Chapter 41 Ariana
ARIANA
Isat in a field on the edge of the border while Rain indulged on grass several yards away. The night did not seem so dark under the light of the white moon. I wondered what Erik would be like under such power. He always seemed in control. Everything intentional. Would he become more free-spirited?
That was if he actually showed.
Since the treaty guarding against border crossing was no longer in effect, there was a possibility that he may no longer protect the boundary. I sighed, searching for any sign of movement ahead.
Minutes passed, bleeding into an hour, and then another. The morning sun was likely to rise sometime soon, and I was losing faith that he would ever appear.
Was all of this just a waste of time?
Movement at the edge of the woods snagged my attention, and I jumped to my feet.
Someone or something stirred amongst the trees, close enough for me to notice but not for me to make out what it was.
A breeze blew from my back, carrying my scent in their direction.
If they had not heard or seen me yet, they undoubtedly smelled me now if they were Lysian.
Whatever it was stopped, and the night turned incredibly still.
I took a tentative step back, away from the forest, wondering if I made a mistake in coming here.
I was prepared to bolt in Rain’s direction when another movement drew my attention. A Lysian stepped out into the clearing, dark eyes focused on me.
Erik.
I nearly sighed in relief.
He stood there for what felt like eternity before slowly closing the distance between us, though there was nothing casual in his movements.
I was used to him being quick when he was so alert.
This was almost worse. It gave me time to watch as he drew nearer, a predator taking its time, closing in on its prey. My heart jackknifed in my chest.
I took a small step back in apprehension, and it was an effort not to take more to keep the distance between us from shrinking further.
I had come to see him. He will not harm me, I told myself.
Edda would not have allowed me to go if she saw it as dangerous.
I said these things to myself to quiet my growing nerves.
Erik stalked closer. His focus remained entirely on me. When I stepped back, his gaze tracked my movement before finding my eyes once more, pinning me with his stare.
“Hi,” I managed to say.
He stilled. Standing under a beam of moonlight, as if the Spirit itself had blessed him with eternal light. The sight of him was breathtaking.
“Why have you come here?” His voice was cold, distant.
Squaring my shoulders, I kept my chin lifted. “I have been working on what you said to.”
Erik’s head tilted to the side inquisitively. I did not need to elaborate, for he understood what I meant. Without twitching a single finger, flames came from the ground, but instead of circling around us, they formed a line between us.
Without moving a muscle in my hands, the energy of my power flowed through me.
I harnessed it, condensing it, sending it out towards the flames.
Fire hissed when mist intermingled with it.
Sending more of my strength towards it, I focused on the flames, and soon they shrank in size before disappearing into smoke altogether.
A muscle in his jaw flexed. “Appears you have been learning. However, you still let me get too close.”
“I am not a threat to you,” I said. For the only reason he would have been one to me was if he thought I was one first. Erik was not a monster that killed for sport. Reason controlled his actions. At least on normal nights.
Without responding, he continued moving forward, further closing the distance until we stood just out of reach of one another.
His scent enveloped me, a heady mix of earth and fire that made my head spin.
It was not until that moment that I realized I missed the smell of him. What an odd thing to realize.
Eyes so blue they looked like deep dark pools in the night, lifted to the moon. “Why have you come here?” he asked, attention dropping to me. Again, his tone was uncomfortably cold. His broad shoulders remained tense.
I bristled. “I couldn’t have simply wanted to see you?” The reason for my presence did not shadow the fact that I also wanted to see him. Over the past few weeks, my thoughts often slipped towards him. I was curious to know what he thought of how I took my freedom back, of my being a conjuror.
“You should not have come.” His gaze flickered to my throat.
“It’s dangerous.” Those eyes then drifted down my body before rising to meet mine once more.
Predacious power circled him. A vortex of energy that pressed into me.
The night made him feel more menacing. Or had I forgotten what being around him felt like?
“I’ll be fine,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince him or myself.
He scowled, looking back at the moon. Was he searching for answers up there? My attention lifted to the star flecked sky finding nothing out of the ordinary. Though with Lysian vision, perhaps he saw things up there that I was blinded to.
