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Magnus almost grinned, but a warning look from her blue eyes, which looked ready to storm, brought his grin to a sudden halt.
“You think to have your vengeance at any cost, you have planned for it, counted on it, and now the time is here and you can almost taste the victory. But you failed to realize one thing.”
Magnus waited in silence, curious as to what she thought he failed to consider.
“You failed to realize that falling in love changes everything. Now there is a reason for concern, for there is a person who loves you with all her heart and worries over your safety, praying every day that you remain well and alive, praying that she will share a long life with you. And when that is considered, then vengeance can be more costly than you thought possible and victory bitter in its futility.”
She pushed his hands off her and took a step closer. “I love you and will do whatever is necessary not to lose you, so do not tell me that keeping me ignorant to your plans is better for my safety, for there is no safety in ignorance.”
With a brief shake of his head and a slow smile surfacing, Magnus stared at the strong-willed woman he loved with an intensity that sometimes frightened him. “You are a rare woman.”
“Nay, I but speak my mind more often than most women.”
“And why do you think that is?” he asked, wanting to understand what made her different and thus all the more appealing to him.
She rested a hand over his heart and he covered her hand with his, sending a warmth of emotions racing through them.
After a brief moment of considering his question, Reena answered. “I think it is because I thought little of wedding and pleasing a man. I thought more about myself and what I wished to do, wished to accomplish, so therefore I could speak my mind without thought of offending a possible husband. I lived more for myself.”
“How can you say that when you placed yourself in danger, traveling to my land for the sake of all the tenants?”
“That was for the good of the whole, not one person. I had the foresight to see that there was a way that could possibly rectify a horrible situation. It would have been wrong of me not to at least attempt to try.” She shrugged. “Besides, I wished a bit of my own adventure. My mapping trips had been solely with my father, and my trip to your land was solely on my own, the beginning of my own mapping quests.”
“And that is the life you envisioned for yourself? A dangerous one?”
“Not if I mapped for the Legend.” She was fast to correct with a smile.
“So you came to find menot onlyfor me to help your village but also to help free you to follow your dream?”
Her smile turned soft and she nodded. “And I found what I never expected or sought.”
“Love,” he said and leaned down to brush his lips across her moist ones. “That will never confine.”
“Not so,” she whispered before she tasted his lips. “You confine me when you do not share your plans.”
“Try to understand, Reena,” he said as though he pleaded with her. “I watched helpless as Robert Kilkern abused my mother and could do nothing. I will not have the same happen to you. If by chance I should suffer at Kilkern’s hands, then it is me who suffers—”
“Nay,” she said adamantly, tears rushing to fill her eyes as she pulled away from him. “I suffer along with you.”
She silenced any opposition with a gentle finger to his lips. “Aye, for that is love. I feel what you feel. I fear what you fear. I ache when you ache. I suffer when you suffer. Love will have it no other way, for we are part of each other, you and I. So do not tell me I will not feel your pain if you are made to suffer, for I know you will feel mine, therefore it remains for us both to protect, for in protecting one, we protect the other.”
He eased her finger away from his lips and held her hand in his. “I understand what you try to say to me, but my way is to protect what is mine—”
“You are mine, can I not protect you?” She sounded impatient and a bit fearful.
Magnus kept his patience. “Reena, listen to what you say. How can you ever protect me?”
She stepped away from him and pounded her fisted hand lightly to her chest. “By making me aware of everything that goes on, by trusting me, by loving me.”
“I do trust you and love you, but I believe that there are things you should not know for your own safety, and that is the way it must be. You must understand that and accept it.”
She stared at him and refused to shed the tears that gathered like a raging storm in her eyes. She could not speak, the lump in her throat constricting her voice, her stomach growing upset. She shook her head, choked back her tears, and fled the room as if being chased.
Magnus did not try to stop her; when she calmed down she would come to understand his decision and accept it. He thought on the wisdom of her words and realized how deeply she loved him, and he hoped that when she thought onhiswords she would realize how deeplyheloved her.
Her tears blurring her vision, Reena could barely see the steps down which she fled. She was grateful when she entered her room and latched the door behind her. She flung herself on the bed and let herself cry long and hard, hoping the tears would ease her aching heart.
She did not hear the first tap on the door. The second was more a knock, and she sniffled, coughed and wiped away the last remnant of tears before answering it. Her hand was on the latch before she realized it could be Magnus, and at the moment she did not wish to speak with him, especially after crying. She did not care if her eyes were swollen from her torrent of tears—she cared that he would know that their disagreement upset her terribly.
