life would’ve been these last few months if I’d been happily oblivious to your little lies. ”
Out of instinct, I wanted to refuse, to declare my innocence, even to this man who had his arms wrapped protectively around me.
Even now, when he looked at me like I was the flame keeping him warm instead of the woman who’d spent months misleading his people. But his warm smile made the words fall dead on my lips. I didn’t need to lie or deceive anymore.
“I guess we’ll have to make your life twice as fun now, since you’ve finally exposed me,” I smiled, and he bent his head down to press his lips against mine again.
“Hey, I might have just the thing to spice things up,” he cooed, his breath traveling from my neck to the shell of my ear.
Something cold and sharp hovered just above the pulse in my neck. I jerked back, but the remaining arm he had snaked around me tightened.
“Dae?” I whispered uncertainly. I slowed my breathing to prevent the blade he held to my throat from cutting my skin open. Perhaps I’d been wrong in thinking he’d ever like me.
My entire body tensed under his touch. I felt my stomach drop as his grip tightened. His breathing tickled my ear when he chuckled.
“Fool me once,” he whispered, his tone more serious though his eyes still sparkled “Shame on you.”
My heart hammered frantically in my chest. “Dae,” I said again. Had this been his plan all along?
He laughed and released his grip on me to wave a golden dagger in my face.
“You need to be able to wield a weapon,” he smirked, seeing the clear terror and doubt on my face. “In case you can’t use your powers or something.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “That… was that your idea of a joke?” I spluttered, throwing my hands in the air. I shoved him as hard as I could, but it only made him laugh harder. This man has been in the Rebellion for too long…
He looked so good when his face was split into a self-satisfied grin, and his amber eyes were wet with gleeful tears.
“Too soon, Dae. I barely believe that you don’t actually hate me for you to do something like that.”
“Maybe you need to prove yourself a little more,” he smirked, grabbing my hand to curl it around the crystal-embedded hilt of the dagger, then pulling me close once more.
“What do I have to do to prove myself? Not kill you?” I joked, running my free hand through his thick, wavy locks. The scent of mint and citrus I’d come to associate with him mingled in the air between us. I inhaled deeply.
“That would be the bare minimum,” he said, running the tip of his nose over mine. “Though I can think of many ways that’d be more enjoyable.”
Before I could utter my protests, his mouth collided with mine. The tip of his tongue glided over my bottom lip as his hand found my hair. Soon, the birdsong from above us was replaced by the sound of my own beating heart and the breaths I shared with Dae.
“Oh, how glad I am that I didn’t have you exiled,” he grinned against my lips.
I narrowed my eyes playfully at him, prodding a sharp finger into his chest. “Like you have that kind of power.”
As if to prove his authority, the hand in my hair tightened as the other one found the finger that I’d prodded him with.
A small whimper escaped my lips as he tugged at the strands, guiding my head upwards. I felt his breath on the sensitive skin of my neck when he placed a slow, teasing kiss on my collarbone.
“Remember, I’m the one with the weapon,” I breathed, though I found my head tilting further back to give him free access to every part of me that he craved.
The cold steel of the dagger was almost a relief in my hand, cooling the skin he’d set ablaze with his lips and his words.
“Do you know how to use it?” He asked, releasing my hair to run his hand down the length of my arm. He gripped the hand that clutched the weapon rendered useless in my hands.
Even if I’d owned a few in my lifetime, I hadn’t used a dagger for anything but cutting up stale bread or filleting fish since leaving Perifer many years ago.
“No,” I admitted, suddenly ashamed of the foreign feeling of a weapon in my hands. “I never really had a use for it. Running around in Erobred with a weapon would only make me more suspicious.”
“I’m going to teach you how to use this,” he said, giving my hand a little squeeze that tightened the feeble hold I had on the dagger. “Your attempt to escape me in the library was nothing short of abysmal. What would happen if one of the Defenders got a hold of you in Erobred?”
He shuddered slightly as if the mere thought of me in danger disturbed him.
Was that love? No. It couldn’t be love, this thing between us.
Not yet anyway. But I found that I, too, dreaded the thought of him on the battlefield.
He was the definition of a traitor in the eyes of his fellow suncasters.
I didn’t doubt Defenders like Kenric would target him precisely because he went against their superior solar-dynasty.
“When do we begin the lessons then, professor?” I asked with a smirk, wriggling my hand free to point the dagger at him from the tight space between us.
“Right now,” he answered, spinning around on his heel and dragging me with him.
The trees surrounding us became taller the further we wandered into the forest. The morning sun had barely broken through the thick fir branches above us, leaving us to walk amid the looming shadows.
It was in shadows I’d found comfort since my childhood, so I didn’t mind them, even when my body felt cold and stiff from the sudden lack of Dae’s warm body pressed against me.
He raised his hand to cast a golden light around us. His eyes were ablaze, dancing with the light of the orb in his palm. “That’s better,” he said, and as the orb grew steadily hotter and as warmth spread to my fingertips, I had to silently agree.
“I’ll aim for that one,” I said, grabbing Dae’s arm to stop him from walking any further. The tree I’d pointed out was simply huge. It would be an achievement to miss it, and yet, at the first throw, I managed to hit the small tree next to it with the hilt of the dagger.
My face reddened as I heard Dae quickly conceal his amused snort with a cough. This reminded me only too well of the first time he’d trained me in sun magic. But back then, he hadn’t tried to spare me the embarrassment. He’d laughed me straight in the face.
“Good first try, Prudy.”
I spun around to face him, my mock irritation cracking at the sight of his puffed-up cheeks, clearly trying to stop the laugh he’d tried to suppress. As our gazes met, he spluttered, no longer able to contain his amusement.
“Prudy?” I scoffed, grabbing the cheeks that’d resembled a chipmunk’s seconds ago. My thumb and forefinger dipped into his soft skin as I pulled his face down to meet mine. “Don’t call me that ever again.”
His smile grew wide, and the muscles of his cheeks strained against my hold. “I kind of like Prudy,” he said, grabbing my hand to pry it off his face.
“You know, one day, you might need me to teach you something,” I retorted, narrowing my eyes at him. “Then you’ll regret all the times you made fun of me.”
“If that happens, you’ll find me at your feet on my knees, begging endlessly for your forgiveness, Prudy.” He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to my knuckles. “Now try again.”
After about an hour, I managed to lodge the dagger shallowly into the bark of the appointed tree.