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Even so, I fell asleep with a finger to my lips, smiling.
CHAPTER 26
All that week, I feltlighter than I had in a very long time.
Vesper and I were quiet around each other. But there were stolen glances. Small touches. A whisper here and there.
Draven ignored it all, out of annoyance or grace I wasn’t sure. It didn’t really matter. I was grateful. Three was suddenly a very awkward number.
We rode through the day and reached Orin’s Gate just as the sun was beginning to set.
After weeks of traveling amongst the lush dense forest, today the landscape had finally begun to change, giving way to more open and rocky terrain.
Now we stood on a cliff's edge, overlooking the city. A mountainous panorama stretched out before us as far as I could see, with jagged peaks like troll's teeth jutting upwards towards the sky.
The capital city of Cerunnos sprawled out beneath us. Orin’s Gate was mostly a jumble of sturdy stone and wood buildings, but there were a few more imposing structures including ornate spires that stretched skywards. Smokestacks from the gold and copper mines that surrounded the city and brought Orin's Gate its wealth belched out thick plumes of smoke that trailed high above the buildings. Even from this distance, I could see the streets swarming with activity, with merchants hawking their wares and horse-drawn carts laden with ore moving through the streets.
I snuck a glance at Draven but he was already reining the piebald around. With a sigh, I followed as he led the way back down the cliff and away from the city.
We rode hard until we’d used up the remaining daylight, Draven clearly wanting to get us as far away as possible from the crowded city. We followed the fae road as it made a broad arch around Orin’s Gate and led back into a slightly less dense woodland, skirting along the mountain range that lay beyond the city and to the west.
When we made camp that night, we had reached the border of Cerunnos. The next day we would ride through the Bloodlands. A few days after that, we would reach Valtain.
Supper that night was a quick affair. Draven looked more exhausted than usual and after a quick glance at me, retired to his bedroll, lying down some distance away with his back to us while Vesper and I remained by the fire.
For a while Vesper strummed his lute.
The music was soothing at first, but gradually the melody intensified, the notes weaving a plaintive song that made me feel a deep and aching longing. I couldn't take my eyes off Vesper, everything else fading into the background as he plucked the strings of his instrument.
There was something otherworldly about the way he played. The music seemed to reach into my very soul, beguiling and bewitching me.
He seemed to be lost in his own music as well. His eyes closed and and his head tilted back, as his fingers moved faster and faster over the strings of the lute.
Eventually, he set the lute aside, rose and crossed over to the log I was sitting on. “May I?”
I scooted over and he sat down, closer than he needed to. So close our thighs pressed together.
