Chapter Five
The fire crackled and Nox just stared at it.
He should be sleeping. He knew it. The sorceress he couldn’t wait to see would be there when he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
That, of course, was the problem. Seeing her the night before had made it harder for him to continue riding in the opposite direction of the woman he desperately wanted to see.
His magic was definitely fine with this arrangement, though.
His power had returned in full when he’d woke up that morning.
Dreamwalking had been a good idea, in that regard, at least. He wouldn’t admit it to her, but she’d also been right that he needed to practice his powers.
The ones he’d never taken the time to master.
Now, he could say that air magic came much more naturally to him and he’d even caught himself using it today, to sweep some branches out of the way so his horse could pass.
It seemed his mate knew just what he needed, without him having to ask. It was obnoxious. At the same time, it was wonderful. Unfortunately, he wasn’t so sure anymore, why he’d thought refusing their connection and putting distance between them had been a good idea.
Maybe he could have just stayed outside of the castle for a while. Moved his portal to the forest and let his mate come to him there, instead of staying in her chambers with her. Would that have fixed things? Made them better?
He knew he should stay awake as seeing Zaria again would only make this harder.
However, he’d never been one to do as he should.
And it seemed his need to see his mate was stronger than his willpower to avoid her.
Grumbling to himself, he laid back in his hammock and allowed his eyes to close, finally dozing off.
Nox’s dream came quickly and he found himself sitting beside a blazing fire. Had he even fallen asleep?
“Avoiding me, Nox?” Zaria asked from the other side of the flames.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” he replied, tamping down a grin.
“Good. Tonight, we’re working on water magic.” She stood up and he could finally see her face over the fire. “Put out the flames, mate.”
Nox rolled his eyes but did as he was told. It took him two tries to get water to shoot from his palm, and even then, it was a trickle. He grunted in frustration and tried again. Same result. It didn’t surprise him, but it was still frustrating.
Water magic had never come easily to him. It brought back memories of him as a boy, trying to put out the fire he’d accidentally caused in his home, after killing the imp who had taken his sister’s life. Any time he tried to use water magic, it was unpredictable. Sometimes it worked and sometimes…
“Stop thinking about your sister,” Zaria said.
“How did you know—”
“I just know. Think about a river, rushing quickly down a mountainside. Imagine you are that river and your hand is the end of the mountain. The water has to go somewhere. You guide it where to go.”
Unbelievably, when he did just that, the water began to blast out of his palm, so much that he had to take a deep breath and calm his mind to slow it enough to control the direction it went.
Once he had the stream at a more manageable size, he pointed it at the fire between them and extinguished the flames.
Suddenly, they were in the dark. The pitch-black night made it impossible to see anything, but he could hear Zaria as she skirted around the fire pit and walked over to him.
His eyes started to adjust to the starlight as his mate stopped in front of him and slid her hand up his chest. It might have been over his robes, but he felt it as strongly as if they were skin-to-skin.
“What is my prize tonight?” he asked, looking down at her. His body was tense in anticipation, and his magic was already reacting to just this simple touch. “Or should I say, what is your prize?”
“Tonight is your turn,” she replied, wetting her lips.
Those tempting lips were just within his reach, but when he bent down to capture them, she ducked away, instead kneeling in front of him.
Unsure of what she was doing, he just watched her part his robes and lower his pants enough to free him.
When she looked up at him, her eyes twinkled with mischief just before she grabbed him with her hand then sucked him between her lips.
“Holy mother of hell!” he gasped, grabbing her head as he had nothing else to hold himself up with. This was new. Being a virgin, everything they’d done thus far was new to him. And this was already his favorite thing.
His knees wanted to buckle but he knew if he fell, she would stop, and he didn’t want her to stop. Her mouth on him was probably the most amazing thing his body had ever felt, and his magic was certainly happy with this turn of events.
“Do you like that?” she asked, pulling back. He didn’t need to look down to know that she was probably wearing a smug grin.
“Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.”
