Talon stood.“I was wondering if youwere ever going to take me there.”
Lara took a deep breath in and blew itout.“My mother giving birth to me here, being buried here, was theone thing Sophie made me swear to never tell anyone,ever.”
“If you’d rathernot—”
“No.I want you toknow.”
She led him across the meadow, intothe woods, to a small, ferned glen where vining red roses heavywith the last of the year’s blooms climbed over a bier of stackedstones.Lara cut a blood-red bud from the vine and held it out toTalon.
“Sophie planted the roseson my eighth birthday.We stopped here on our way home the summerwe traveled north to the Neustria Sea.”
Talon reached for the rose andstopped, his hand hanging mid-air as Lara stood smiling at him withthe same openness and light a young girl had once bestowed uponhim.He took the rose and held it to his nose, breathing in thespicy sweet scent of it, of Lara.
“That summer you travelednorth with Sophie,” he said.“Did you go to a riding tournament ina town by the sea?”
Lara tilted her head and looked atTalon as if she’d never really seen him before.A slow dawning ofrecognition lit her hazel eyes and she smiled, as bright and warmas the sun shining down on him.
“There was a rider on afire red stallion, the youngest there.”Her voice shook.“He rodeunder the name—”
“Vagus.TheWanderer.”
Lara stood wide-eyed andspeechless.
“There was a young girlthere,” he continued, “with freckles across her nose and cheeks andher red hair in side braids.She watched every match he rode in,her smile his reward whenever he looked her way, though shewouldn’t come close enough to speak with him.”
Lara blinked and licked her lips.“Shewas so shy of him.He was as a god to her, racing the very winditself and flying through the heavens on his fiery steed.”Shesmiled as if to herself.“He won every match that day, and theright to choose the Queen of the Field.”She met and held Talon’sgaze.“He chose her, an eight-year-old girl, above all the otherwomen vying for his crown of flowers.”
“And in turn, she pluckeda single red rose from the crown—” Talon twirled the rose bud inhis fingers.“—and offered it back to him with a smile so pure andsweet, he’s carried it in his heart ever since.”
Lara smiled up at him beneath loweredlashes.“The crown lies in a chest at the foot of her bed to thisday.”
“The rose lays dried andwrapped in my chest next to the carving of a beautiful, thorny,woodland witch I met in a river the first day of summer.The sametroublesome wildcat who ransacked my chest her first night ofcaptivity in my chamber.”
Lara’s smile turned cheeky.“As anyprisoner with a lick of sense would’ve.”
Talon took her hand in his and raisedit to his lips.“You were never just any prisoner.In truth, I’vebeen prisoner to your smile these fourteen years past.”He loweredtheir hands but kept hold of hers.“Where did you go that day afterthe tournament?I looked everywhere for you.”
“After you crowned me,Sophie said it was time to leave.That we had seen what we had cometo see.”
“What was it you hadseen?”
Lara shook her head.“I never knew,and Sophie never said.But that was her way about many things.”Hereyes welled.“I wish she was here so we could ask her.”A singletear ran down her cheek.“I wish she was still here.”
Talon pulled her to him and held herclose.“Know what I think?”he whispered in her ear.She rolled herforehead against his chest.“I think Sophie the Sixth cursed methen and there with your smile.Cursed me to search far and wideuntil I found it, found you, again.”
Lara lifted her gaze to Talon’s.“Thenight Patience gave birth to Wilric, Sophie asked me if I lovedyou.I told her I didn’t want to, that I’d tried so hard not to.”She smiled, sad and wistful.“I told her I’d loved you once, thatnight at the river.That I was scared to let myself love you again,only to lose you.”Her smile brightened and her eyes shone green asemeralds.“I’m not afraid anymore, Talon.”
Talon swallowed, hard.He cupped herchin, unsure if he wanted her to say the exact words or not.Afraidof what it would mean if she did.Of how she’d expect him toanswer.He’d wanted her from the first moment he’d laid eyes on herstanding him off in the river with nothing more than two knives anda dog.Which was, he’d only now discovered, actually the secondtime he’d laid eyes on her.He’d held the memory of her as a younggirl, smiling at him as if he were a god, close all these years.He’d recognized something in her even then and felt more for hernow than he’d felt for any woman ever.But he was a king’s soldier,destined to leave her before the first snows fell.
“Lara…” He tried to tellher with his eyes what he couldn’t with his words.
She lifted her chin and bestowed asmile on him that clove his heart in two.“No promises, Iknow.”
CHAPTER 20
TheLeaving
Talon
