Page 29

T wenty-four

C HRISTIANA HAD FALLEN asleep again, waking only when the wagon bounced in a rut, jostling her against the strong, warm man sitting next to her.

“Okay, that’s it. We’re done.” Chase pulled on the reins, drawing the animals to a stop. “Ulfr! We aren’t going any farther tonight. Christiana’s exhausted and she’s freezing. We need a fire and she needs some sleep.”

Ulfr pulled his horse back beside the wagon, his irritation evident.

“We’ve already wasted enough time digging the witch’s pit at yer insistence, Noble. Our lord has bid me to bring his sister back as quickly as possible, and I intend to—”

“As quickly as possible is tomorrow,” Chase interrupted. “For now, we’re stopping and setting up camp. You can stay here with us or you can go on ahead, but to do anything else is going to mean that you and I are going to dance. And seriously, dude, I don’t think you want that to happen.”

Christiana didn’t blame Ulfr for his look of confusion. Sometimes the things Chase said confused her, as well. But for all his strange words, his meaning was clear enough when he climbed down from the wagon and reached up to assist her in following him.

“Kenneth! How about you take care of unhooking these horses while I escort the lady to the trees over there?” Chase gave orders as if he were the one in charge, ignoring Ulfr’s halfhearted protests.

“Look at you, Ulfr. You’re about to fall out of that saddle.

Did you even take an hour to sleep before you started back after us?

I didn’t think so. Come on, man, give it a rest. Let’s bed down for the night and we’ll head out at first light.

For all I care, you can tell Torquil I’m the one who held us up. It doesn’t have to be your fault.”

Ulfr appeared almost relieved as he dismounted and led his horse away.

“Come on.” Chase grasped Christiana’s hand in his, allowing her to lean some of her weight on him. “I’m sure you need to do your lady-stuff before we catch some sleep.”

Her “lady-stuff.” Christiana muffled the giggle she felt bubbling up in her throat at such an unladylike reference, and tightened her hand in Chase’s as he led her limping away from the others.

“I’ll wait for you here,” he said, releasing her hand once they’d gone far enough into the trees that the sounds from the camp no longer reached them.

When she returned, he was staring up at the night sky.

“I wish I’d spent more time studying the stars,” he said. “Because it seems more than a little weird to me that they don’t really look any different here than they have anywhere else I’ve ever been.”

“And you would expect them to be different?” She reached out to reclaim the warmth of his hand again.

He pulled her close to him, tucking her under his arm in the protection of the plaid he draped around her, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for them to stand here in the dark together, staring up at the sky.

“Yeah, for some reason, I did. If you could only see the places I’ve been, I’m guessing you’d think so, too.”

Standing here so close to him, she tried to imagine what he would say if he knew she had seen those places.

Or at least bits and pieces of them in the Visions she’d had of him.

Tiny slices of a world remarkably different from her own.

It was that very difference that had led her to seek the assistance of the Elf in bringing him to her.

One day she would have to speak to him of these things. But for now, she simply wanted to revel in this moment as they stared up at the sky. Simply to enjoy without any guilt, without any consideration of the world around them, without any question as to why she wanted this moment to last forever.

But even as she relaxed into the moment, her conversation with Orabilis slipped into her mind, niggling away at her peace and contentment.

Was Chase her porridge?

She certainly felt the burn in her belly every time she was near him. Near him? She only had to think of him, to imagine his touch, and the burn ignited.

This moment they shared right now—was this the comfort in silence of which her Shen-Ora had spoken?

The need to know now weighed heavily upon her.

Trust yer heart as well as yer head, Orabilis had advised, and she had never steered Christiana down a wrong path before.

She turned so that they faced one another, with her nose buried in the broad expanse of his chest. His arms tightened around her as if by instinct, enclosing them in the cocoon of his plaid.

“Smells like they have a fire going now.” His voice was barely more than a whisper as he gazed down at her. “We should probably be getting back so we can warm you up.”

Trust yer heart as well as yer head.

Whether from fear or some emotion she couldn’t yet bring herself to admit, the heart she was to trust pounded against the walls of her chest. So loud, so hard, she was sure Chase must feel it as if it were his own.

Even as that heart urged her forward, reason called out for her to stop, lest she have to live with the humiliation of rejection.

Trust yer heart as well as yer head.

She needed to know for sure. She needed to know now.

“Kiss me,” she demanded, lifting her face up toward his.

He stared down at her for an instant, an instant that felt like a lifetime as she wondered if he’d refuse her.

And then, his mouth covered hers, breathing life into her very soul. She melted into his arms and somehow they turned as one and her back pressed against the trunk of a large tree.

His lips left hers and he whispered her name in tones so beautiful, it brought tears to her eyes.

Her fingers, which were somehow tangled in his hair, tightened and she pulled his mouth back to cover hers, unwilling to end what they had started.

His hands slid down over her breasts and the fire in her belly burned hotter with the pleasure of his touch.

When he lifted his lips from hers, his breath came in heavy, erratic puffs of air, exactly like hers did.

Between them, the little pouch holding her runes seemed to throb with a life of its own, and she knew, as surely as if she’d already walked the paths in Skuld’s world, nothing from this moment on would ever be the same again.

“Again,” she managed, just before she lost herself once more in the heat of his mouth, spinning away into the wonder that she’d discovered in his embrace.

“Noble?” Ulfr’s voice in the distance cut through her haze of pleasure. “Mistress Christiana? Where are you? Answer me!”

Though the moment was entirely ruined, she had discovered what she’d set out to learn.

She had indeed found her porridge.