Page 71 of Shadowborne: Reckoning

Grace nodded and squeezed my hand. “You have a good heart, Bren. I’m glad you found your General. Enjoy him while you can. It’s clear he cares for you.”

“He does,” I said and gripped her hand when she tried to take it away. “But that’s not—”

“No, Bren, don’t make it less than it is. I can see his regard for you and it encourages me. He is not young,” she said with a grimace. “Perhaps… perhaps even with a difference in age we can find… peace with someone?”

I didn’t know what to say. “I’m sure we can. But—”

“Then let’s focus on that,” she said hurriedly, her eyes starting to shine in the corners.

“Grace, I want to—”

“Just be my friend,” she said, nodding at the hedge in front of us. “Enjoy the festival with me. Share my last days of freedom.” She gave me a glance from the corner of her eye. “You’ve given me much to hope for, Bren. And even if it can never be, it is… good for my heart to know that some women in this world can live with freedom. And love.”

I opened my mouth, tempted to tell her more of what I’d experienced than I should have, but just then a group of women stumbled into the clearing and Grace patted my hand, then got to her feet and went to speak with them, obviously wishing to end the conversation. So, I let her go, but I raised a small prayer for her, asking God if there was any way she could find someone who’d love her like Donavyn loved me. Who would see her desire for adventure as a benefit, not a burden. And thanking him that he’d freed me from the tyranny of a liar.

Please, whoever you put in her life… don’t let him be a liar.

23. The Maze of Want

~ BREN ~

I worried for Grace, but she clearly didn’t want to continue the conversation that had made her sad. So, I stayed at the benches and waited for Donavyn to arrive.

Here and there in the night a sudden scream or ring of shrieking laughter would tell us women had been discovered in the maze by hungry eyes and hands. At times my heart pounded, my mind wanting to conjure shrieks of fear.

But through it all, I could sense Donavyn moving closer. It made me smile, and fed my heart. And made me laugh when he sent curses on clever Kings who created complicated mazes and sent us all into it with no warning.

‘I will finally be with you soon. I think,’ he sent.

‘It seems you and the king have something in common,’ I sent with jab of amusement.

‘What’s that?’

‘You both cheat—he with his secret routes, and you with your bond.’

‘The use of any God-given gift is an asset, not a cheat,’ he shot back, with mock offense.

I grinned as Grace was beckoned by a woman who’d just arrived in the little clearing, to join them for their gossip.

‘You aren’t far,’ I sent, eyeing the group of women near the entrance of the hedge, and wishing when Donavyn arrived he’d find me alone.

I must have accidentally shared the feeling with him because he grunted in my head. ‘I would wish to find you in solitude, as well, my Love.’

I knew my smile was too wide, too warm, so I turned my head away so Grace wouldn’t notice it in the moonlight—but that reminded me of the shade-tree to my right… and the much deeper shadows behind it.

Donavyn would come, of that I had no doubt. But it might be fun to make him work a little to find me.

Glancing over my shoulder to make certain Grace was still safely in the clearing, I slipped behind the tree and turned my back to it, pulling my shoulders in to make certain I wasn’t visible behind the trunk.

‘There is some solitude here… does one of the king’s routes include a shadow or two?’ I sent him an image of myself in the dark, though I was careful not to include the tree.

We teased back and forth, and by the time I felt Donavyn drawing close, my cheeks were warm, and my belly fizzing.

Which was precisely when I heard a deep voice greet the women—and a chorus of squeals and laughter, screams and shouts, some of them tearing away, presumably with men in chase.

I squeezed myself tighter behind the tree, praying Donavyn would be confused for a moment and perhaps have to look for me—until it occurred to me that the other women might try to take advantage if he was unattended.

I leaned around the tree to see where he was, and whether the women were touching him… only to find the clearing virtually empty, a few skirts disappearing around the end of the hedgerow along with more shouts, and one, shadowy, dark figure standing alone. His brows shot up when he caught sight of me.