Huntsman's Prey (18 page)

“I mean, you’re naturally curious. I’m sure you’ve come across her
treasure chest
,” he finger quoted, “at some point.”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t have a clue where to start.”

“We start at the beginning.” Grabbing hold of her waist, making sure to help her up as he stood, he dusted off his pants. If there was one thing Aeric knew, it was that animals, be they human or otherwise, all shared similar tendencies. Large mammals almost always had dens—a place to hoard and store their valuables, their keepsakes. Chrysalis wouldn’t know what the netting was most likely, but it was on him, which meant she’d understood it was of some worth.

She’d hidden it.

Of that he had no doubt.

The sun was just starting to creep above the horizon line when they finally stepped back onto the red dirt path. Lissa was unnaturally quiet, peering through the woods, then at the sleeping flowers, before looking back at him and giving him a tight smile.

The second time she did it, he frowned. “What’s the matter? You’re acting nervous.”

“Am I?” She blinked innocently, and even though they may not have known one another long, Aeric felt attuned to her emotions.

He lifted a brow.

Finally, she nodded. “I can’t stop thinking about…”

When she didn’t continue, he shoulder bumped her. They weren’t doing anything at the moment but walking. The woods were silent, no animals stirred. As Wonderland had been almost since the moment he’d arrived. Talking would be good.

“About what?”

She huffed, picked at her thumbnail before quickly dropping it and then stopping, she rounded on him. “You. About you. About who you are. How the broker knew you. Your history. Why it seemed when he’d mentioned a past you’d shut down and walked away from me.” Shrugging, she turned and started walking again.

For a moment he couldn’t move, could only stare at her stunned that she was thinking about something that’d happened long enough ago he’d assumed she’d forgotten. She hadn’t seemed to care much when it did happen.

Jogging to quickly catch up, he grabbed her hand.

“No, I’m sorry for asking that. It’s personal and I shouldn’t have—”

This time it was his turn to place a finger against her lips. “Do you always talk so much?”

She grinned. “It’s a talent of mine.”

Rubbing his thumb along the softness of her inner wrist, he returned her smile. “I’m not mad, Lissa, I just didn’t realize that you really cared about that. You didn’t act like you did.”

Sighing, she gently tugged on his finger so that he’d start walking once again. “It bothered me. But I didn’t think I had a right to ask.”

His pulse fluttered. “And do you feel you have the right to now?”

Stepping over a large mossy stone, she shrugged. “You came back for me.”

His lips twitched. “I did.”

Huffing, she punched his arm. It didn’t hurt, it didn’t even sting, but she growled and then elbowed him.

“Omph,” the sound dropped automatically from his lips.

That seemed to satisfy her. “We’re dancing around things, Aeric. I don’t like that. So I’m just going to ask you, do I have the right to know?”

Stopping her once again, he twirled her, pulling her into his chest so that she had no choice but to stare deep into his eyes. And that’s when he did what he’d been wanting to do since the first moment they’d met. He kissed her, for real this time.

She gasped in surprise, but in moments her arms were locked around his neck and she was melting into his touch. Her lips were like softest velvet, and where last time it’d been hard and punishing, this time she allowed him to lead.

He teased and tasted, nipped and suckled. She moaned. He moaned. Her body trembled in his arms, and the press of her breasts against his chest (the hardened nubs of her nipples scraping his shirt), the temptation to take her began to consume him.

His groin tightened, his blood sang. And if they weren’t on a quest, if they had more time, he would have laid her down on a bed of moss, he would have worshipped her body, would have whispered words he hadn’t said, maybe ever to another woman. It didn’t matter that maybe they hadn’t known one another long, Danika had told him in Kingdom the soul knew and his knew.

But he wasn’t ready to show her his heart. Not yet.

With great reluctance he stopped kissing, and instead pulled her head to his chest. Her fingers clung to the back of his shirt.

“Your heart is racing,” she whispered.

Taking a moment to gather his chaotic thoughts into some semblance of order, all he could do was nod and gulp in air. She’d tasted of the spring dew she smelled of. Fresh and intoxicating and all he wanted was to steal more.

Her touch had been so innocent and it’d inflamed him more than any of Claudia’s seductions ever had.

“You have the right to know,” his voice was a scratchy burr full of unsaid words.

And this time when she turned her beautiful eyes toward his they weren’t as black as he remembered, nor her hair quite so blue. For just a moment he could have sworn it was her eyes that appeared that vivid, electric blue and her hair the color of a raven’s wing in sunlight.

But then he blinked and she looked as she always had.

“We need to keep walking,” she mumbled almost apologetically. “This journey will take us a day, maybe two.”

“You know where it’s at then?”

Threading her fingers through his, she walked on. “I have a…hunch. A feeling.”

It was nice walking with her hand in his. And for a second he allowed himself the luxury of memorizing the satiny feel of her skin. He started his tale into the comfortable silence that’d settled between them.

“Claudia was my wife.”

She gasped and twirled toward him. “You’re married?”

“I was.”

Her eyes immediately went to his empty neck. Marrying in Kingdom took on different connotations than in other worlds. There was marriage. And then there was
marriage
. The everlasting type. The type that couldn’t be broken, not even in death. Because to exchange the vows of Veritas meant your soul and your intended’s were inexorably linked. So that should one die, the other would too.

He touched his throat. “We didn’t exchange the vows. I wanted to. She never did. Always insisting that someday I might want to fall in love again, remarry.” He snorted. “Rumpel was absolutely right, I was always a damn fool. Especially when it came to the fairer sex.”

Her eyes were no longer sparkling. “What happened?”

“What happened is now I’m happy we never exchanged those vows. That she didn’t want to, because she was never faithful to me.”

