Dyna stilled, and her lips parted in a shallow breath. That small action sent a current through his chest. She affected him the way the sunlight graced the raindrops, casting light over the desolate corners that had long since been abandoned.
But how could he expect her to accept him, given what he was? There was nothing he could offer her as a half-breed but a life of ridicule and scorn. Yet he couldn’t help the want she stirred in him. It came with every look and touch, replacing longing where there had once been contempt. Given his arrogance, he’d been taken back by his relief when she kissed him on the ship. But wanting and having were two different things.
Words knotted in his throat, twisting with doubt, and the insults hissed at him from his family. Cassiel dropped his hands, drawing away.
This wasn’t meant for him.
“It is not a matter of you being human,” he said, though his kind would disagree. “But that it should never have occurred in the first place, least of all by such a careless mistake on my part.”
Dyna lowered her head, spilling soft, scarlet locks over her shoulder. Her slender fingers fidgeted with a polished acorn button on the enchanted jacket. “I understand you didn’t intend for this to happen, Cassiel. It wasn’t ever about that. I had feared that this … whatever this is, was rooted in a mishap and obligation. We entered each other’s lives by chance, but you stayed and protected me, cared for me. Was that also chance …” Her eyes flickered to her sleeve, layered in silver oak leaves, and they widened. “… or choice?”
He didn’t know the answer when it clashed with another constant question lurking in the back of his mind.
Cassiel sighed. “Whatever brought us together, I only wish to give you what you want.”
“Aston.”
“What?” He blinked, not at all expecting her to answer him with another male’s name. It took him a moment to remember the fae from the Phantasmic Moors, who’d put his grubby hands on her.
“Aston!” She gasped and covered her mouth.
“What is it? What is wrong?”
A rustling in the bushes and clopping of hooves had them both leaping to their feet. He swelled with pride at how deftly Dyna whipped out her blade at the same time he did. As much as he would have liked to witness her fight again, it was only Zev and Rawn.
“Come,” Lord Norrlen said, smiling. “We found the Druid.”
Chapter 52
Dynalya
The silvery leaves of the enchanted jacket were soft as velvet beneath the graze of Dyna’s fingers. But they had transformed into steel when she needed to defend herself against the poacher. It landed in her hands as if by some strange chance, but it hadn’t been chance at all.
That is the question, isn’t it? An interesting debate. The fates present us with a path of destiny, but do you reach it because of chance or choice?
She lifted the edges of the jacket, staring at the shimmery surface of the leaves with distinct lobes only found on certain trees.
Leoake, a name meaning oak in a meadow.
Dyna groaned as she remembered the geas on Aston’s back. She hadn’t paid particular attention to what kind of tree it was, but if she were to look now, she would wager it was an oak tree. Even his alias was of a tree. The Druid had been in front of her from the beginning.
Hiding in plain sight, indeed.
She followed Zev through the grove with Rawn and Cassiel at her back. When they entered a small clearing, she was no longer surprised to find a green-haired fae sitting on a boulder with a small blue fox lying at his feet. Behind him rose an enormous willow tree. The long swinging branches swayed in the breeze.
“You said your name was Aston,” she accused.
He smirked, his gold eyes gleaming with mischief. “I have accumulated many names over the years. Leoake, Aston,that one, dastardly Druid. Really, the list is endless.”
Cassiel curled his lip. “You can add conniving prat to the list.”
“Wait, you have already met?” Zev asked.
“The night at the Moors.” She nodded stiffly, glaring at Leoake. “You knew I was searching for the Druid. Foryou. And you led me astray with false—”
Leoake wagged a finger, tsking. “Maiden, I’m called many things, but never a liar. Not once have I told you an untruth. It’s impossible for the Folk, as you know.”
He was right. He told no lies. She simply missed all the blatant clues.
