Page 122 of What Blooms in Barren Lands

“Wewillhave to go,” Einar said quietly, putting down his knife and fork to take my hands in his.

I lost my appetite entirely in being braced in this fashion for more bad news.

“Santini wants to hold the election by the end of next year. And today he has already made certain ... insinuations. Hinting that I was becoming obsolete as there were practically no infected left. He also mentioned that he had seen painted posters of us the other day in some northern town.”

The table had a damaged edge where I sat.

“Posters?” I asked as I freed one of my hands from Einar’s and fiddled with the splintered wood.

“Yes. Hand-drawn. He showed me one. It was of two people that vaguely looked like us, the woman with a bow and the man with a knife and a sledgehammer. It saidAndersens - the Saviours of Corsica.”

I hissed with a sharp intake of breath through my teeth as I inadvertently drove a thin splinter beneath my fingernail. Putting it to my mouth to staunch the blood, I finally left the poor table alone.

“I’m sure that made Santini very happy,” I remarked while nursing my wound.

“Oh, extremely,” Einar assured me sardonically, “as you can imagine.”

“Did it make him ...homicidallyhappy, do you think?”

He chewed and swallowed before replying. “Not yet, but he’s getting there. He’s giving us a chance to clear off. He knows me, he knows I will have stored a boat or two somewhere.”

“How about twenty-five boats?”

A small, sly smile flickered on Einar’s face, hair falling to his eyes in golden waves.

“Nope, I don’t imagine he knows that,” he replied dryly

“When do we leave?” I asked while cutting into my food.

Einar took a sip of his coffee before answering me. “Now would be suicide. It can get cold any day, and once it does, most of the swarms will migrate back down to Spain and Italy and spread out all along the Mediterranean. Santini is reasonable enough to know he can’t expect me to set foot in there in wintertime. Not when I have you with me. He’ll give me until spring arrives. The swarms will have spread out again by then. With luck, we’ll cross the continent in between them and then sail from wherever we can get to.”

I drank the last sip of my coffee and set the cup on the top of my polished plate.

“Still hungry, love?” Einar asked me with a familiar, ferocious gleam in his eyes.

“Not for food. Do we really need to go to dinner?”

He shook his head, an anticipatory smile spreading on his face.

“We don’t. I’m sure they can do without me for one more night. And I couldn’t last that long without getting my hands on you.” He gazed at me in a feral sort of way, and I shivered happily under his glare. “Unless you’re ready in fifteen minutes, I’ll have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you up by force, my girl.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I assured him, “but it won’t be unwelcome either.”

42

RULE OVER ME

Up and up we went, love more than lust propelling us forward like hot air, carrying us higher and higher along the narrow path through forests of Mount Oro and onto our secret outcrop. There, shielded from the world by a resin-scented alder alcove, we lunged at each other, breathless from anticipation as well as from exertion.

“God, I couldn’t wait for you.” Einar lifted me and kissed me like he never wanted to stop. “Such torture to be away from you for even a single night.”

But then he let go of me abruptly and sat on a nearby boulder with his arms across his broad chest. Something had shifted in his visage, the air around us hummed with our unspoken understanding, and it was all I could do to suppress a smile.

“What about you, babydoll? Did you miss me?”

I dropped to my knees, palms laid flat on my thighs.

“Yes, Sir. I couldn’t wait for you to finally get back and rail me like your cock and my cunt are going to war.”