Wait. Was he begging her? This was all it took for him to beg his mate for something? Perhaps, he wasn’t as stubborn as he thought he was. And when her mouth returned to him, he threw his head back with a groan and decided it was fine to beg this one time. He just wouldn’t make a habit of it.
Unable to hold back anymore, he tried to pull away but she held him firm in her mouth as he spilled.
When he looked down to see Zaria licking her lips and peering up at him, her hair spilling down over her shoulders, he wondered why he ever thought leaving his amazing woman was a good idea.
He was such a fool. Such a damn fool. That’s it.
He was going back. Tomorrow. No, tonight. Right now.
“Zaria, I—” he began but she stood and placed a kiss on his cheek.
“I know, love. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Then before he could stop her, she disappeared and he woke to find the morning sunlight beaming down on him.
He dropped his head back down and sighed.
That had been close. Too close. He’d been a heartbeat away from telling her he wanted to come back.
Back to Carroway, the castle that smothered him, and the mate who deserved better than him.
This felt like a disaster waiting to happen, but he still couldn’t wait for the sun to go back down so he could lay his eyes on her again.
~*~
Manny stood at the cave entrance and watched as Drake and Elda walked arm-in-arm down the trail.
The prince had wanted to wait until they were further away from Athera to shift, in case someone was around and might see.
He was worried about intruders coming into the mountain, but Manny planned to take care of that.
Once the prince and princess were well out of sight, the gnome went back into the cave and turned to face the opening.
With a wave of his hand, he replaced the veiling enchantment back over the cave entrance.
Now, if someone traveled down the trail, they wouldn’t find the cave unless they were clever enough to use a revealing potion on it.
Hurrying back through the tunnels, Manny rushed into the castle and found Nunu by the large front doors, carrying their travel packs. They would have to travel quickly because it wasn’t a good idea to leave Brenna alone for too long.
“Have list? Prince list?”
“Yes, yes,” Nunu replied, handing him his pack. “Many princes. Must choose.”
“Which prince?”
“Not sure. Many princes. Can’t decide.”
“Close eyes? Pick one?” he offered.
Nunu gave a shrug then did just that. She closed her eyes and pointed down at the parchment as Manny held it. Then she opened her eyes and read the name to herself.
“Found him!” she said, bouncing on her toes. “Found prince. That one!”
“That one?” Manny asked, looking at the name on the list. “Let’s go!”
He nodded and handed her the paper, which she rolled up and tucked away. Then the pair waved goodbye to Chim and Rasa before dashing out of the castle to find the prince who was destined to break Brenna’s curse.
Probably.
~*~
Sage woke and stared up at the ceiling of their rented room.
She felt Willow stir beside her and she looked over at the empty spot on the bed where Lukas should have been.
The three of them had shared the surprisingly large bed the first night, with her in the center, but after the events of the evening before, Lukas hadn’t returned to their room.
Sighing, she rose and went to the wash bucket to splash some cold water on her face. They were supposed to leave this morning, so she needed to wake up, but her sleep had been awful last night.
What had Lukas been thinking? What reason would he possibly have had to want to harm poor Danny?
The man had been so sweet to her last night. When Danny’s brother had asked Willow to dance, Sage could tell the nymph had wanted to accept. Sage had volunteered to dance with Danny also, so Willow wouldn’t be alone in the crowd.
Then while dancing, Danny had told her that he was a farmer.
They’d spoken about what plants he grew, and he’d been excited to hear that her mother was the Royal Gardener for Orious.
He’d peppered her with so many questions that they’d had to extend their one dance to several to fit them all in.
She had lost count of them but had enjoyed the conversation immensely.
Of course, the evening had been ruined when she’d caught Lukas pranking Danny.
She’d taken him outside and helped him to expel the ale and berry juice, then spent awhile with him to make sure he’d gotten all of it out.
He had sweated a little, but she’d healed him with her magic and sent him home to rest.
She had noticed Lukas was acting strangely for the last couple of days but had just figured he was growing tired of traveling and possibly gotten bored.
However, that did not excuse his behavior.
