Page 18

Today was the day I would get water flowing back to the village. Everyone was thirsty and dehydrated, and we all desperately wanted a proper bath.

“Thank you for doing this with me,” I said to Rowen as I threw on a thin linen shirt, a lace-up vest, and leggings.

“We both know you would find a way to go without me, and I would much rather be by your side,” he said as we began our half-a-day’s journey to the extinct well at the base of the snowcapped mountains.

“When the water first ran dry, I searched the land for a potential relocation site. But the more I explored, the more I realized the Wyn village was one of the last safe havens in Luneth. There is nowhere else to go. Though, if I did find refuge, they would have to go without me. I would never leave the only place you would know to go.”

My stomach dropped as the ground crunched in a dirge of drought beneath us. Of course he scoured the land while I was away. It was what he did when he was in pain. He wandered. And I was suddenly reminded that I’d been gone for months. A fact I didn’t think I would ever get used to.

“Tell me about where we’re going. ”

“I’m taking you to the well I believe will be best for directing water back to the village,” Rowen said, sounding nervous as hell.

“I have a very serious question,” I replied, wanting to get his mind off the daunting task I planned to do.

“What’s that?” he asked seriously.

“Is there a reason you eat like a barbarian?”

He grinned, accepting my offer to play with me . “Is there a reason you eat as if it’s an art form?” he asked, imitating how I eat with my hands. “Constructing every bite to perfection.”

“As an artist, you should not take my art lightly,” I teased back. “I am creating a masterpiece with every bite.”

“Believe me, I know all about edible art,” he said as he looked me up and down. “Every time I draw you, or look at you, it makes my mouth water.”

I threw my head back with laughter, allowing the brief reprieve to wash over me. Even though it felt like the world was ending, Rowen and I could escape into each other’s company. Our soul flame bond was a comforting light amidst the encroaching darkness.

Just as I was about to make another comeback, my ear twitched, and a flicker of movement caught my eye. “What kind of animals are out here?”

“None too frightening,” Rowen said as he patted the assortment of blades attached to his body.

A pang of emptiness itched at my thigh. I felt naked without the blade Rowen had gifted me.

It was the first weapon that truly felt like an extension of my body, but I had lost it at the Battle of the Crypts.

I would have to find a new blade soon.

Rowen and I continued down the path, sharing our upbringings and favorite memories, keeping the conversation light. I needed to be in a good mindset for what I was about to attempt.

We’d been walking for some time when I saw movement in the bushes again. “Rowen, I think something is following us. ”

“Not something. Someone,” Rowen whispered as he slowly pulled out his blade, and with a speed I could barely register, Rowen hurled his ax into the trees.

I flinched as a yelp rang from within the foliage.

Rowen stormed over and cleared the brush, revealing Maddock pinned to a tree by his shirt sleeve.

Maddock sucked in rapid breaths, his eyes gaping as he took in the ax mere centimeters from his limb. “You almost killed me!”

“No. I didn’t,” Rowen said, walking through the branches to dislodge the blade from Maddock’s shirt. As my soul flame pried the ax from the trunk, Maddock’s chest heaved, his eyes never leaving Rowen.

Finally released, Maddock staggered away from the tree. “I really liked this shirt,” he said, poking his finger through the tear. “Where are we going anyway?”

I charged up to him, fury boiling in my veins. “ We aren’t going anywhere. I told you I never wanted to see you again.”

Maddock ran a hand through his black hair that fell in his eyes. “I know you told me to stay away, but I find I need to be near you.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen because I don’t want to be anywhere near you. What part of I never want to see you again do you not understand? Stop following us and go get a life,” I said as I stormed away.

Maddock followed me back onto the trail. “I just need to make sure you’re okay.”

“Why are you worried about that?” I asked, whirling around. He shot a glance at Rowen. “Don’t look at him. Look at me. Why?”

“Answer her,” Rowen demanded. “Make your intentions clear. ”

“I just . . . I can’t explain it. I feel inexplicably drawn to you. Maybe it’s the Light we share. Maybe?—”

“We don’t share it.” I glared, a tirade creeping up my throat. “Sharing implies I gave it to you willingly. But we both know that’s not what happened.”

“Keira, what do I have to do to earn your forgiveness?” he asked, his cherrywood eyes darting back and forth between me and my soul flame. “Forgiveness from both of you.”

