Teawas what I would drink in the parlor, that was it. No more wine. Possibly notever.
I decided it was safest, all in all, not to risk a curtsy. “Thank you,” I said to the weather wizard, and started for the door as gracefully aspossible.
The room tilted around me with every step. By the time I emerged into the corridor, my head was spinning wildly. I only made it five feet beyond the dining room doorway before I had to come to a suddenstop.
“Cassandra?” Waiting just ahead for me, Amy frowned. “Areyou—?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “I just...need a moment. Alone.” Forcing a reassuring smile, I waved her ahead. “I’ll be there soon, Ipromise.”
“Very well.” She rustled forward to join the other ladies as their voices dropped from the higher-pitched social gaiety of proper supper conversation to the low intensity of real politicalwork.
They were all gone a moment later, along with the servants who’d led their way. Even their hushed voices disappeared behind the closed door of the parlor in the distance, shutting out any possible eavesdroppers. Letting out my held breath, I sagged against the wall and closed myeyes.
I needed a moment to recover before I walked on and joined them. Just one moment...one moremoment...
“Hmm,” said an all-too-familiar voice close to my ear, with wicked amusement. “Rather too much joy with the elven wine, eh,Harwood?”
“Oh, shush.” I slitted my eyes open just wide enough to glare at my ex-fiancé, who was leaning indolently beside me with one shoulder propped against the wall. “You would have drunk too much wine, too, if you’d been trapped in that conversation all throughsupper.”
“What, you weren’t fascinated to learn all of Sansom’s great secrets?” Wrexham shook his head at me, his mischievous grin shifting into something more wry...or even affectionate? No, that must have been the elven wine distorting my perceptions again. “I would have warned you, you know, if you’d only bothered to ask me first. I ran into Sansom at an incident up north last year, when he was chanting at the moon and ran afoul of a local group of fairies. He may be the most earnest and well-meaning would-be Druid of our age, but he certainly hasn’t the power to bring about our currentsnowstorm.”
“No one does,” I said on a yawn. “That’s the whole problem.” The corridor shimmered in my vision, and Wrexham’s strong shoulder was beginning to look dangerously tempting. If I could just rest my head there for a moment, while I regained my balance... “EvenInever imagined that I had that much power. We’re not elves, damn it, we’re onlyhuman.”
“That’s why we work together, not alone,” he said softly. “But...ah.” He let out a sigh as I shifted infinitesimally closer. “Never mind. You’re tipsy on elven wine. It wouldn’t be a fair fight, wouldit?”
“What?” I frowned muzzily athim.
Were we fighting again? No, wait, of course we were—we must be, because I’d been forcing quarrels with him for over two months now, butstill...
“Shh,” he murmured, as he reached out to run one long finger along the side of my cheek. “Just for once, let me help you. Just this once.” His voice dropped to awhisper.
His fingers had always been soclever.
But I’d been wrong earlier, when I’d thought that his rueful grin was his most appealing expression. How could I ever haveforgotten?
The intent expression he wore when he was casting magic was evenbetter.
His spell rippled through me like sweet relief, lifting the dizziness and the beginnings of nausea like a clinging set of veils that he was drawing gently from myskin.
The unnatural warmth of the wine lifted with them. But what remained, as my head and vision finallycleared...
His dark eyes gazed into mine from only inches away, his head bent over mine, with his soft, glossy black hair falling into his face...more than close enough totouch.
I knew exactly how it would feel against myfingers.
I had never been able toforget.
His shoulders weren’t propped against the wall anymore. He was cradling me—or so it felt, although he wasn’t actually touching me anymore. He had his left arm propped against the wall beside my head as he lifted his right forefinger away from mycheek.
My breath came quickly in mychest.
I wasn’t dizzyanymore.
But it had been so long since we’d done this.So unbearablylong...
His head tilted, his gaze holding mine, warm and intent and even more focused now than when he’d cast his spell. It was breathtaking.Hewasbreathtaking.
He always hadbeen.
