“You never told him?”
“No, Brandon would have felt bad for introducing us and probably would have blamed himself for not protecting me. But if it hadn't been Tom, it would have been someone else, and at least Tom was nice.”
“Except for abandoning you to marry a woman,” he said with surprising bite.
“It happens. I understood. Even more so now. Back then, I had silly dreams of taking him to Lek with me, but Tom would never have left Stalana. He'd rather hide who he is than leave his home.”
“That's sad.”
“For him.” I shrugged. “We all have choices to make. Sometimes others make them for us. At least Tom got to decide for himself. I like to think that I was his one happiness before he had to pretend to be someone else. I hope he still thinks of me and that what we had gives him some comfort.”
“I'm sure he does think of you. How could he not?” Tae's hand wandered back to my hair. “But that other part's sad as well, especially because it's true.”
“Which part?”
“That others sometimes make decisions for us. I suppose the best a man can hope for is to be the master of his own destiny.”
“Ah, but then you have no one but yourself to blame when it goes wrong.” I winked at him.
Tae snorted in amusement. “Blame is for the weak.”
“A very warlord answer,” I noted.
“You disagree?”
“Yeah, I do. Sometimes, blame is properly placed. Sometimes we aren't given those precious choices and people do things that hurts or changes us. I don't think we should whine about it, but I don't think we should be blamed for the actions of others either.”
“Fair enough.” He glanced out the window when the carriage stopped. “Here we are. Ready for another adventure in fae cuisine?”
“Do you really have to ask?”
Chapter Thirty-Three
After lunch, we went clothes shopping. I don't know how much Varalorrian money Tae spent, but I imagine it was more than I made in five years. He bought me tunics, jackets, cloaks, pants, boots, hats, belts, and more. I couldn't keep track of the number of items the salesclerk presented to us while I tried things on, but Taeven just kept nodding.Yes, that too. Yes, that as well.On and on until I was ready for a nap. Luckily, we didn't have to cart it all back to his place; they would send it over later, after they steamed and pressed everything. I guess when you spend that much money, you get some perks.
When we got in our carriage, I thought we were heading home, but we turned in the opposite direction.
“Where are we going now?” I asked.
“I want to show you something.”
Our carriage left the city on a lone road, heading into the forest that filled one end of the plateau. The street looped around to head back into Wynvar but instead of turning, we parked at the end of the curve, and Tae got out. I jumped out after him, and he took my hand to lead me off the road and through the woods. Snowfall was light beneath the trees so the going wasn't hard. It was actually lovely—a little sanctuary away from the city. But then we stepped out of the trees and onto a pointed promontory. The cliff hung out over the mountain—a perfect launching point if you happened to have wings.
“Tae, is this . . . ?”
“This is where I came that day,” Tae confirmed as he removed his hand from mine in favor of slipping his arm around my shoulders. “I stood right here, the city hidden behind me and the possibility of freedom lying ahead of me.”
“And then the falcon came.”
He nodded and looked down at me with a soft smile. “And then the falcon came.” His words were heavy, weighted with tender emotion.
“Thank you for sharing this with me,” I whispered, looking from him to the phenomenal view.
Valleys and mountains stretched into the distance; the horizon an indigo smudge. I wondered what Tae saw with his sharper fae vision. Avanla had told me about the way a faerie's two forms synthesized after the first shift. At first, they'd be separate, only my mind connecting them, but then the heightened senses of the falcon would become mine in Sidhe form. Not as sharp as they'd be in falcon form, but a marked improvement. And a falcon's greatest sense was his sight. She said I'd be able to see much further than I could now; it would seem as if the world had suddenly expanded.
But my world had already grown thanks to the man beside me. He had urged me into this, but now I was grateful for his determination. Standing there on that cliff, looking out across the kingdom of his birth with his arm around me, I didn't want to be anywhere else. This was where I was meant to be, and he was who I was meant to be with. I'd never believed in silly things like fate, but I was rapidly changing my mind.
Because of the Falcon Lord.
