“Maybe.” She shrugged, scraping her nails lightly across his shoulders as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “A little.”
Kjeld scoffed, his brows clashing in a scowl. “And did you indulge?”
Another shimmy of her shoulders, except this time she rubbed her breasts against the wall of his chest. “Perhaps.”
He tried to ignore the way she swayed into him, how each time she did so, she purposefully rocked her hips, grinding herself against him. When she rose up on her toes and licked the hollow of his throat, his knees almost buckled. His cock thickened, answering her silent plea. The next time she rolled into him, he held her in place by planting a hand on her ass.
“How much is a little, Caelian?” he asked, bemused by her lack of propriety. The way she continued to lap and nibble at his neck was hardly becoming conduct of a lady. “A sip or two?”
“More like a glass.” She smiled into his skin. “Or two.”
Shit.
“I see.” Kjeld maneuvered her into a slow circle, one palm gliding to the small of her back, the other grasping her hand as they started to dance. “Is it much like being drunk?”
“Not at all!” She arched back to peer up at him. “Quite the opposite, in fact. I find that where a normal wine might makemy head fuzzy, bloomfire wine only has that effect on my body. Actually, I’m pleasantly coherent.”
A rumbling laugh escaped him, and he twirled her into the circle of gray stones and white flowers where other couples danced. “Well, I am glad your mind is not lost to the whims of lust.”
“Not yet, anyway.” She winked, and then a small line crinkled across her forehead. “Though, before I lose my mind to the whims of lust, I must tell you I went to the River Thalorien today.”
Unease pricked along his spine. “Is that so?”
She nodded, the corners of her mouth pinching like she was holding back the threat of tears. “The rock I found in the drawer of my mother’s desk? It’s a memory stone. And today, when I tossed it into the river, it revealed three of my mother’s memories to me.”
Kjeld listened intently as she told him about the visions, how they weren’t at all what she expected, and how after she witnessed them, she felt ravaged by guilt. This time, unshed tears clung to her lashes, but she didn’t let them fall. He watched in silence as she maintained her dignity, as she refused to let her tumultuous emotions get the best of her while she was at a celebration for their marriage.
“You think there was something more to Trysta’s antics?” he ventured cautiously. “Something we might have missed?”
“Yes.” Caelian nodded furiously, sniffling once. “How could she love us and then loathe our very existence in the next breath? I saw her face, Kjeld. In those memories. I saw it. She adored us. All of us.”
“Okay, it’s okay.” He smoothed a hand down her spine, not wanting to muss her hair. She was so earnest, so steadfast in her convictions, and he believed every word. “We’ll investigate, I’mcertain Ariesian and Drake must know something. Even Prince Aspen may be of some use.”
“He could be, for sure, especially since he and Sarelle seem to be…something. Though I am not quite sure what I would label them.” Caelian’s mouth quirked to one side, but it did little to disguise the sadness harbored in the depths of her eyes. “Of course, this means we will need to travel back to Aeramere.”
Ah.
So there was the source of her troubled heart. A sentiment he was familiar with on his own.
Kjeld hedged the subject with care, letting his feelings on the matter slip through his words like whispers on the breeze. “We always planned to go back, though, didn’t we? Even if only for a visit?”
Caelian’s head snapped up and she eyed him curiously, her gaze unreadable as she searched his. “A visit?”
“Aye.” He spun her around, watched her skirts flare, then pulled her back into his arms. “To see your family. Maybe return Brohm, Pyran, and Lunaris to the Moonfall Peaks. Though truth be told, they’re faring far better here than I expected.”
Another wholesome truth.
Kjeld had been concerned about the well-being of the dragons when they first hatched. He’d thought Wenfyre was too vulnerable a place, that perhaps the dragons would wreak havoc upon the land and the Druids. Oddly enough, their demeanor was far more at ease here than he expected. Lunaris was exceptionally well-behaved, Pyran did not try to set fire to the entire forest, and Brohm’s fighting attitude had settled. Even Odryss, the beast that he was, spent most of his time lounging near the shore of the Caelora Bay, as though the waves soothed the restlessness in his soul.
He waited a beat before continuing. “Unless you’d rather stay in Aeramere permanently?”
“Not particularly. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love my family. Fully. Completely.” Caelian’s gaze lifted to the heavens through the ancient trees of the Eldergrove, where stars twinkled and the moon smiled. “But I’ve never truly been comfortable in Aeramere. I’ve always felt out of sorts. Uneasy in my own skin.”
“I know.” He ran his thumb beneath her chin, following the smooth planes of her face. “I saw your struggles, how you always appeared ready to crawl out of your own flesh. You must know that despite it all, none of it ever went unnoticed. At the very least, you were seen. By me.”
“Kjeld…” Caelian’s breath caught as she spoke his name. Her sapphire gaze, sparkling in the filter of soft light, searched his face. “But what about you? And your purpose? I don’t want to stay somewhere if you’re not happy.”
“Where you go, I go.” He shrugged, leading her into another smooth spin. “If you’re happy, I’m happy.”
