“Here.”
His announcement preceded her horse pulling around his, revealing the forest opening and the circle of stones.
“I do remember this.” It was like entering the scene of a recent dream.
“So do I,” he answered, stroking his fingers absently over his jawline.
There was her chance. The perfect moment to apologize. She opened her mouth but closed it again, letting the perfect moment slip away, feeling acutely unsure of herself as he dismounted and walked over to her side.
He lifted his arms to her, offering to help her down.
She considered refusing. The thought, along with a thousand others, flitted through her mind.
There was no real need for his help. It wasn’t like she hadn’t ridden before. She had. She’d practically grown up in a saddle, albeit one vastly different from the one on which she now sat.
Still, it was a long way to the ground, and she was hampered by the outrageous layers of clothing she wore. Not to mention that the chances were good he’d be insulted if she refused his assistance.
It was for those reasons only that she leaned into his grasp. Sound, logical, compelling reasons all.
Or so she tried to convince herself when his hands slipped under the fur and woolens to fasten around her waist.
Over and over, she repeated the reasons in her mind, like a litany dedicated to sanity.
His grip was warm and strong as he took her weight. Though no more than a second or two passed before her feet touched the ground, it felt as if time had slowed, dragging out those seconds, leaving her disoriented and a little breathless when he stepped away from her.
She’d never imagined getting down off a horse’s back could be such a sensual experience.
“We found you lying there in the center of the stones, on that green bit. Like as no, that’s where you’ll need to do it.”
If this whole experience weren’t odd enough, the patch of greenery at the very center of all this dry brown would have drawn her attention without any urging from him. If there were any magic to be found in this circle, it certainly looked as though it should be there.
Not that she had any idea what the “it” was he expected of her.
“What exactly is it that you want me to do?” Did he think she had some magic ritual that would send her winging back where she belonged?
He shrugged and picked up the reins to lead his horse to the edge of the circle. “Whatever it was you did to get here. Do it again.”
“I didn’tdoanything,” she muttered, as much to ease her conscience as to respond to his ridiculous directions.
She turned her back on him, trying hard to swish her skirts in a manner she hoped relayed her irritation as she moved into the circle of greenery.
“You must have done something. Yer here.”
A surreptitious glance in his direction found him walking the perimeter of the circle, seemingly studying the ground at his feet. He stepped into the woods and back into the circle before speaking again.
“What’s the last thing you remember before you woke up here? Describe it all for me.”
The last thing?
Somehow she didn’t think he’d consider constructing her own magical stone circle to be the “nothing” she claimed.
“Well, it was Halloween. Samhain,” she corrected when he cast a quizzical glance her direction. “Since everything I read indicated that was the easiest time to make contact with the Faerie Realm, I called out to the Faerie Queen.”
Something sounding suspiciously like a snort came from his direction.
“Yer first mistake, that. Most of us spend the entirety of our lives hoping to avoid the Magical Folk, no going out of our way to call down their attention, aye?”
Considering what had transpired, Dani was beginning to suspect the sensibility of his views.
