Page 49 of Hearts Lost

ALOSERIN

I HAVE SECRETS TOO

Iturn and wave my arms at Ithronel.

“I don’t see anything,” I call, although she probably can’t hear me over the roar of the water.

There is, of course, quite a bit up here. There’s a broad stretch of chattering river, overhanging trees whose pale branches almost sweep the swirling foam-tipped waves, and a lot of craggy, exposed rock. None of it is even remotely defensible. None of it is worth describing in screams over the lip of a waterfall.

Ithronel smiles and waves her arms at me as rainbows dance through the mist between us. Voids, she is so beautiful. Something snags inside my chest and pulls tight, like it’s caught on a fish hook, and I decide I’ve seen enough of the top of the waterfall. I’ve spent enough time away from Ithronel’s smile, from her laugh, from the warmth between her legs.

My eyes catch on a spot near the center of the waterfall where the river dives straight down, like an arrow, plunging into a churning pool. Above the cataract, a bare knob of stone protrudes like a guard tower.

Something flutters beneath my ribcage; I feel almost giddy. Voids, when was the last time I felt this way? When was the last time life seemed so filled with pleasure, every waterfall an opportunity to dive, every grassy bank along the river a place to make love?

I reach the bare stone outcrop and lean over, staring into the plunging waterfall. It’s not a tremendous drop, and the water beneath the falls looks deep and clear. Still, my gut tightens with a delicious combination of fear and excitement. I turn to Ithronel, grinning.

“— madman!” she yells back at me, most of her words swallowed by the roar of the water but her meaning perfectly clear.

I wave back at her, cheerfully agreeing with her assessment, then twist my fingers in the hem of my shirt. Ithronel’s wild, whooping cheer cuts through the mist. And a wicked, wicked idea flares inside my mind like a match held to dry parchment.

I turn back and look over my shoulder. Ithronel is staring at me like she wants to lick every part of me, like she wants to utterly devour me, and voids, have I ever felt so beautifully alive before this moment?

Still, this wicked idea of mine is stupid. Ridiculous. It’s the kind of thing I’d never even dared to think back in the Crystal City. But, voids, I never would have tied up a woman in the Crystal City, and that had been amazing. Why not take it further? What is there out here to stop me?

I raise my eyes to the gloriously empty violet-tinged air of the void and then brush my fingers across the somewhat ragged remains of my Royal Guard uniform. When I reach the hem, I lift the edge of my shirt very, very slowly. Ithronel cheers again, then again, as I pull the fabric over my chest and back with exquisite slowness, trying to remember all the details of the few stripteases I’ve seen in my long career with the Royal Guard.

When I bring the shirt to my shoulders, I spin on the stone and wiggle my hips. Part of my mind insists that I look like a damned fool, but that part is quickly drowned out by Ithronel’s wild screams. I let my shirt drop to the stone as my heart hammers inside my chest. My eyes meet Ithronel’s, she howls in fierce, erotic approval, and what the hell? Why not take this all the way?

I grin, flush with feral excitement, as I drop my hands to my waist. I untie my lacings slowly, thrusting my hips against the air in time to Ithronel’s cheers, and then slide my pants down over my thighs.

It’s a good striptease, damn it. I’ve never done anything even remotely similar to this in my entire life, but by the voids, this is fun. My cock pulses as I kick out of my pants, and I spin around, showing Ithronel exactly what she’s been asking for, standing naked at the top of this waterfall, wiggling my hips, thrusting my cock, and giving the woman I’m going to fuck absolutely senseless today a grand finale.

Someone coughs.

It’s loud. It’s deliberate. And it’s directly behind me. I freeze as all the warmth and light and sensual pleasure drain from my world.

“Uh, maybe this isn’t a good time,” a man says.

No. Oh, no. Shame and horror slam me face-first into a stone wall. Because I know that voice, voids damn it.

I turn around, grab the clothes I’d just dropped in another reality, and force myself to look Rowan Sans fucking Evenworth in the eye. High on the list of people I never wanted to see again, and quite possibly the very last person I’d ever want to watch me strip, Rowan is standing at the river’s edge with his arms crossed over his chest and a shit-eating grin on his face.

He saw everything. Of course, Rowan saw everything.

“The fuck—” I manage to stammer.

And then the branches behind Rowan are waving, and someone else splashes into the shallow water swirling around the lip of the waterfall. Orryen. My best friend, the man I’d thought might have died in the teleportation hub explosion. My vision goes blurry as the world tilts around me. Ithronel’s voice cuts through the mist, screaming my name, as Orryen splashes forward and clasps my arm.

“Thank the voids you’re alive,” Orryen says.

There are more people behind him, I realize numbly. Princess Elanerill and Lythienne and that madwoman from the Worlds Above who’d traded her heart for Rowan’s freedom. They’re all wearing packs, and weapons, and they’re all looking at me with varying levels of shock and concern.

“Do you have the woman in your custody?” Orryen asks.

I blink. He’s frowning at me like this is a very important question, but my mind feels stuffed with cotton. The roar of the waterfall is suddenly very, very loud, but not quite loud enough to drown out Ithronel’s frantic screaming. Of my name.

“I— Yes,” I answer, tilting my head toward the edge of the waterfall. “She’s down there.”