“You believe your father and I would kill each other.” He tosses a fur over her legs.
Her pretty pink lips part, and she looks away, twirling a bit of linen from her pants between her fingers. “You are both immensely powerful and often don’t understand your own strength.”
“Princess, I would not harm your father. It will take more than a shot of Azure to bring down the Beast.” Calder places his hand on her bouncing leg, stifling her movement.
She worries her bottom lip, still not looking at him. “Warning.” She whispers before her hand grips his wrist, and he is once more thrust into her memory.
Only this time, he enters a carriage with Sigvid…
After a tumultuous vision of her final moment with her father, herseidrthrows him back inside the safety of his mind.
He is at a loss for words and cannot believe Sigvid would say that to Aura.
Without a thought, he envelopes her in his powerful arms. His fingers untangle the hair wrap so he can stroke her soft locks while she buries herself against him.
I cannot fathom him uttering those words to her in a hundred lifetimes.
He bites his tongue to restrain himself from uttering a negative thought against the man she deems some heroic figure.
“Already, he finds me such a disappointment.” She mutters. “Can you imagine his fury? Should I break his orders and allow myself to embrace you fully?” She pulls away. Her gaze hardens in a way that ages her beyond her winters. “Each moment that brings us closer is a further reminder of the despicable daughter I have become.”
Her hands fist upon her thighs. “It has become difficult to eat, and I cannot sleep knowing he either waits to admonish me in Blackwood or the Depths. Calder,” she clutches his hands, looking up with an expression scrunched in distaste, “look me in the eyes and tell me I have not damnedyou. That he will not hunt you to the ends of the continent.”
Dammit, Sigvid, you are not here and yet you still find a way to cause destruction.
Calder holds her face, staring into her eyes. “He is not here. We must remain sharp for our mission.” He strokes her curls, softening at the weariness in her expression.
I will no longer pretend I am not the demon everyone fears me to be.
“You will sleep in my tent with me.”
She gapes, understanding the magnitude of his declaration.
It may have been fifteen winters since his ex-wife’s betrayal, but time has not warmed the ice shielding his heart.
His bedfellows are not permitted to stay overnight in his home.
There is no return from opening his bed to her.
He presses his finger against her silky lips. “I must know you are safe, Princess.”
She hesitantly tugs the blanket to her waist and lays on her side,her arm curled under her head for support and her gaze trained on his.
He watches her eyelids droop until they fall closed. Silently, he slides toward her until he can pull her to his chest without waking her.
As they embrace this rare moment of solitude, he savors her natural scent and the faint beat of her heart.
I will protect you from the evils of the realms.
“Are you well?” She asks again as he cringes with a stretch against a particularly tall pine.
They had been hiking all evening, and his aged back was stiff after sleeping on the ground.
What kind of hardened warrior have I become that a carriage and a bed were desirable over roughing it in the woods?
“We need to find a horse.” He acquiesces.
“We cannot be seen.” She whispers despite the quiet of the night and his presence as the apex predator of these damn woods.