His lips twisted recalling her countless affairs. All within his realm knew it, and eventually, he’d had no choice but to accept the woman he’d fallen in love with, the vivacious beauty who’d always seemed too good to be true, didn’t feel for him a tenth of what he’d felt for her.

“I’m sorry.” She patted his hand. “She shouldn’t have done that.”

He sighed. “It wasn’t so cut and dry either. I left her. A lot. I was always doing the Queen’s bidding, always on one hunt or another. She was lonely. I didn’t like it, but I was willing to understand it so long as she didn’t fall in love with another.”

Her lips twisted, as if she didn’t understand his reasoning, but it wasn’t something he could explain either. He’d been absent, it was only realistic to expect she’d stray.

“Did she fall for another?”

He smirked. “Like a stone. A djinn in a neighboring village. His name was Rafa.”

“You knew all along?”

“No.” He jerked his chin, rubbing his thumb along her knuckle harder. “No. I didn’t know. She made sure to keep it hidden from me. The affair lasted two years.”

Her lips tugged downward. “How’d you find out?”

Coming to a dry bed, he helped her to cross the smooth stone bridge before continuing on.

“She got pregnant. I didn’t even find out then though.”

Her small hand framed his bicep. He shuddered into her touch, because talking about his past was bringing up demons, reminding him why he’d locked his emotions away from others for so long. Why he hadn’t looked at another woman for years. Because he’d never wanted to open himself to that kind of pain or betrayal ever again.

“How?” she nudged him with her hip.

Brushing fingers through his hair, he exhaled. “The curse. My sands.”

She frowned. “You weren’t born that way?”

“No,” he snorted, “I wasn’t.”

Lissa didn’t say anything else after that. He knew she was curious, could almost feel the vibrations of it pulse through him like a wave. He’d known when he started telling her this story it wouldn’t be easy for him; it was why he’d never shared his tale with another. Not even Danika knew the full of it.

“Djinn’s are an arrogant bunch. They believe that because they are born in the stars they are gods. A half-breed is a bastard and something to be ashamed of. Rafa grew angry with Claudia and to hurt her in the same way she’d injured his pride, he told her the fate of all half-breed djinn’s.” He looked at her, at her innocent wide eyes, her smooth forehead and soft pink lips. Lissa looked as innocent to him as Claudia once had. Was he being stupid again? He’d sworn after the last time he’d never fall for a pretty face again. “Their child would be sand. Never able to talk with her. Hold her, love her, nothing. He then broke off their dalliance and left.”

It was easy to read the thoughts moving through her head. How could a child destined to be sand, become his curse instead? What had happened next?

“That is where Rumpel came into play. Djinn are pure magic, she believed in her heart their child would be at least half magic, she wanted to save him at all costs. Claudia ever only wanted one thing.”

“And that was?” She asked as they fazed through the trunk of a large floating elm tree.

“Everything. That was the allure of Rafa, and now that she had his child, she knew she could control that child, make its magic her own. She didn’t love the child, she loved what she felt the child could bring her. So she asked Rumpel what she could do to spare her babe. His answer was that someone would have to be willing to take on the curse instead.”

“Wait,” she pushed her hand against his chest. “You offered to take it? Why?”

“No,” he snorted, “I didn’t offer to take it. As innocent as that child was, I wouldn’t have accepted his or her curse. I know, that she knew, once I discovered there was an illegitimate bastard in her belly I would leave.”

“So how?”

The path they walked suddenly flipped upside down, causing her hair to float down around her eyes. She shoved it out of her face and nodded for him to continue.

“She tricked me. She asked me a question in bed that night.” He laughed; hindsight was always so easy to see the deception. His favorite meal she’d taken such lengths to make him, the love they’d made for many hours, she’d been working down his defenses. “She told me a story. About a woman who loved a man, but the man was not what he seemed and when the innocent young woman tried to escape the man punished her. Cursing her. Then she looked at me and asked me, if something like that ever happened to me, Aeric,” he could still hear the haunting echo of her voice even now, “would you take the curse instead?”

Lissa shook her head.

“I laughed. The question was foolish and I didn’t understand it, but I said what anyone in love would. I said yes.”

“And the moment you did—”

“I turned into this.” He spread his arms calling the sands to him. Her eyes never shifted from his and he didn’t keep the form long, but the moment he was solid again she rushed into his arms and hugged him hard.

“What did she owe Rumpel for the bargain?”

He curled his lips and gently pushed her back, because whether he wanted it to happen or not, Lissa was working her way beneath his skin, worming her way into his heart. And he was getting angry that he’d let it happen again.

“I’ll never know. I left her after that and I haven’t seen her since. My goal is to travel all of Kingdom and see everything I’ve not seen yet.”

After a moment, she asked, “Do you still love her?”

“I hate her.” His jaw clenched, and then he turned his gaze to the side.

They didn’t talk again for many hours after that. Just picking their way back through the winding trail, eventually making their way to a large maze of hedges. Hours had passed since they’d set out, the sky was now darkening and fireflies danced and zipped along the tree lines.

There weren’t many flowers around; the grass was worn down as if many walked through here. And just ahead a small home in the shape of an acorn glowed a buttery golden color.

“That’s the March Hare’s home,” she pointed to the cheery white and red painted acorn. A white wicker table set up with tea tray and kettle sat on the patio beside it. “I don’t think Chrysalis will bother us tonight. We’ve backtracked enough and walked far enough that this should be a safe haven.”

He nodded. It looked good to him. “Fine. But I don’t want to be too close to the Hare’s home.”

She laughed. “True. He’s been known to be a touch jittery.”

They walked back a few hundred paces and then settled down inside an overgrown mossy knoll.