“I didn’t sleep with him. Do I want to? Yes. Will I? Not if I can help it.”
His voice was low. “Can you help it?”
“I’ve managed to resist more than one Elf lately,” she said archly. “I think I can handle myself.”
His face darkened as he blushed. “Magda, that wasn’t me—” He grimaced. “I mean, that’s not how I wanted...” He pulled in his lips.
“You don’t need to explain. Eris’s magic gave you the power to change form at will. Getting you to put your hands down my pants probably took as much effort on Eris’s part as it does for Gur to take a nap.”
Gur grumbled, but didn’t stir.
Kaelan eyes widened as though he’d been slapped.
She laughed. “You know what you are? A romantic. You think every time you touch a girl it’s Romeo and Juliet?”
“Romeo and—?”
“Never mind, it’s not important. The point is you don’t have to gut yourself every time you feel a little pleasure or a little guilt. Eris pulled a dirty trick. It felt good, but it wasn’t really us. We both know that. You don’t have to worry that I’m going to make more of it than that. And just because I’m attracted to Endreas doesn’t mean that I’m going to do something stupid. Not unless there’s a conniving witch around. We have more important things to worry about. Our lives. The lives of our friends. The Lands themselves. Let’s just stay focused on those things and put the rest aside for now. We have too many distractions as it is.”
He gazed down at her for a long moment.
And it seemed, for the first time in a long time, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking or feeling. Her chest ached slightly as if the hollowness, which she’d thought gone, had returned briefly.
“All right,” he said, taking a step back. “You’re right... I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”
He retreated to the other side of the cave without another word.
She frowned after him, attempting to articulate a question that hadn’t yet formed in her mind. As she laid down, she tried to put the unsettled feeling aside, but it lodged in her head like a seed between her teeth, irritating and unmoving, no matter how much she picked and prodded at it.
She drifted off to sleep watching Kaelan’s chest rise and fall, wondering if she had made a mistake. Maybe it would have been better to go back to California, with him. And maybe she was lying to herself. Maybe the reason she wasn’t leaving had less to do with her duty and more to do with a Prince named Endreas.
THEY LEFT BEFORE SUNRISE,saying little.
As much as she’d hoped the tension would be relieved, it wasn’t. Making matters worse, Kaelan seemed to have acquired a mastery of stoicism overnight. He emoted nothing, and once he changed back into Damion’s form, even his face was impossible to read.
The journey to Flor’s home didn’t take long. The forests and glens, hills and streams were all familiar to Magda. This was her land. The places she’d tromped a thousand times growing up. Yet, looking down upon it, she struggled to revive the proprietary pride she’d once possessed. As a child, her love for these places had been fierce. Now, it was just a place, like any other.
When they landed in the meadow, flush with flowers—tiny purple puffs of fairy drops; long, red imps’ tongue; broad white lace-crowns—Flor strode towards them ahead of Honey and Damion.
Kaelan, still looking like Damion, dismounted first, and held out his hand for Magda. She took it and slid down. Hero dropped from her shoulder at once and scampered off into the meadow, out of sight.
In the years since Magda had last seen Flor, her black hair had gone gray, left wild and loose around her shoulders. Her skin and her lips had taken on a cool violet hue. Yet her gait remained strong, her figure statuesque. Her clothes, though a bit ragged, were the fitted garb of a warrior.
Flor stalked right up to Kaelan and looked him up and down. “Yes. You do look like Damion. But let’s see your true face now.”
Gur slunk away as if not wanting to be noticed.
“Flor, it’s good to—” Magda started.
Flor waved Magda off as if they’d seen each other just yesterday.
She spoke to Kaelan. “Show me this power the witch gave you.”
Kaelan looked to Magda.
She lifted a shoulder.
“Oh, good,” Flor said as she stepped back, bunching her arms over her ample bosom. “You know to defer to your Rae. That’s something at least. That one made it sound as if you knew nothing.” She cocked her thumb back at Damion who stood by, looking exasperated. Honey merely watched with those pale haunted eyes, as if only half seeing them.
