Melanos had winked at Terena. “Perhaps my new friend will figure a way to break that curse as well.”
Terena wound her way through the tents, pondering Melanos’s words. Could she break Poseidon’s curse and return Bethana to her nymph form? Part of her wanted to test the theory, but she also knew finding the northern god king might help her odds.
The late afternoon sun was amazing on her back. A cool autumn breeze whipped her face and her eyes watered. Finding herself at the edge of the camp, Terena turned when she heard grunting a few feet away. Frowning, she walked toward the sound.
She paused when she spotted Daris swinging his sword. It had been days since she’d given him the blood tonic. When she’d gone to see him the following day, she had been turned away by two Liodari she didn’t know. After tracking down Jason, she’d been shocked and hurt to hear Daris had left instructions he didn’t want to see anyone.
Including her.
Terena watched Daris as he swung his sword expertly. Then he stumbled and Terena’s breath caught. His balance was off.
“It’ll take me some time to get used to it,” Daris said, startling her. Terena had backed away, intent on leaving unseen. She hadn’t known he’d even been aware of her standing nearby.
“I didn’t mean to intrude,” she said after a pause, her hands balled at her sides. Daris glanced over at her before going back to swinging his sword, his movements fluid and graceful. When he turned to his right, however, his shoulder dropped and his steps faltered.
Terena saw the way his lips turned down and shook his head. She warred with herself; part of her wanting to stay with him, but a part of her still hurt at how he’d refused to see her.
Making up her mind, Terena turned to leave when he called out to her.
“Stay,” he said in a rough voice.
Terena stopped. She stood awkwardly for a few seconds. He went back to swinging his sword.
“I can see you’re busy,” Terena grumbled and turned to leave again.
“Terena, stay.”
“Oh, now you want to see me?” She knew she sounded childish, but it still bothered her he hadn’t wanted to see her.
He turned to face her fully, and she blinked. The bandage he’d worn that first day was gone, replaced by a scrap of leather held in place with ties winding behind his head. She schooled her face, not wanting him to misread her expression. Somehow, he looked more dangerous. Harder. So unlike the quiet, steady commander she’d come to know.
The man standing before her was menacing in a way Daris never was.
“I didn’t want you to see me like that.”
Blinking, Terena cocked her head. “I already saw you like that, remember?”
Daris didn’t respond. He dropped his chin, swinging his sword idly. Long moments passed before he sheathed his sword.
“Do you remember when we saw each other in Aurora?”
The words startled her. She’d been expecting him to tell her he did not know he was Eudaemon before today and would she please forgive him for making her worry so much?
Instead, he brought up the first time she’d seen him, her chest squeezing when she looked up at him. A sense of something more, something like a memory. The first time she locked eyes with him and could not look away. The first time she knew, deep in her bones, this man was important to her.
The first time she doubted her feelings for Lerek.
“Vaguely,” she said with a lift of her shoulder.
He shifted his stance, bracing his hands at his hips. “Fine. You’re mad.” Daris raked a hand through his hair. Terena willed her scowl to stay in place when several locks of his gold tipped hair stood on end. Even with the leather over his eye, he was stillbreathtaking. Somehow, it had the effect of making his good eye more intensely blue, like the clear blue of Obsidian Bay.
Daris stared at her for a few long seconds before he lifted a hand toward her. “When I saw you in Aurora, I…,” he swallowed and stopped, pursing his lips. “I can’t explain it. I saw you and it was like… I instantly knew who you were. In reality, I had no clue who you were. I’d never seen you before and I know I’m messing this up, but I sensed… in my soul, I knew you.”
Terena’s jaw loosened. Any anger or hurt she’d been feeling before now evaporated.
Because she knew what he meant. She’d felt it too.
“At first, I thought my heart had stopped because you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I even repeated that over and over to myself later that night, but…” He wiped a hand over his face. “It wasn’t until I went to bed and I dreamt of you?—”
