15
Aradia
Thank the gods for books. Without them, I might have been driven to insanity waiting for Yuto’s return. The thick stone walls blocked any sound of battle, and if I didn’t know better, I would have said everyone in the castle was sound asleep. Unfortunately, Ididknow better. It was impossible to sit still long enough to read a page.
Candle wax plopped onto the curling page, obscuring the next sentence beneath a glob of pink. I cursed beneath my breath and hurriedly tried to wipe it away. I’d just gotten to the point where the hero raced through the night to save the princess.
The door creaked open. I dropped the book to the floor and scurried to my feet, heart racing. Yuto’s familiar form darkened the doorway. His belabored breath whispered between us, and the scent of battle tainted the air.
“Are you okay?” I squeaked. “You smell like death.”
“I’m fine,” he murmured. “The attack was not as bad as we feared. We’ve fought Panos back. For now.”
“For now?” I repeated. That certainly didn’t sound as promising as I’d hoped.
“He’ll keep coming for you, Aradia.” He paused. “But tonight, you are safe.”
For now.
I had the strange urge to rush toward him and launch myself into his arms. But my feet stayed rooted to the spot. I’d already thrown myself at him once today. I wasn’t going to do it again, especially not after he’d trapped me in a tiny room while everyone else fought.
Besides, he was probably tired after the fight. The weariness in his voice was palpable.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you when I was on the battlements.” He finally stepped into the room, and the candle splashed dim light onto his face. Dirt smeared across his cheeks. It made him look rugged and strong, though the lines around his eyes showed the toll it had taken, if not on his body, then on his mind.
Swallowing hard, I fidgeted with the candelabra. “I’m…sorry?”
“It wasn’t a bad thing, Aradia.”
What was happening? Was this about our kiss? Would he whisk me into his arms and do it again? My heart thudded. I didn’t know if I was scared he would or terrified he wouldn’t.
“Well, I was pretty distracted in here, too, to be honest.” I took in a deep breath, emboldened. “I was worried about you. And the others.”
He smiled. “I wasn’t going to let Panos get to you.”
Suddenly, he leaned down and wrapped his arms around my waist. My feet left the ground as he slid his right arm beneath my legs. Taking the candle away from me, he extinguished the flame with a quick breath. Darkness surrounded us.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“There’s something I want to show you.” He kicked open the door and strode down the darkened tunnel, and then continued on, carrying me out of the library. When we reached the corridors, he turned right instead of left. We weren’t going to my chambers then.
A thrill shot all the way down to my toes.
Instead, he took the path of the circular stone stairwell that led up to the floor at the top of the tower. As we grew closer to the landing above, my heartbeat pounded like a war drum.Hischambers were at the top of these stairs. I’d heard Orion and Callista mention it a few times.
Delicious excitement charged through my veins like bolts of lightning. Lungs tight, I tried to keep my face as blank as possible when we reached the top of the stairs. He pushed through an ancient wooden door carved in the shape of a dragon’s veiny wing.
His room glowed orange from the lit hearth in the corner nearest the door. It illuminated the rest of his belongings, strewn in a chaotic kind of order, as if he’d placed everything just so, even if it did not look like it to me. A wooden trunk sat wide open, tunics and blankets crawling out of it and creeping across the floor. His four-poster bed was even larger than mine and hid beneath piles of silken sheets. Splashes of red were everywhere.
Gently, he lowered me to the floor and crossed the room to a cluster of dusty bottles. He seemed to move with a frenetic kind of energy. An electric hum of power radiated off his body, as if it could not be contained.
“Was it really necessary to carry me all the way up here?” I watched him uncork a bottle, find two tankards, and fill them both with the crimson liquid.
He turned, strode toward me, and handed me one of the tankards. “I thought it would be quicker this way.”
Quicker.I wet my lips.
“You’re saying I’m slow.”
