“My thoughts exactly.”
She pivoted on her heel toward the direction of the forest where their camp was set up. “I’ll tell the others.”
But Klyde took her hand and spun her back to him and kissed her. It was an aching kiss, one that felt like goodbye.
Lucenna pulled back a little to search his eyes. “You’re going after him alone, aren’t you?”
It wasn’t really a question, because he had already decided.
Klyde looked down and his brow furrowed. “On the day Tavin was born, I swore to never abandon him. He doesn’t know what kind of man Tarn is or what he would do for his own gain. I must find him as soon as I can, and I can only move fast if I’m alone.”
Sighing, Lucenna nodded reluctantly, but she knew this was the right call. “How will you cross through the Elder Tree?”
“I have friends in Naiads Mere.” Klyde cupped her face. “Once Tavin is safe, I will return to you, love. Then I will help you find your Moonstone and take down the Archmage.”
Lucenna gasped softly. “What?”
The speckles in his eyes gleamed like sunlight glimmering on the ocean. “My wicked storm. You will blow through the empire, and I plan to be right by your side, watching as you do.”
Merely hearing that gave her courage. She would return to Magos one day, and knowing he would be there, gave her all the strength she needed.
But it also scared her.
After thinking he had died yesterday, she never wanted to feel that crushing weight in her chest again.
“It’s too dangerous, Klyde. That mage battle in Dwarf Shoe is nothing compared to a full out war.”
He tucked a lock of silver hair behind her ear and said in a voice as warm as a summer breeze, “I have faced many dangers in my life, Lucenna. This one is no different, except in only one thing. I am fighting to protect someone I love.”
Her eyes watered, and she whispered, “I told you not to tell me that…”
His sea-blue gaze softened. “You have bewitched me, lass. How could you expect me not to fall hopelessly in love with you?”
As she looked at this wonderfully ridiculous man, Lucenna knew she wanted him forever. It was a frightening feeling, but for once she wasn’t afraid of the future anymore. Because she was ready to have him.
To be with him. To call him hers. Whatever fear she had of opening her heart to him had been washed away beneath the gentle tide of his gaze. She had never expected her heart to choose him either, but it did.
She was completely, insanely in love with Klyde.
With the cunning, playful, protective, deadly, patient, gentle man who intruded into her life. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t a mage. In many ways, they were completely unalike, but her heartchosehim. Not because he was absurdly handsome or because of those damn dimples that appeared every time he smiled at her. And certainly not because he had a mouth that made her see stars.
It was because Klyde looked at her like she was the very moon of hissky, and he didn’t expect anything more than that.
Clutching his shirt, Lucenna rose on her toes and pressed her lips to his. He kissed her, softly at first, gentle and sweet, but she gripped his forearms because she had never wanted sweet.
His hands tangled in her hair, and his mouth responded urgently, with a need they had both been starving for. His groan against her lips rumbled all the way down to her center. He may not have had any magic, but he knew exactly how to make her lose herself blissfully and utterly in him.
She will miss him and the way he kissed her, as though he intended to memorize the very shape of her mouth.
Why had she resisted him for so long?
Lucenna laughed.
“What’s so amusing?” Klyde asked, resting his forehead against hers.
“You were right.”
“I normally am, but what about this time?”
