“And we will be sure not to bother you,” Gideon said, standing a step closer to Guinevere as if to restrain her if she tried to suggest otherwise.
Guinevere looked up at him, mirth in her eyes.“Yes, of course,” she said.“I apologize if I am overexuberant.I’m just so delighted to find another healer with less conventional healing talents.”
Celia frowned at Guinevere, but Gideon had reached for her hand and began to tug her away.So Celia turned and began making her way more toward home, Darian following after her.
“They seem very nice,” he said.
“I’m sure you think so,” Celia said, glancing at him.“You can’t go telling everyone that I have dragons, though.”
“I know, it just seemed right to tell her, and she already knew.”
If Guinevere had not already been taken, she might expect Darian to find someone like her attractive.She was beautiful, but she also had a zest about her that seemed like it would be very appealing to Darian.
Darian seemed lost in thought for a moment.“Have you ever been in love?”he said after a moment of silence.
Celia’s head snapped up almost involuntarily.Her breath caught in her chest like in a trap.
“Why do you ask?”she said, her voice tight.Perhaps she’d been right about him, but that didn’t give him the right to ask that.
He seemed to realize how impertinent his question was, because he ducked his head.“I’m sorry.I just noticed how he seemed completely in love with her.Did you notice the way he looked at her?I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way about anyone, and the words came out of my mouth before I realized I shouldn’t be asking them.Please don’t feel like you have to answer.”
Celia nodded silently, and they kept walking.
How could she admit to Darian, of all people, what had happened?She didn’t want him to think badly of her—and yet the words began spilling out of her before she could even stop them.
“I was in love,” she admitted.“And then we lost him, and I was unable to save him.”
There was a lump in her throat that wouldn’t quite go away.It had been over two years, and she still couldn’t forget the day she lost him—how she’d cried, begged him to stay, begged him to keep fighting.
“I’m sorry,” Darian said, the words barely a whisper.He reached for her hand, and through a haze of tears, Celia let him take it, if only so he could lead her toward the trail she could no longer see.
“I shouldn’t have asked,” he continued.
Celia couldn’t say anything else, but she did not agree with him.It was the first time she’d admitted what had happened to another human since she’d left everything she knew behind.
She couldn’t imagine staying after losing him, and she couldn’t imagine ever trying to heal another person—not when she had been unable to save the man she loved most.
Chapter eight
Darian
GuiltfilledDarian’schestas he led Celia through the meadow in the shadow of the mountains, searching for the trail that would lead them to her home.
She was silent, her eyes full of tears.
He never should have asked—he was stupid.That wasn’t a question you asked someone, certainly not someone who had given up everything she’d known to build a home so close to the Gloaming Mountains, where no one else dared to live.
Especially not after she had spent so much time avoiding so many of his uncles’ questions at breakfast.He had clearly hurt her.
A tear spilled down her cheek, and his stomach churned as he began rubbing gentle circles onto the back of her hand with his thumb.He couldn’t do much, but at least he could get her home.
Maybe the dragons would help cheer her up.
If only he could figure out how to get her there.The trail blended into the grass so nicely, he couldn’t even find it.
Her hand in his felt so right…if he ignored the fact that he was only holding it because he’d made her cry by asking an insensitive question.
There.Just ahead, the trail, a thin strip with no tall grass, leading north.
