Authors: Donna Grant
She giggled. “Nay, what we did was incredible. I never knew it could be like that.”
A frown passed over his handsome, angular face.
“What is it?” she asked.
“There’s more I need to tell you, especially now.”
A shiver of dread filled her. “What?”
He pulled out of her and sat on the edge of the bed. “Remember how I told you the Fae help us find our mates, and that we’re never wrong when we find them?”
“Aye.”
“There’s something else that happens, to help us ensure we return with the right woman.”
She almost hated to ask by the tightening of his jaw.
Whatever it was, he expected it to anger her. “What is that?”
He lifted his right arm, and before her very eyes, a pattern began to darken from his elbow to his shoulder. The pattern was unique in its knotwork and beautiful in its swirls.
Katrina sat up and ran her hand over the now black marks. “It’s…magnificent.
So, once you bed the right woman, this mark appears?”
He grimaced. “Aye, but no’ just on me.”
She blinked, unable to believe what he was telling her until she looked down at her arms. The same pattern on his arm now appeared on her left. “By the saints,” she said with a gasp.
If she hadn’t seen with her own eyes, she’d think it was a hoax. Now, she could only look in stunned silence at the beautiful mark upon her skin.
It seemed both odd and appropriate that it be on her arm.
She was shocked to see it, but the sizzle that raced over her skin and through her body as she realized what it meant didn’t leave anger.
It left her…breathless with the prospect of her future.
Because now, more than ever, she couldn’t push aside Sorin’s words as false.
They were as real as the sun that rose every morning.
“Katrina?”
“I’ll have it always?” she asked.
“Aye. As will I.”
She raised her gaze to his.
In his dark eyes was a sadness that made her heart drum sickeningly in her chest. “There is more, isn’t there?”
“Aye,” he said with a sigh. “I have to return with you before the fifth moon of the harvest year.”
“And that is when?”
“In less than two months.”
No wonder he was sad.
The news meant she had very little time either with him – or with her family.
Katrina needed to think. She rose and paced before the bed, heedless of her nakedness. “And the rest?”
“I doona know if now is the time, lass.”
She turned sharply to him. “I think now is definitely the time, Sorin. I don’t doubt that I am your mate.
Especially now.
But I need to know everything.”
“All right.” He ran a hand down his face. “If you doona return with me, my kingdom and all its inhabitants will cease to exist.”
She stopped pacing and her stomach dropped to her feet.
Of everything she might have imagined, she hadn’t expected anything of this magnitude. “My God.”
“You can refuse me if you want.
What I ask is a lot, but please know what if you do refuse me you’ll never find happiness with another man. Eventually, over the years, the pain at not being with me will grow and turn you bitter and hateful.”
“Yet, you can find another?”
That hardly seemed fair.
“Nay.” He lowered his gaze to the floor. “If you decide no’ to return, I’ll stay with you for I can no’ leave my mate. I’m bound to you, forsaking all others.
For you.”
Katrina wanted to cry. How had she gotten into this mess? And what could she do other than return with Sorin?
His people, his family counted on him returning.
Yet, how could she leave behind everything she knew?
It was a frightening possibility, but the idea of not being with Sorin left her cold.
Besides, all women left their families when they married.
Her father had never understood why she had been so choosy in finding a husband.
Now she knew.
She’d been waiting on Sorin.
He’d been searching for her, but she had also been searching for him.
The one man she’d known was meant for her the moment she fell into his arms and she looked into his dark eyes.
It had been just an instant, but her body, her heart…her soul had known him.
“I’ll go with you to Drahcir.” She expected him to show some happiness or excitement.
Instead he closed his eyes and clenched his jaw.
And that’s when she realized what she hadn’t understood before now. “If I go with you, I’ll never be able to see my family again, will I?”
He slowly shook his head.
Her family meant the world to her, how could she leave knowing she would never see them again?
Never have her father hold her children or her children know him.
She’d already had her mother taken from her, she wasn’t ready to let go of her father as well.
“You ask the impossible,” she murmured and reached for her chemise. She pulled the garment over her head her hands shaking as her mind and body warred with what each wanted.
Her body wanted Sorin.
Her heart did as well, but it also wanted to be near her father.
“I know. If I could change things, I would,” Sorin said. “Drahcir is kept secret by Fae magic, and though we allow anyone who wants to leave our kingdom to do so, they can never return.”
“Yet you can?”
“We doona leave because we want to. We leave because we have to,” he said softly. “Time travels slower in our kingdom. Much slower.”
“In other words, even if I were able to leave when I returned my family might well be dead.”
“You’ve the right of it.”
She returned to the bed and sat beside him, the weight of the world suddenly on her shoulders. “I’ve waited my whole life to find a man who understood me, who made my blood sing.