“How have you been? How is Kole?” I asked, my attempt at having him open up.
“Fine,” he answered flatly.
“You’re angry?”
“No.” Again, he answered with a single word.
“Why are you so distant?” Erik had seemed more welcoming when Fraser had him locked up in prison than he was now. “I thought you wanted my help?”
He observed me. “You know what I desire. The way I see it, the next decision is yours to make. You tell me when you are ready to help, if ever.”
“I don’t understand why you are behaving like this.
. .” I stopped myself from finishing the thought, for it sounded pitiful.
Despite everything, I believed we had been forming a friendship.
That was true, wasn’t it? Yet now, it seemed like he did not want to acknowledge any of it.
It was as if he had built up walls in the few weeks I had been gone, walls primarily against me.
“Despite everything, I actually liked you.” I shared a bit of truth, hoping it would warm him towards me.
“You actually liked me.” He parroted, as if trying to understand my angle. If it was possible for him to tense even more, he did.
I blew out a breath. “Are you trying to pretend that you did not like me too? That I was just a prisoner and nothing more?”
He moved so fast. Suddenly his hand was around my throat. Instinctively I recoiled, and when I couldn’t step away, I gripped his forearm. My pulse beat against his palm as his fingers tightened, though not enough to cut off my breathing.
I was too stunned to voice any words, especially when Erik leaned closer. He drew in a deep breath, as if inhaling me. The gesture was oddly intimate. His lips were close enough to be dangerously inviting.
Danger. My senses screamed. But the warning lost itself to the heat burning beneath my skin. Something darkly thrilling shot through me, drowning out thoughts of reason or caution. It was as if I grew drunk by his proximity.
My breath hitched as his free hand slid to my hip, his fingers biting into my flesh with a possessive touch.
The corners of his lips lifted. His smirk was infuriatingly confident as his gaze roamed over my face, devouring me.
He drew me closer till his lips were just shy of mine.
With his hand at my throat, I was completely at his mercy.
Except, I could still conjure. I allowed him to hold me like this.
His eyes barely widened, as if realizing the same thing, before they narrowed.
His breath ghosted against my cheek as he said, “I want you gone.” He released and shoved me away.
As quickly as it began, it was all over. The emotional whiplash was nearly too much. Was he toying with me? Trying to scare me?
I stumbled, catching myself.
My attention fell to his feet. An uncomfortable fervor coated my skin in embarrassment. What was I supposed to say to that?
Silence spilled between us until he finally spoke again, his voice taking on a gentler tone.
“As much as I would like to walk you home, especially on a night like tonight, I cannot. Your men will see me as a threat, particularly on this occasion. I will be taken as an immediate risk. They will attack, and I will defend myself. You will be forced to protect your own. So, it will come down to you and me at odds. Blood will be spilled. This is where we are, the world we live in.” His dark eyes continued to cut into me.
“You should not have come here and on the night of the white moon. What if another Lysian approached from the border? What if they attacked you? Would you have killed them to protect yourself? Where would such an act have left us then? You are being irresponsible to both your people as well as mine. I never thought you this foolish.”
I stared at the ground like a scolded child.
“You’re right.” It was stupid to have ever imagined anything other than what he described. Still, disappointment settled in my stomach. I had been eager to see him, to be near him.
I felt him watching me as shameful embarrassment washed over me.
He sighed, reaching for me again. Warm fingers curled around my forearm, sending a jolt of awareness through me. His touch was gentler this time, enough to tug my gaze back toward him. Our eyes locked, his stare piercing.
“I wish things were different,” he said softly yet with an edge of something that almost seemed like… desperation? His voice touched me where his hand didn’t, and my skin felt as though it had been set on fire again. Surly he knew the effect he had on me.
“You push me away, and then say this, as if you…” I shook my head. “What is it that you want from me, Erik?”
His hand fell from my arm. Instead of retreating, he took a purposeful step towards me.
