Torn: Bound Trilogy Book Two (28 page)

“No, don’t stop,” he said. “It’s nice. Strange to have a human touching me when I’m like this, but good.”

Good, indeed.
I hadn’t enjoyed touching another person so much in far too long. I couldn’t deny how this excited me.

I put my hand back and continued its slide up his body. It was strange how he became more human closer to the middle. I’d seen drawings of something called a dolphin, a playful creature said to dance in the waves alongside ships and guide them safely to harbor. But the dolphin didn’t have the narrowing at the waist, above what would have been his—

I pulled my hand away again.
I touched his butt. I think. Maybe
.

Kel rolled onto his side and looked at me. “Time to get back? You must be getting cold. I know I am.”

“I suppose.” I actually felt quite warm, and hoped the fading light hid the flush I felt in my cheeks. “I’ll wait for you to get dressed.”

I took one more look. His front was more impressive than the back, stomach muscles strong from swimming, disappearing into the tail, which was flat and a lighter gray on the underside.

I wonder how—

I cut that thought off before it could take root and walked back into the woods far enough to give him privacy to change and dress. My fingers ached to touch the more human parts of him, but that would have gone beyond simple and acceptable curiosity about an unfamiliar creature and pulled me into the trap of appreciation for everything his human body might have to offer.

I took a few deep breaths and leaned my back against an oak tree, pressing my palms to its bark, calming myself with its steadiness.

A few minutes later Kel appeared, and we made our way back toward the flicker of firelight that showed between the trees. I found I couldn’t quite look at him, not while the feel of his skin still lingered on me. The entire incident seemed surreal and dreamlike, and I needed time to think it through.

Before we reached the camp site, Kel took my hand to slow me.

“What?” I stopped, but pulled away.

“I—nothing.” He looked down at his feet, then back to me. “You’re going to work things out with Aren?”

“I suppose we’ll try,” I said, “if he’s open to it.” I owed him an apology, but he’d been cruel to me, too.

“Wonderful.”

Just fantastic
, I added, and followed Kel back toward the camp.

A
ren and Cassia
sat beside the fire. Aren raised a questioning eyebrow at Kel, who shook his head. They had meat roasting over the fire, and a round loaf of bread keeping warm nearby added to the mouth-watering scent.

“It’s almost ready,” Cassia said. “Aren caught a couple of hares. The meat’s a bit stringy. We’d have done stew, but we didn’t have much to add.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.” I stepped closer and breathed deeply, and my stomach growled. “We’ll work on a better meal tomorrow.”

“Cass, there’s a lake back that way,” Kel said. “I already went in, but I’m up for another swim.”

Cassia looked from him to me, and then to Aren, who nodded. “All right,” she said. She broke off half of the bread, then offered half of that to Kel. “We’ll eat more when we get back. Keep turning it so it doesn’t burn,” she told Aren.

Aren nodded again, and then the mer siblings were gone.

We didn’t say anything for a while. The rabbit tasted as good as it smelled, and if the meat was a bit tougher than it might have been in the summer, it didn’t make it any less enjoyable. I would have eaten more, but we had to leave enough for Kel and Cassia. My satisfied stomach made me sleepy, but I couldn’t rest yet.

“Aren?”

“Nox.” He didn’t say it as harshly as he would have earlier. I took that as encouragement.

“I owe you an apology. Kel explained some things to me, and I…” It was so difficult to get the words out. “I think I was trying to provoke you earlier. I’ve resented you since long before we met, for reasons I now understand don’t make much sense. I still think you should do whatever you need to do to get Severn taken care of, but I’m sorry I got angry. You’re trying to do the right thing.”

His lips quirked in a half-smile. “If only I knew what the right thing was.”

“I probably didn’t help with that, did I?”

“I owe you an apology as well. I’ve been walking the edge of a cliff, trying to hold my temper, and you nudged me over.” He paused. “That’s wrong. I could have held on. I didn’t want to.”

Surprising honesty
, I thought.

He met my gaze. “It’s frustrating to know that no matter what I do, it’s wrong. I was angry with myself and irritated with you. You weren’t exactly respectful, but maybe that shouldn’t have mattered. I’m sorry I insulted you. I need to control that better.”

I had to smile. “We’re both terrible at apologies.”

“That we are. Also, I really didn’t mean to look into your mind. It won’t happen again, I promise. I’ll be more careful.”

“Thank you.”

He leaned forward. “I was talking to Cassia, and I realized…It’s embarrassing.”

“What?” I moved closer and sat down again.

“I’m jealous of you.” He reached up to rub the back of his neck. “When I was a child, I spent years wishing I still had my mother. When someone was cruel to me, when they ignored me, when I tried to do something with my magic and failed, I thought about her and wished she was there. I don’t remember what she looked like, but I remember her warmth.” His voice was steady, but heavy. Grief-stricken. “You lost so much when you left. I know that. You should know that you wouldn’t have been given much respect in our family, being what you are. I don’t know whether you’d have been acknowledged as Ulric’s daughter. People have odd beliefs about twins.”

“I see.”

“But you would have been taken care of, and safe,” he continued, “and I’m sorry you missed out on so much. But you had her. It must have been a hard life for both of you, but a part of me still envies you.”

My mother and I struggled so hard for so long, and our lives were difficult. We did have that love between us, though. She kept me as safe, warm and well-fed as she could, and did her best to get me a better education than the other children in our village had. She found books, and she taught me to read and write even when I fought against it. She found a Potioner who would teach me the basics of our art, and we lived with him during my apprenticeship. I didn’t wonder until I was much older how she paid him for it, and even then I assumed she was happy with him. She certainly never said otherwise, or made me feel guilty for being a burden, or for being ungrateful for the sacrifices she made. I tried to imagine my childhood without my mother, and a lump formed in my throat. Severn’s actions had cost Aren as much as they had me.