I squared my shoulders. “Why are you here? What do you really want?”

“All I want to know is that you’re safe,” he said, stepping up beside Rowen, just a few inches shorter but almost just as wide.

“I’m safe, no thanks to you,” I retorted, my fists clenching so tight that my nails dug into my palms. “And to keep it that way, I’d like you to stay as far away from me as possible.”

“I don’t think I can do that,” he replied with a strangled expression, and something in my heart shattered. My sympathy and anger warred. He looked so broken, so alone, but then I remembered what he did to me. The fear I felt as his phantom fingers pulled my mind apart.

Hatred blistered inside of me. “If I ever see you again, I will kill you.”

With that, I spun away from him, wondering if I had the guts to follow through with my threat.

Now that’s Madds was gone, Rowen and I continued our journey in peace.

“Do you really think you could kill him?” he asked, breaking the monotonous sound of our crunching footsteps. “I don’t think he is following us anymore, but he seems adamant about being near us.”

“If he would just be honest, I might go easier on him. I know he’s hiding something.”

“I believe you’re right. But he appears sincere in wanting to make sure you’re safe.”

“That makes me even more nervous,” I said, brushing my knotted hair out of my face.

“But even if he told the truth, I’m not sure I could forgive him for what he did to me.

The terror I felt as he overtook my body.

The fear that I would never get to see you again, or worse, that I would, but I’d be trapped so deep within my mind that I couldn’t speak.

Silently screaming inside that it wasn’t really me.

I don’t know if I can ever forgive that. ”

Rowen’s nostrils flared, and his jaw flexed to the point of cracking. “The only thing stopping my blade from carving him up for you is Nepta. It’s taking all of my self-control not to beat him to a bloody pulp, but my restraint is hanging by a thread.”

“I don’t want to talk about him anymore. Let’s focus on getting water back to the village. A nice hot bath sounds exquisite."

“I agree,” he said, and I reveled in that dangerous grin of his. “That does sound exquisite.”

After another hour of walking and sensing no more rustling in the bushes, Rowen said, “Here is the well. It was once filled to the brim with water.”

Rowen’s knowledge of the land was invaluable, and I thanked the Spirits I had him here with me.

I just wished I could lay my fingers upon his beautiful face and feel the coarse scruff on his jaw and the soft press of his lips.

His expression turned to steam as his thoughts ventured to where mine lay as well.

Clearing my throat, I realized what Rowen referred to wasn’t a well so much as it was a small opening in the ground. I knelt beside it, peering into the massive sinkhole. It was hard to believe this chasm was once filled with water. The land was dry as a bone .

Nepta described me as a gravitational force, much like how the moon compels the tides.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to center myself. I focused inward, seeking the water flowing within my own body. Somehow, I knew that to find water in this arid expanse, I would first have to connect with the well inside myself.

Once I latched onto the feeling, I expanded my senses outward, stretching the familiar call across the barren landscape. I concentrated on the elemental beats as a soft light emanated from my fingertips.

I searched for the hidden streams that once nourished the land, but after several attempts, there wasn’t even the slightest rumble of water.

My eyes lifted to Rowen. “I need to go deeper. I can’t feel anything up here.”

His eyes narrowed with apprehension. “I can help lower you, but I am unable to fit through after you,” he said, clearly not appreciating the words coming out of his mouth. He may have a narrow waist, but his massive shoulders would never fit through that slight opening. I would barely fit myself.

“Good thing I’m not claustrophobic,” I said as Rowen inspected a curtain of drying vines.

Finding a rope that met his specifications, he yanked it free and began wrapping it around my hips like a harness.

I breathed in through tight nostrils as his hand passed the cord between my thighs.

He looped it back up and around, cinching it tight with a tug, and I gasped as he brought me within an inch of his mouth.

We were close enough that I could feel strings of electricity zapping between our lips.

“Apparently, I don’t have a problem with being tied up either,” I said as my mind went wild with images of Rowen, silky vines, and restricting positions.

It shocked me how I wasn’t immediately turned off by the thought, especially after what happened with Caeryn when he’d abducted me and tied me to his waist. But my trust in Rowen had my mind jumping into realms I’d never considered, and a golden warmth pooled deep in my belly.