I kept my feet firmly where I stood, refusing to retreat from him.
He did not touch me again, yet I felt him in that space.
His presence filled it, as if he set the air itself ablaze.
Authority rippled off him, the force of it delightfully commanding.
His eyes bore into mine as I held his gaze.
His head tilted while he viewed me, the movement wolf like.
“I want you to run from me,” he admitted, his voice almost daring.
Without restraint, his eyes roamed over me in a way that had my face warming, especially when they paused a beat too long on my lips.
“I think I would really enjoy catching you.”
I felt the heat of his unhurried appraisal in my bones, in the way my pulse spiked.
I could no longer draw breath. And as if to prove a point that I did not fear him, I reached towards him. Erik stood deathly still as my fingers trailed the edge of his hand before gliding up his arm. I traced a path up to his shoulder. His collarbone. Down his chest.
Erik’s hand wrapped around my wrist, stilling me with my palm pressed to his chest. Over a heart that beat unbelievably fast. “You’re playing with fire, Ariana.”
My skin prickled with awareness. There was definitely desire in those dark eyes.
So, feelings were reciprocated after all.
The double entendre wasn’t lost on me, and I couldn’t help but feel a surge of warmth flood my body. “I like the heat,” I answered, surprising myself with the boldness of my words.
“You’re making this difficult,” he muttered, his voice coarse. He released my wrist and my hand fell to my side. But neither of us moved away. The air crackled with tension.
“Sometimes I rather enjoy being difficult.”
He exhaled a shallow breath, face tilting towards the moon. “Ariana.” The sound of my name coming from him in that tone did things to me. “I need you to leave.” His attention dipped to my lips, remaining there. Something painfully desperate shone in his eyes when they lifted. “Please go.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
His entire body went rigid, a myriad of emotions playing across his face in the moon light.
“Are there not enough Bavadrin males to entertain you?” he replied sharply, his tone hacking through the charged air like a blunt knife. Erik stepped away, withdrawing. “This is incredibly stupid of you.” It was as if he slapped me with those words. His lips curled, flashing his elongated canines.
“You’re hot and cold,” I said, keeping the hurt out of my voice. “One moment you’re pulling me close, and the next you’re shoving me away. I don’t understand.”
Erik’s jaw clenched. “We live in different worlds. This . . .” he gestured vaguely between us, “it can’t happen.”
This time I was the one adding more physical distance between us as I stepped back.
He had me standing before him, feeling rejected and foolish, when he was the first to start blurring the lines.
This was not a game I wished to play. “There is something I need to talk to you about, but it isn’t appropriate for tonight.
Though it is urgent, so the sooner, the better. ”
“What—” He stopped himself, evidently holding himself back from asking for more information, and probably understanding that there may have been a good reason for me not to wish to share more on the night of the white moon. He nodded. “Meet here the day after tomorrow in the afternoon?”
“Will you be able to get home and back so quickly?” I asked, surprised.
He smiled wickedly, lifting a dark brow. “You truly underestimate the stamina of the Lysians. I will be here, along with my brothers.”
I did not let my mind flirt with the word stamina, he said so pointedly it was most certainly flirtations.
The white moon version of Erik played mind games.
Not that he likely wanted to. It was wholly clear he was being pulled in various directions and did not have the slightest idea of which path to choose.
“I’ll see you then.” I turned, swinging myself onto Rain, annoyed by this entire encounter. He ignited a fire, stirring desire within the both of us; I felt it, saw it. Then he shoved me away, leaving me confused and embarrassed about this entire thing.
“I see you have been taking good care of Rain,” Erik noted, appraising the horse as if he were making sure she was still healthy. That only angered me more. Of course, the horse was cared for.
“She was abandoned. I’m fairly certain she likes me better than her previous owner, anyway,” I commented, turning her towards home.
His lip twitched. “And who was her previous owner?”
“A Lysian with poor manners,” I replied, no longer looking at him.
Rain sprang forward, moving into a gallop as we began our long trip back. I kept her running full speed until I no longer felt those dark eyes watching me.