The day slid by in a sleepy, blissful haze until finally, reluctantly, I turned my face from Caelan’s kisses. Turned to peer out the window at the slowly shifting light – and groaned.
“It’s almost nightfall.”
My turned face didn’t stop him from trailing lazy kisses down my neck, from tugging my shift off one shoulder.
“I’m not due until tomorrow morning.”
I tugged my sleeve out of his grasp.
“And you’re not planning to sleep between now and then?”
He snorted. “Why would I waste a moment on sleep?”
I rolled into his embrace until I sat atop him, my shift pooling around his hips.
“Because the faster you’re done, the faster you can come home to me.”
His eyes were at once alight and their warmth resounded in my chest, stirring my Flame into showers of sparks.
“Home, eh?”
He tried to draw me down, but I grabbed the sheets from his chest and crawled off him, unveiling him to the cold and ignoring his laughing protests and half-hearted swipes for the covers. He relented and sat up, and though theunreasonablenumber of muscles in his taut stomach flexed and bunched with the movement, I managed to hold fast both to the covers and my resolve. Even when he leaned in for a kiss.
“Home,” I said firmly, then kissed him back.
He dressed slowly; reluctantly. Got distracted by little things; a gust of leaves blowing past the window. The half-ruined undergarments he’d torn off me the night before, which he slingshotted at me from across the room before collapsing with laughter. He didn’t bother to duck when I flung them back at him and they hung off his head like a giant lacy earring.
“How old are you?” I asked, but I was laughing too.
“You’re going to miss me,” he grinned.
“Self-assured as ever,” I said, but when I was done rolling myeyes I added: “Iwillmiss you.”
Caelan hesitated with his shirt halfway buttoned. Something flickered over his face, creasing his brow. “You’re going to be alright, aren’t you?”
“It’s just a few days, Caelan. I’ll be fine.”
I didn’t tell him I’d been alone for weeks before Sorcha showed up; I also didn’t tell him that it had nearly destroyed me, inside and out. I could do two days. Iwouldbe fine.
“Are you certain? I could send Brennan north,” he said, then huffed a breath like the very idea amused him. “I’m sure he’d take any excuse.”
“Excuse for what?”
“To go after Sorcha,” said Caelan, turning to the vanity again to pick up his belt. “She could come back now, couldn’t she? With the borders open, and the hunt over.”
I frowned at his back, puzzled.
“But Sorcha went east.”
Caelan still had his back turned to me as he threaded his belt through his trousers, but I caught his look of confusion in the mirror before him.
“She’s not headed back to the Isles? To the coven?”
“The Isles?” I matched his frown, but it gave way to a little laugh as the pieces slotted into place. Of course – he knew Sorcha was my cousin, but I’d never told him on which side. “No, not the Isles. That’s my father’s coven. Gods, Sorcha’s the furthest thing from a firewitch –fartoo sweet-tempered.”
Caelan didn’t laugh. His hands froze on his belt, his back still to me, but I glanced at the mirror to find his expression blank as though he’d fallen deep in thought for a moment. Then his eyes found mine in the reflection – and his features flickered like a lantern in the breeze. A frown creased his brow, lip jutting out thoughtfully above his beard.
“Oh, right,” he said evenly. “Must have gotten mixed up.”