To find you.
I just never expected you to be from a magical kingdom.”
He rose and silently dressed. No more words were spoken as she crawled beneath the covers and Sorin took up post in a corner near the window.
There was nothing left to say for the moment.
Somehow, despite all she had learned, she was able to find sleep knowing he was there. Yet, when she opened her eyes with the morning sun, Sorin was gone.
The disappointment she felt was swift and sharp.
This would be what it felt like if she refused to go with him.
If she remained, so would he.
He would never see his family again.
And they would die.
“This isn’t fair to either of us,” Katrina said as she looked at the empty corner where he’d been during the night.
* * * *
Sorin waited until the streets began to fill before he moved away from his post beneath Katrina’s window. He spent the night watching her sleep, replaying their conversation over and over in his head. His body yearned to feel her beneath him again. Her soft cries of pleasure had been music to his ears, and he could easily spend the day making love to her. But she needed time, time they didn’t have.
And he needed her.
He had seen her face. The thought of leaving her family forever was not something she could do. He wished he had more time to woo her, to convince her that they were meant to be together. But time wasn’t on his side.
Already he could feel the countdown to the fifth moon of the harvest year. He had lied when he said he had two months before he had to return. It was less than a month, but he hadn’t wanted to worry her more than she already was.
All he could do now was give her a day or so to think while he hunted the Tnarg. If the Tnarg was dead and she decided to return with him to Drahcir, their way would be considerably less dangerous.
In the light of day, the Tnarg wouldn’t venture into the heart of the city, which is where he prayed Katrina stayed.
It would give him some peace of mind while he retrieved his sword.
He had numerous other weapons, but his sword was important to him. He and his father had made the weapon, so to lose it would be like losing a part of his father.
Sorin took one last look at Katrina’s window and moved off through the streets. The sky was gray with storm clouds. He prayed the storm held off until he could find the Tnarg. The rain would only send everyone indoors and make it easier for the Tnarg to attack Katrina.
He found another horse at the edge of the city. After a quick look around, Sorin untied the animal and vaulted onto his back. A click from him sent the animal into an easy gallop.
Sorin’s gaze searched the ground for any sign of the Tnarg’s tracks. He circled the city twice before he was sure the beast wasn’t there. Then, he turned to the grove of trees.
With his thoughts jumbled, he walked the horse to the grove, hoping along the way he could figure out a way to persuade Katrina to return with him. Thunder rumbled in the distance as the wind began to bend the trees and whistle over the ground. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something move. He jerked his head around, but it was too late.
The Tnarg was fast and stayed out of sight as much as possible. But Sorin knew the beast was there. Waiting.
When Sorin walked the mare to the trees, the horse refused to go in.
She sidestepped, jerking her head up and down as her eyes rolled wildly.
“Easy, lass,” Sorin murmured as he dismounted and patted the horse on the neck. “I doona want to be here either. Go back to your master,” he said and turned the horse toward the city.
He gave the mare a slap on her rump that sent her galloping away.
Then with a sigh, he looked into the trees.
Before he could hunt the creature, he needed his sword. He stepped into the wood and noted the absolute silence. No crickets or birds made a sound, for evil was near. He walked as silent as a ghost through the dense trees. The thick layer of pine needles and the wind quieted his steps as he moved to where he had fought the Tnarg the day before.
When he came to the spot, he glared at the tree where his sword was embedded nearly to the hilt. Sorin touched the leather wrapped pommel. At least the beast hadn’t broken it. His hand gripped the weapon and tugged.
Just as he feared. The oak was thick, and the sword deep inside it.
A twig snapped behind him. Sorin didn’t need to turn to see the Tnarg behind him. Lightning suddenly split the sky a heartbeat before the rain began.
“You’ll never get the sword out in time,” the beast hissed behind him.
Chapter Six
Katrina blew out a breath and rose to her feet. She’d been on edge and frantic ever since she had woken to find Sorin gone.
He’d left so he wouldn’t be discovered in her room, but now she was growing concerned that he hadn’t come to see her since.
Where are you, Sorin?
“Katrina, you’re making me nervous with your pacing. The storm won’t last long,” Aunt Beatrice murmured over her needlepoint.
Katrina ran to the window and looked at the dark clouds racing toward them. As her gaze scanned the city, a lone rider traveling to the woods caught her eye. She knew instantly it was Sorin.
“Nay,” she whispered as fear took her heart in a tight grip.
Without a word to her aunt, she raced from the solar to the crossed swords hung in the hall. Katrina gripped the pommel of the sword and tugged.
“Lass, what are you doing?” her aunt asked from the doorway.
“I don’t have time to explain. Trust me. I need this sword.” Just then a servant rounded the corner. “I need a horse. Now!” she shouted when the servant didn’t move.