AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My gaze lowered to his lap, and I swear his trousers tented under my attention, except he stepped back and turned away before I could be certain.
“We need to get going,” he said with authority.
Right. “Your mother,” I remembered.
If she died now before we made it to her, I’d blame myself. I didn’t want to do that, so I hurried through breakfast. Afterward, I prepared for travel and climbed onto Caramel, startled when Farrow appeared at my side to help me up.
“Thank you,” I told him, not quite able to smile when I glanced down from the horse-top and saw his turbulent countenance. “We’ll save her,” I assured him. “I have faith.”
He didn’t speak, clearly not sharing my trust in our destiny, but he nodded and climbed onto Mint.
We rode through most of the morning in relative silence. At one point, I patted my bare wrists and gasped. “I think the mages stole my jewelry. I don’t recall seeing my wrist guards in my bags when I was changing this morning.”
“Oh,” Farrow rumbled, his voice rough from lack of talking. “I saw them in mine.” He opened a flap on the pack hanging from the side of Mint’s shoulder. After digging his hand in for a while, he pulled one of the guards free. “I believe your necklace and hairpin are in here, too.”
“Excellent.” I rode closer to accept the jewelry as he passed everything over, one item at a time. “Though I wonder why they put them in with your things.”
He shrugged and squinted off into the horizon through the trees as if to ascertain the time. “More room over here, maybe,” he guessed before adding, “We should reach the Cull late this afternoon. Make sure I check on your tattoo before we board the ferry. I might need to touch up the coverage.”
“Of course,” I agreed, easily. “Is the ferry usually crowded with people?”
“Depends,” he said. “We may be the only riders for a spell, or there could be dozens. Some may join or disembark later at other stops.”
“I’ve never been on a ferry,” I blurted, feeling as if I should say more.
My nerves had been eating at me since morning, which shouldn’t be surprising. I’d spent the entirety of yesterday being more intimate with this man than I’d ever been with anyone. Yet today, he could barely look me in the eye. I didn’t want that to crush my soul, but it kind of did anyway.
I wanted him to love me because he loved me, dammit, not because some aphrodisiac had forced him to.
And he probably wanted the same assurance: real affection from me, not something forced from my mark.
Oh! In a flash, I suddenly understood exactly how he probably felt every time I tried to tell him the mark had chosen him, and he adamantly denied its validity.
“I’ve never been on a ferry either,” he said, just as I randomly asked, “Do you want me to remove my mark?”
He startled. “What?”
“What?” We both spoke together the next time as he repeated the word more forcefully.
“Really?” I asked a moment later. “You’ve never been on a ferry either? Well, that makes me feel—”
“What’re you talking about, remove your mark?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure, but there must be some way to get them off. Cut out that section of tattooed skin maybe, or—”
“Like hell you’ll mutilate yourself like that,” he exploded angrily. “It would hurt like a son of a bitch.”
“Probably,” I agreed. “But if it’s what you need for me to do to prove to you that I love you regardless of the mark, then I’m willing.”
“You—” His throat worked through a difficult-looking swallow. Then his voice went hoarse. “That’s the first time you’ve said that to me on this journey.”
“What?” A crinkle worked between my brows. “That I love you? Of course, I’ve said it before.” I thought the words constantly. I was sure I’d have mentioned them aloud at some point or another. “I mean…” I squinted, trying to remember. But I couldn’t, so I tilted my head, curious. “Are you quite certain I haven’t said it?”
He nodded. “Yes. Positive. You said it the night we met, right after you freed me from the chains. But not once since then, not since you left Donnelly with me.”
“Really? How odd. Well...” Moving past that, I said, “I do. I’ve always loved you. From the beginning. And every day, it grows and changes. Every new thing I learn about you only makes me love you more, in different ways. Even the things I find irritating, like the fact that you can’t just let scorpions have poor grammar or that you refused to lie with me for so long under some misguided notion that you’re actually protecting me, or the way you only whistle when you relieve yourself.”
His frame jerked in surprise, so I explained, “It’s most frustrating. I think you do it to drown out the sound of the urine, but you create such a fetching tune. I want to listen to more, except bam, you finish your task in moments and the whistle is gone. And yet I still love you, even though you deny me your musical whistle, because even your most distressing qualities only help me know and understand you better.”
