“What?”
“Is that wheat?” I repeat. “I … Is it possible … How is this possible?”
Kaelen bends and plucks a stalk from a still-growing plant and silently holds it up between us.
“It’s wheat.” I hesitate and then reach for it. “Yes. Feels like wheat. Smells like …What is happening?”
His gaze drops to the glowing amulet between us. “I think the better question iswhois happening. Looks like Artemisen is stretching her powers. She returned balance to the land by regrowing the fields burned by the Fell.”
The flowers—marigolds and bluebells and dahlias—circling us now reach my knees, their blooms bursting open in a surreal, sped-up version of the time they’d normally need to grow from seed to flower.
The wheat is even taller.
Suddenly, I realize we’re standing in the middle of an impossible, magical, fast-growing field, and I’m wearing the goddess’s necklace that made it possible.
“The villagers won’t understand this,” I say slowly. “We need to get out of here.”
He nods, face turning grim. “We don’t have time to be captured or killed for sorcery. Khyrrans aren’t fans of magic, and we wouldn’t easily be able to convince them this is Artemisen’s doing. Will the amulet let you leave now?”
I take a tentative step and then another. “No resistance at all.” I sigh with relief and tuck the locket back beneath my shirt. The glow isfading, too. “Let’s go.”
We have to shove our way through thick stalks of thigh-high wheat to get back to the road. Once there, we stare in disbelief at the formerly burned fields on the other side of the road, now bursting with crops that look almost ready to harvest.
“At this rate, they’ll have a full harvest by tomorrow.” Kaelen whistles. “Yes, definitely time to find our way back to the inn, and better for us if nobody sees us doing it.”
He suddenly laughs, pulls me to him, and kisses me. “Never a dull day with you, Solitude Grace.”
“I could say the same, Prince Kaelen Valourian.” I tug at his hand. “But we have togo.”
Somehow, we make it back to the inn without being seen. Maybe Artemisen has a hand in this, too.
Kaelen leads us to the back of the building, where we enter the unbarred door to the kitchen. The room is empty and the stove is cold, a clear sign the cook is done for the night. There’s a narrow staircase from the kitchen up to the guest rooms, probably for the servants to use, and Kaelen pulls me along behind him, his hand gripping mine.
When we pass the door to my room without stopping, I whisper a protest. “That’s mine. Don’t you think—”
“No. I definitely don’t,” he says, determination clear in his quiet voice. “You asked me to touch you, remember? I feel like I haven’t fulfilled that request to the best of my ability yet.”
When he pushes open the door at the end of the empty hallway, he glances back at me, his beautiful eyes filled with heat. “Unless you’ve changed your mind. Please tell me now. Once I have you all to myself in that room, I intend to keep you for as long as you’ll let me.”
“I—”
“Naked.”
Heat flames up my chest into my face, but I hold his gaze. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
Before I can move or think or even breathe, he yanks me into his arms, strides into the room, and kicks the door shut behind us. Suddenly,his mouth is on mine, the door is at my back, and his hard, hot body is pressed against me, while his hands grasp my hips and lift me up. I instinctively wrap my legs around his waist, remembering that we stood exactly like this in the trees.
Just before he pushed me away.
The thought chills my desire enough that I look down and take a long, shaky breath. “Are you sure this time? Before—”
“Soli.” He lifts my chin gently. “I’m sorry. I was trying to be a gentleman.”
“And now?”
