Page 23 of Denied

That sounded pretty polite to her. “Why, so they don’t accidentally walk into a faire run by outlaws?”

“I think of it as a courtesy, particularly when I am wont to call on a clan leader for a favor.”

He trotted Titan to match Grania’s shorter gait as they rode out of the camp. Then he gave Kayla a roguish grin before he let the big horse break into a rolling lope.

“Okay, sweetie,” Kayla said, and touched her heels to the mare’s side. “Let’s show the boys how it’s done.”

Titan had a powerful, ground-eating gallop, but Grania had the advantage of a lighter rider and more stamina. Kayla also knew how to hold herself in the saddle to cut down on drag and best distribute her weight. After a minute they caught up with Ryan, and then moved to pass him. Titan lengthened his stride, but the mare was having none of that, and poured on the speed. Kayla let Grania run until they were a quarter-mile ahead, and then slowed her to a cooling walk.

“Oh, there you are,” she said as Ryan and Titan finally caught up to them. “We were getting worried.”

Grania whinnied as if she were laughing, and Titan gave the mare an evil look.

“You’ve raced before,” Ryan accused.

“I placed first in my academy’s annual four-forty sprint for charity.” She offered him a prim smile. “Three years in a row.”

From there they rode across the property to the north of the camp, which opened up into broad acres densely carpeted by feed grasses and clover. Kayla spotted white stacks of commercial bee hives tucked along the edges of the field. There were enough rolled bales of hay scattered along a dirt access road to keep their herd stuffed until next summer.

“This is all your land?” she asked as Ryan finally slowed the stallion at the start of a wide trail canopied by enormous weeping willows.

“It was, once.” Ryan dismounted and lifted her off Grania. “I traded it to the Cloudstar clan in return for perpetual performance rights.”

“So you can visit, but you can’t live here.” She watched him remove a large, dark sack from Titan’s saddlebag. “You can’t live anywhere but the lodge at Ashdale, can you? And I ruined that.”

“The blame for that is on the Blackstone clan.” He tucked her arm through his. “The traveling life is not so bad. We have grown accustomed to it.”

Because they had no alternative, Kayla thought, and forced a smile. “Okay, so where are you putting up the notice that you’re here?”

“Watch and see.” Ryan emptied what looked like hundreds of tiny diamonds into his palm. Just as Kayla realized they were crystals from the caves in Ashdale, her lover swung his arm back, and hurled the tiny gems at the center of the trail.

Silent explosions of light burst in the dark air. They showered the grassy path and spread over the ground as stalks made of tiny stars erupted from the soil. The enchanted plants grew into emerald vines. The climbing plants spun around the drooping greenery of the willows and began to spiral up through them. Leaves sprouted and opened along the vines, and then thousands of tiny white and amber flowers bloomed. More little stars sparkled from their centers.

Kayla smiled with delight as she smelled honeysuckle and jasmine spilling into the warm night air.

“Amazing.”

She went to one vine and touch the soft spikes of its honeysuckle blooms. The vine extended another shoot that wound gently around her fingers, making her chuckle.

“I was thinking you’d put up a flyer or something.”

“Some clans use flowers to speak in their absence.” He joined her, and touched the white blooms. “This means we have come for refuge.” His fingers shifted to the jasmine. “And this, that we ask to parlay.” He shook the vine, showering her with the little blooms.

Kayla brushed a few off her nose, but seeing the honeysuckle in her hair made her insides melt a little. Ryan always found a way to make her feel beautiful.

“This is actually pretty smart,” she said. “If the locals see it, they’ll just think they’re flowers. Can you say something simple, like hello or goodbye?”

“A sunflower left by the hidden entrance to a clan’s stronghold is a passing Fae’s greeting,” Ryan told her. “When we leave a territory, we bid farewell with lilies.”

The scent of the vines made her feel a little drowsy and, oddly, aroused. “Do you use flowers for more personal messages? Something like ‘Give me a kiss?’”

Ryan took a crystal from the sack and closed his hand over it. When he opened his fingers a delicate pink rosebud lay on his palm. He took it and stroked it across her lips.

“This means I want to kiss you.” He moved it over her chin and down to the hollow of her throat. “This, I wish to embrace you.”

Kayla glanced down to watch him circle the peak of one hard nipple poking under her shirt. Aching heat spread from her breast up her neck and flooded her cheeks.

“And that?”