“Well,” I said, after a few more minutes of silence, “does this make us friends now?”

That seemed to amuse him. “I really don’t know.”

“What does that say about us? We finally find our twin, the one we should be closer to than anyone in the world, and we hate each other at first sight?”

He smiled wryly. “I think it means we have a few decades of normal fighting to catch up on. And maybe that we both have more of our father in us than we care to admit.”

“You hate him too, don’t you? Not the way I do, but...I assumed you were looking for him because you wanted him back. Kel said he was cruel to you, though.”

“I don’t know whether I hate him,” he said quietly. “I used to think I did. I certainly don’t love him, or like him, but since I found out that he saved our mother, I’ve been wondering what else about him I didn’t understand.”

“Based on what I just heard, he doesn’t deserve that much consideration,” I told him.

“Are you still willing to help if we abandon that little quest and go on to Luid?”

“You want me to?”

He nodded. “I think I do. You already helped Kel and Cassia. And if I ever need someone to have a petty fight with, I’ll have my sister around. Might not be so bad, as long as we stop going for each other’s throats.”

I got up to check on Kel and Cassia’s food, making sure it wasn’t overcooking as it kept warm by the fire. “At least this way I can keep an eye on you and make sure your plans don’t get in the way of mine, right?”

His smile came more naturally than it had before. “Right.”

“So how long have you and Cassia been together?” I asked as I settled back onto the ground and fed another log into the flames. “She seems to be a decent person. Competent. Deadly loyal to you, but nice.”

He raised his eyebrows. “We’re not together like that. We were, once, but no. She’s still a good friend, nothing else.”

Another assumption proved wrong. “Well, she and Kel seem like good friends to have on your side, anyway. Love is overrated. Friends would be a better thing to have.”

“Is it?” He opened his hands, revealing the piece of of glass he’d been toying with earlier. He turned it over, watching the firelight flicker over it.

“There is someone, though, isn’t there?” I asked. “Where is she?”

“Belleisle. She’s a Sorceress, but—It’s getting late, I’ll tell you about it another time. If you want.”

Of course she’s a Sorceress.
That was the sort of person he associated with. “That’s fine. I’m sure she’s wonderful. You miss her.”

He nodded. “She’s part of the reason I’m doing all of this. Severn wants me in his service, but he wants her dead.”

“Pissed him off, did she?”

Aren chuckled quietly. “Yeah, she really did. She’s safe for now, but as long as Severn is in power, and if he’s thinking about expanding his empire the way I suspect he is, she’s not safe anywhere. Neither am I.”

“Again, not what I’d heard about you. How does a killer turn into a romantic in such a short time?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I was both all along.” He seemed embarrassed by that notion. “Are you disappointed? Again?”

I shrugged. “I’ll think about it. As long as she’s not the only reason you’re doing this, I might not lose all respect for you.”

“Because you have so much to begin with.”

I laughed.

Kel and Cassia came back to find us setting up three beds.

“Are we all being humans tonight?” Cassia asked. “Three asleep, one on watch? Or do we not need anyone to stay up?”

“I’ll change and take watch,” Aren said. “I can rest and still warn you if someone’s coming. You three share the blankets. Maybe tomorrow night we’ll do shifts, and I’ll get some better sleep. I’m fine for now.”

Cassia rolled her eyes. “You always are.” She and Kel finished their supper, and for the moment, we were at peace.

“We should get to sleep,” Cassia said. “Gather the horses before sunrise. They’re safe out there, aren’t they?”

And suddenly there was a horse there with us.

She fell from the sky, landing far less gracefully than the other herd had, coming straight into the clearing and scattering burning logs and embers as she stumbled through the fire, nearly extinguishing it. The stink of burnt hair filled the air. Cassia and I stamped out a few places where blankets smoldered, and Aren went to the horse, which was pacing back and forth, breathing hard, spreading her massive wings and flapping slowly, then pulling them back in. She reared when Aren approached her, then looked at his face and went closer to him.

“Florizel?” He put a hand on her forehead and stroked down to her nose. “Shh, it’s okay. What’s happened?”

She whinnied, a soft, shuddering cry. The hair at the bottom of her thin legs was singed, and even in the faint light of the fire that Kel was rebuilding I could see that her feathers were un-groomed and her hide scratched and dirty. Remnants of an arrow’s shaft protruded from her rump.

“Aren,” she said. “I can’t believe—I was going to get help when I saw the other horses, and they said they spoke to a bird-man, and I—” The whites of her eyes showed, and she paced away from him again, swishing her tail frantically. “Aren, it’s Rowan. The men have Rowan. Bad men.”

“What?” Not despair in his voice. Anger. His expression became keen and predatory, and any hint of humor had disappeared. He had changed completely and become the fearsome Sorcerer I’d heard tell of. “Who? Did they come to Belleisle already? Do you know where Severn took her?”

The horse shook her head. “No, it’s—I’m sorry. She’s in Darmid. Her brother was in trouble, and she was supposed to meet with this hunter she knew, but he brought others, and they took her.”

Aren’s lip twitched in a silent snarl, but he kept his silence.

“I followed as far as I could, but they saw me, and I had to fly away. They took her to the middle part of the country, to a huge city with a stone building with gates and walls. I don’t know what you call it, but I can remember where it is.”

Aren took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “Why would she—never mind. She’s in Ardare, then.”

“Who’s Rowan?” I asked, and they all looked at me. Even the horse. I think they’d forgotten I was there. The look on Aren’s face told me who she was. “We should talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Aren said. “I have to go.”

“Not alone,” Kel said. “We should all go.”

The horse—Florizel—stamped a foot. “I can carry one, and barely that.”