“How did you heal me?” Fin asked. He didn’t care about some king of another realm, or whoever this king was. He wasn’t sure he believed her, but she’d healed him. He felt better than new.
“With magic.”
“And why did you?”
“So you could help me,” she answered.
“But I have not helped you. And yet, you still have not killed me.”
She looked up into his verdant eyes while they walked. “I still might after I have my way with you.”
He tossed his head back and laughed. “Woman, when I am done with you, you will be done for any other man.”
“You’re quite confident and bold.”
“And you like it,” he said, his laughter fading into a smile. He aimed it at her.
“I do. She returned his smile, though hers was sweeter. “Keep it up or I’ll dispose of you.”
He believed she would try.
He paused for an instant, letting her step ahead, then he slipped behind her, took her neck in one hand. He held her dagger to her throat with the other. Pressing his body to hers, he whispered in her ear, “I like a good challenge. Keep it up or I will be the one doing the disposing.” He lowered his hand from her throat and moved it over her left breast and then beneath it. “Your heart has accelerated. Are you afraid, Witch?”
She turned in his hands and looped her arms around his neck. He watched her close her eyes and part her ruby lips. She wanted a kiss. He would give it.
But he would be careful not to give her anything more than his flesh. Of that, she could have all she could take.
He dipped his head and kissed her and while he was kissing her, she faded in his embrace and appeared in solid form behind him—with her dagger in her possession once again. She didn’t threaten him but stabbed him in the back.
He went down in front of her, crashing to his knees.
Bitch.
*
Camelee watched Wolfreach his hand out and touch the glass wall along the long hallway. Everywhere they looked walls glistened and glimmered around them. They had set off to find Genevra and Hild, but they were more interested in each other…and the glass walls.
“What did you say this is called?” Wolf asked, turning his grin on her.
“Glass.”
“It is wondrous!”
She smiled, looking at him. He’d come for her. Like some knight on a charging horse come to save her from a dragon. She’d never seen anything like it. Neither had anyone else, apparently. A man in braids and furs, fighting and breaking through time. And doing it to be with her. “It’s common in my time, except I’ve never seen glass that wasn’t trans—see-though.”
His eyes opened wider. “You can see through your glass?”
“Yes.”
He gave the wall one more pat and then removed his hand. “I wish we had glass in Denmark.”
She was quiet, still unsure about living in the barbaric eleventh century.
“Camelee, I do not blame you for not wanting to leave Avalon,” he said, sensing the change in her tone. “This place is beautiful, and Denmark is cold.”
He was right, she didn’t want to leave. But not because Avalon was beautiful. She had just found her mother and father. She’d been wrong about them her entire life. They had left her because they loved her. It changed everything. She wanted to get to know them and to get to know herself.
“But I love you, Camelee, and I want to spend my days with you. Do not be afraid to come with me. We will live. We will travel, and the seas may get rough. But we will always be together to get through it. I will keep you warm on cold winter nights, and I will keep you and Hild well fed in the days to come. I will not leave or abandon you. I am even ready to cease fighting. I want to be with you. I just want you to know that.”
