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“Then why would she send me?” I asked. A glimmer of what Carnon might be suggesting had wriggled to the forefront of my mind, but it seemed so ridiculous that I pushed it away.
“Because,” Carnon replied slowly, clearly uncertain he should voice this theory. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it either, but he steeled his resolve and looked at me with grim conviction. “She was sending you to your father.”
Chapter 21
“You suspected,” I said, angrily undressing after trudging back to the Sacred City in the miserable downpour that had caught us unaware as we left the temple.
I had refused to speak to Carnon about his theory until we returned, needing time to mull it over and inspect it from all angles. The more I did so, the more likely it seemed. It also seemed unlikely that a single passage in a book could have driven Carnon to this conclusion.
“Yes,” Carnon said, his own voice quiet and pleasant, refusing to be baited by my anger. “For a while, I’ve suspected your father to be a demon. But the idea that he might be King Alaunus only occurred to me a few days ago. I didn’t want to tell you until I had something to back the theory.”
“One paragraph in a crumbling old book is not really solid evidence,” I argued, throwing down my sodden bodice and cloak with a wet thwack on the floor.
“True,” Carnon replied. “We need your mother to confirm of course. You don’t really look anything like Alaunus.”
He pulled off his wet shirt, the glory of all of his tanned muscles and tattoos on display, and for a moment I stilled to admire him. He quirked a brow at me and prowled over, running firm hands down my arms and kissing my brow tenderly.
“Why does this bother you?” he asked, raising a hand to my cheek and lifting my face to look at him. “Alaunus was a good male. If he was your father—”
“Was,” I repeated, emphasizing the word. “If hewasmy father, he’s dead now, yes?”
Carnon’s gaze softened as understanding seemed to hit him. He stroked a thumb over my cheekbone tenderly. “I can tell you about him,” he offered, stepping a little closer. “I know it’s not the same as knowing him, but it’s not nothing.”
He dropped his forehead to mine as a frustrated tear slipped down my cheek, catching on his thumb. He made a little sympathetic noise, wiping the moisture away with the pad of his thumb. “No tears, my love.”
“Why?” I croaked out, feeling the flood of emotion in me grow. My mother was a prisoner, my father was dead, and I was filled with power and possibly a destiny I didn’t understand. At that moment, I needed something I could wrap my mind around and embrace, and the question bubbled out of me before I had time to decide if I really wanted the answer. “Why do you love me?”
Carnon hummed, a sound of contemplation and mild amusement as he brushed away another tear. “Because you are brave.” He bent and kissed my cheek, then lifted his head to look me in the eyes as he continued. “And you are strong.” Another kiss, another swipe of tears. “And you are curious and demanding and funny and kind.” A kiss to my lips this time. “And I think even if you hadn’t been my mate, I would have loved you anyway.”
I looked into his eyes and saw the truth of his words, felt them thrum in the necklace against my breast and the warm ball of something in my chest. And I decided to stop pretending they weren’t my truths too.
I kissed him, rising on my toes and wrapping my arms around his neck as he responded, pulling me close to him and sweeping that wicked forked tongue into my mouth.
“Elara,” he murmured as he pulled back, just far enough that he could see my face. “We are going to find your mother. I made you a promise, a blood bargain, that I would help you, and I intend to keep it. You will not lose both of your parents.”
“I know,” I replied, moving my hands to his bare chest. I stroked a thumb over the mark of the Horned God there. “I trust you.”
“How times have changed,” Carnon said with a wry smile. He covered my hand with his, the one not still on my cheek. “Do you really?”
I nodded, feeling like words might fail me if I tried to speak them.
“Stay with me, Elara,” Carnon breathed, looking at me with an intensity I now saw carried all of his feelings, his love. “Build a life with me here. Help me rule and protect my people, our people. Stay.”
I bit my lip as I met his emerald gaze. Whatever I said next felt like it would mean more, mean something permanent and binding between us, so I chose my words carefully.
“Only if you catch me first.”
???
He gave me a ten-minute head start. It was still raining, and I hadn’t bothered with my already sodden cloak and bodice, opting for agility and speed over propriety. I knew how this was supposed to end, after all, and I didn’t think Carnon would mind me wearing less.
I scrambled through the trees as fast as I could, mud and water splashing up my legs from the forest floor. The rain had stopped, but the ground was still muddy and wet, which would make for an interesting ending to all of this. I noticed that the moon was full, as I had suspected it might be. Claiming happened under the full moon, the symbol of rebirth for both witches and demons. For some reason I felt with a bone-deepknowingthat this was supposed to happen, this way and this night.
After twenty minutes, I paused to listen. I leaned against a tree, trying to steady my breathing and my pounding heart. I knew Carnon wouldn’t call my name. He wouldn’t give away his position or alert his prey so easily. So I listened, trying to detect the faint sound of boots through the trees. If he was even wearing boots. He might have opted to go barefoot for greater stealth.
Thinking this was probably a smart idea, I took mine off, grimacing a little at the cold mud as I squelched into it. I heard a branch crack as my shadow stone necklace warmed. I moved, running at full speed in the opposite direction, in case it was Carnon.
He had warned me how this would go before I ran. “I will not stop. I will not give way,” he’d said, giving me that serious, piercing stare, his hands gripping my arms firmly. His heart rate had kicked up, and I could feel his eagerness, pressed up against him as I was. “I’ll become a beast, Elara. I will claim you hard and fast, like a beast would. Are you sure you can handle that?”
