“So long as you stay with me, Lieutenant, I’m sure,” she whispered. Araes smiled softly and offered a hand. She took it and mounted the black mare—Gaia. The horse had a gentle demeanor, but Penelope reassured them she wastheir fastest mount.
“Always,” Araes whispered. His words left a trail of shivers down her spine. The feel of his forearms wrapped around her waist sent wicked visions through her as he clicked the reins and Gaia quickened into a trot. She could stay in his arms forever, tucked safely away. Tethys breathed in his scent, letting it melt the frost coating her bones.
For the first time in her life, someonechoseher. She wasn’t entirely alone, not anymore. Not ever again. With Araes she could face this unknown and all the horrors it may bring.
The backwoods trail to Aquilae was long and grueling. What would take them only a couple day’s ride to the southernmost realm on the main roads turned to a full week’s journey before them. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and watched sunbeams filter through the green canopy overhead. They scattered with each gentle flicker of leaves, sending bursts of light in every direction—like stars painting the midnight sky.
Tethys took in a long breath, her lungs inflating with a fresh taste of new, wild air. These woods were ancient, yet in eternal spring they didn’t grow past their infancy. The taste of each wondrous secret, shrouded in greenery, glazed on her tongue. What mysteries lurked in the shadows of their underbrush? What creatures whispered from their lichen-covered rocks?
“You truly think the key is in Aquilae?” Araes asked, knocking her from her thoughts.
“If my visions are correct, then yes. Phosphora hid it long ago to prevent someone, ‘her’as she referred, from finding it,” Tethys replied, running a thumb over Araes’s hand resting above her navel. “I just pray we’ll find it first if someone else truly is searching.”
“We’ll know soon enough, I suppose,” Araes said, leading Gaia around the curve in the trail. “My sister toldme of a fishing village, Piscium, a couple day’s ride from here. The Aquilaean fishermen tend to keep to themselves, so let’s hope they don’t recognize us. Unfortunately, until then we’ll have to make camp in the forest,” Araes said. “But fear not, there’s nothing in these woods I can’t handle.”
Tethys raised a brow. “Do you forget, Lieutenant, that these forests were here before your earliest ancestor took their first breath?”
The corners of his eyes wrinkled into an amused grin. “Well then, oh powerful goddess, I’ll be the one in need of protection.”
“You’re in excellent hands, Lieutenant,” she replied, her lips brushing his cheek. Heat pooled in her belly as she felt the shift of his clenched jaw against hers.
“That I’m most certain of,” he growled, tightening his grip around her waist. Visions of their night flashed through her as she felt his cock rigid against her back. Araes brushed the loose hair from her ear and brought his mouth close enough for the tingle of his breath to send shudders through her.
“We won’t make it to Aquilae if those damned hands of yours don’t keep to themselves,” she breathed feeling a rogue pinky caress the curve of her breast.
“They have a mind of their own for you, Goddess,” Araes said, leaving a flaming kiss on the tender part of her neck.
This damned mortal.
She shifted in the saddle, aware of every point of contact between them.
“It will be a long journey then,” she replied. She swallowed her breath as he circled her nipple beneath the thin cotton tunic. Much to her body’s protest, though, she laced her fingers with his and returned them to a far more tasteful position. “We must focus on the trail now, Lieutenant. Just as you said, there are things that lurk in the shadowsof these woods. I’d prefer not to meet them.”
He groaned and kissed the crown of her head before flicking Gaia’s reins once more.
Chapter 49
At some point during the ride, Gaia’s gentle trot lulled Tethys into a dreamless sleep. While his goddess slept, Araes focused on navigating through the backwoods trails—continuously scanning the surrounding woods for signs of a threat.
His thighs ached from the stiff, saddle-back posture, but he didn’t dare move at risk of waking Tethys. The rise and fall of her breath settled into a peaceful rhythm as they traveled, and after everything she’d withstood, she deserved some rest.
Aching cuts on his heels thrummed in time with his heartbeat, but he cast the pain away with thoughts of the night they shared. A quiet thought whispered from the depths of his mind, and it terrified him. He’d let his heart take the lead. The decision changed everything, and now they were here…on their way to the Aquilaean border. There was no going back.
The scent of Tethys’s hair, honeysuckle and morning light, bristling his nose was all the resolve he needed,though. He brushed his lips on her cheek as the goddess’s sleeping form leaned into him.
Where he expected alarm bells, there was only a quiet stillness—a warm wholeness that hadn’t been there since before Enyo’s death. Araes smiled and watched the evening rays of sunlight flicker across the horizon.
He clicked Gaia’s reins to pick up pace. Only when dusk fell, like a curtain on the humid forest floor, did Tethys stir.
“Eos above, how long was I out for?” she asked, wiping the crust from her eyes.
“A few hours. It’s just past sundown. We should set up camp and get a fire going before it gets too dark,” Araes replied, guiding Gaia to a halt. The mare huffed as he dropped from the saddle and helped Tethys to her feet. Araes winced as he reached for their satchel, a sharp sting jolting through his heels. Those cuts would fester if left untreated.
“Araes…your feet,” Tethys said, reaching for him as he staggered against his balance. The goddess threw his arm over her shoulders and lowered them to the forest floor. He bit his lip as she pulled the boots loose, a copper shade of old blood now staining his woolen socks.
“It’s nothing, really,” he grimaced, cautiously sliding the material from his heels. Tethys unwrapped the bandages. His feet were mangled and raw, littered with cuts in varying stages of recovery. The balcony door had done more damage than he initially thought. Last night was distraction enough from the pain, but now in the cool wooded air, his wounds refused to be ignored any longer.
“This doesn’t look like nothing,” Tethys muttered, examining his heels more thoroughly. “Let me make a salve for this. Just stay here.”