Danny was not part of their prank war, and she still couldn’t understand why he’d done it. It just didn’t make any sense to her.
“Time to go?” Willow asked, sitting up and stretching. “Where is Lukas?”
“Yes, and I don’t know. Let’s get breakfast.”
The two grabbed their belongings and went down to the first floor, where they found Baz, Lina, and Lukas already sitting at a table with food in the center. Lina moved over to make room for them and Sage reluctantly sat beside Lukas.
He was right there next to her, but she’d never felt more distant from him.
This entire journey had been one disaster after another.
This rare opportunity to grow closer to him had instead pushed them further away.
It seemed fate was determined to keep them apart.
Her heart ached and the delicious berry fried cakes just didn’t have the same taste this morning.
“We need to get back to Carroway to let the king and queen know about all that’s happened,” Baz said. “Did you manage to get a message to Mother before you left?”
“No,” Lukas replied. “They kept us away from the messengers and locked our guards up, so there wasn’t an opportunity to.”
“That’s probably for the best, though. If Mother doesn’t know, she can’t worry.”
“We’ve been gone longer than we should have. Don’t you think she would have sent a message herself?”
“I’m hoping the storm damage has kept her too busy to realize that.”
After eating, the group left the inn and the town, heading northeast. Their travels were quieter than usual.
Willow was much less talkative than she’d been before, and Sage wasn’t in the mood to read as they rode either.
When they stopped to rest, Sage gave Lukas a wide berth and he seemed to be avoiding her also, not even looking her way as they mounted their horses and continued on.
It wasn’t until they stopped for the day and Baz instructed his brother to accompany her in collecting wood for the fire that she finally built up enough courage to confront him. She waited until they were far enough away from the others so they wouldn’t be overheard, then she rounded on him.
“Why did you do it?” she asked, watching Lukas snatch up a branch and add it to the pile they were making.
“Do what?” he grumbled.
“Prank Danny?”
“It was just a joke.”
“No, a joke is making fun of his name or the fact that he’s a terrible dancer. Those are jokes.”
“If he was such a terrible dancer, why did you dance all night with him?” Lukas asked, turning to face her.
She was having a hard time reading his expression. He seemed both angry and sad at the same time. She was the one who was mad, so why was he asking her questions in an accusatory tone? It was confusing.
“You’re mad that I danced with him?” she asked.
“I’m not mad.”
“You’re acting mad.”
“Just forget it.” He started to turn away but she wanted answers.
“No!” she shouted. “I will not forget it. You cannot be angry that I danced with someone. Willow danced with people too.”
“People!” he snapped. “People. As in more than just one person. She didn’t dance with the same one over and over again.”
“No one was around to care if I danced with the same person several times, Lukas. We’re not in Orious. No one expects him to propose to me if I dance with him—”
“Did he?” Lukas growled and Sage was taken aback by how serious he looked. She was used to seeing his playful side, but this was certainly not it.
“Did he, what?”
“Propose to you?”
“No, of course not!” she barked. “Don’t be ridiculous!”
“Ridiculous? No, ridiculous is to be in love with one man but spend the entire night dancing with another one!”
“What… in the realm are you talking about?”
She felt her throat close and confusion wash over her. He couldn’t possibly know who she was in love with, so what had he meant by that? He didn’t elaborate or explain, however, leaving her baffled and annoyed.
“Nothing.” Lukas grabbed up the pile of sticks. “Just forget I said anything.”
Anger coursed through her in a way it hadn’t before.
Unable to stop herself, she thrust her arms toward the ground, and a wall of roots rose up in front of Lukas, blocking his path.
When he slowly spun toward her, she could see his jaw clenched and his eyes were blazing.
She was pushing this too far. Using her power on a prince like that was not proper behavior.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted. “I won’t do that again, Prince Lukas. Please forgive me.”
He opened his mouth to speak but she couldn’t stand there and hear anymore.
She’d already done too much. Changing to sprite form, she flew away and ignored his calls for her.
When she finally returned to where the others were camping and eating, she kept her eyes firmly away from Lukas for the rest of the evening.