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Chapter Fourteen
“Don't keep a man guessing too long—he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.”
—Mae West
“All right?” Andros asked, turning back slightly to look over his shoulder.
“Perfect!” Divina chirped, full of good cheer.
She was finishing the last of the cheese and fruit the centaurs procured on their way out of Thessaly, along with dried meat, sweet wine and fresh skins of water.
It gave him a soul-deep satisfaction to feed his woman, to take care of her. Make her happy. For, she brightened his spirit just by being here with him. Just by existing.
He wondered if she would ever feel the same for him.
He’d let Chiron know that he would ride ahead with Divina to the foothills of the Pelion Mountains. The general told him of a small stream that led to a waterfall tucked into the base. They would all meet there to camp for the night.
But for now, he would enjoy a couple hours of privacy with his female. He needed it.
He neededher.
There were so many things he wanted to know about her. So many questions he wanted to ask. But Andros had never spent much time in the company of others. He’d been alone his whole life. The words he wanted to say stayed stuck in his throat, all jumbled in their eagerness to get out.
So, he said nothing. Merely enjoying the weight of her upon his back. Swaying in sync with his smooth strides as if she was an extension of his body.
As if they were one.
“It’s so beautiful out here,” she mused as she wiped her hands on her tunic.
He turned to find her looking up at the star-filled sky, her head tilted back in awe and pleasure.
“Do you have such views from whence you come?”
Finally, he managed to get a coherent thought out. Perhaps this would not be so difficult after all.
She nodded and replied, “It’s different though.”
“I’m from a place called the Celestial Realm. Everything is fantastical and gorgeous there. And in the Celestial Palace where the Jade Emperor lives, there’s a clear glass dome at the very top. So high, you feel like you’re looking beyond the sky and into the stratosphere.”
Andros did not understand the last term, but he could guess its meaning. It was a place beyond the mortal realm perhaps.
Beyond his ken.
“There are countless stars and planets and galaxies, all swirling around on the other side of that dome. Time has no meaning, spinning so fast, forward and backward. And inching slowly too, all at once.”
“I cannot imagine it,” he murmured.
Was Olympus where the gods lived like this place she described? Even with the magical creatures of these lands that Andros heard of or encountered, the Celestial Realm sounded incredible. Unreal.
Beyond his reach.
Was Divina, too, beyond his reach? Was this why she couldn’t give herself fully to him?
“But…” she started, then trailed off, as if gathering her thoughts.
“These skies and these hills are just as beautiful in their own way. I prefer these lands to the Celestial Realm, actually. And that’s rather shocking coming from me, because I’m nothing if not extravagant and over the top.”
This she said with a rueful chuckle.
