Chapter Ten
Rain was atightly wound-up ball of nerves and desire by the time they reached the Wood of Layton. Prolonged time alone with Daric was wreaking havoc on her body. How was it possible to physically ache for something she’d never known? Intense sensations leaped inside her like cloud-to-cloud lightning, shooting bolts of heat and longing through her with nothing to ground them.
Thesacred forest creaked and groaned as usual, matching her stiffness after too many days on Arjun as well as her brittle mood. Daric showed signs of irritability also, and they snapped at each other occasionally only to converse easily again moments later.
Their new dynamic felt more natural than the courteous and always careful way they’d always interacted. That had been real, too, but with avarnish that had kept them shiny and bright in each other’s eyes. She preferred the Daric she saw every day, all day—the Daric difficult circumstances and this journey had revealed. He was still everything she wanted, but Rain had discovered sharp edges that made him even more appealing. And when Daric looked at her now, his jaw often set at a hard angle and his penetrating gaze not hiding the forceof his desire, Rain could barely catch her breath and wanted only one thing: for him to touch her.
“We’re deep enough into the woods to find some mockweed now. You know what it looks like, right?” Daric asked.
He glanced at her, but his eyes didn’t linger. They were sweeping the forest for threats. Many of Leathen’s wild animals had retreated to the Wood of Layton over the years of drought,and even the well-trod paths had turned dangerous.
Rain nodded, shaking off her daydreams—although anxious and alert felt like poor replacements. “It grows low to the ground and has puffy yellow flowers that make me sneeze in summer. But we’ll only find last year’s dead plants. It hasn’t bloomed again yet.”
Despite the curse, thingsdidgrow in Leathen. Three seasons provided their habitualweather, and plants and forests and farms hung on, surviving in the way of the gradually starving.
“The flowers are seasonal, but the leaves don’t wither. The rest of the plant winters over.”
Rain was surprised. Who knew Daric was such a botanist? “Do you suppose it will matter if there’s no flower?” she asked.
“Your disappearing sorcerer said mockweed not mockweedflower,” Daric said witha shrug.
Rain frowned, trying to recall exactly. “He didn’t have time to elaborate. Two guards had him, and Soren was snarling.”
Daric’s gaze swung around sharply. “Did Soren follow you?”
She shook her head. “He said he was on an errand.”
Brittleness crept into Daric’s expression. “He’s in love with you.”
“Soren?” Rain tried to muster up some shock, but deep down, she knew that already. Theonly real surprise was that Daric had mentioned it. “Does that bother you?”
“It does if he goes with you to Parr,” Daric bit out.
“If I go to Parr, I’ll be married to Aldo, and I would never be unfaithful.”
A dark laugh escaped Daric. “Aldo will be dead soon, and Soren still has years of vigor in him.”
Rain tried to let what he was implying slide right off her, but she couldn’t entirely. Itstuck. Soren wasn’t the man she wanted, but he wouldn’t be a terrible alternative if Daric were truly lost to her. “If you’re forced to marry Astraea, would you be unfaithful to her?”
Daric’s eyes flared with barely suppressed anger and enough need to make her blood run hot. “In a heartbeat—if I have you to comfort me.”
His words shot like an arrow to the space between her legs. Rain’s musclesclenched. Before she lost her courage, she notched up her chin and asked, “What’s to stop us from starting now?” She knew sheshouldgo to Aldo a virgin, but she didn’t always do as she ought.
Daric’s face turned blank with shock, then his color heightened significantly. He stared at her, and Rain waited for his answer, her heart banging against her ribs.
Daric thought hemight die of heat and want and frustration and fury.What’s to stop us from starting now?She acted as though that were a simple question.
Rain wasn’t asking for a kiss anymore, although a kiss wouldn’t have been anything close to simple between them, either. She was asking to start something much bigger, much more consuming, and with consequences that stretched from one edgeof the continent to the other.
In a voice gone thick and hoarse, Daric finally managed to answer. “I can find a way to go forward, Rain. But I could never go back.”
Rain visibly swallowed. She nodded and turned back to the path, her fingers tensing on Arjun’s reins until they whitened.
Before Daric could think of a more neutral topic to distract them both back to better spirits, a stiff breezebegan to blow, making his mount, Wylar, dance and quiver. The wind didn’t abate, turning colder and more violent and forcing them to tug their cloaks firmly closed and pull up their hoods for protection.
“The weather is fickle,” Daric said. “This morning was pleasant.”
“We’re subjected to whatever’s strongest around us,” Rain answered. “If the north wind blows hard, we get the colder, more volatileair from Raana. If the weather to the south is powerful and enduring, we get whatever comes up from Parr.”
