Chapter 36

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

T erena stumbled only once as she ran, adrenaline fueling her body. He might not have been expecting it, but Daris was fast and she sensed him a step behind as she spurred her body faster, fear seizing her chest.

He grabbed her arm, wrenching her around. She cried out as he wrapped his other arm around her waist. Terena bucked against him, slamming her foot down on his. He swore and loosed his hold enough she whipped her hand up and punched his nose.

She turned, but he was still there, hauling her back until her back pressed against his chest, her momentum forcing him to lift her and she kicked wildly at the air.

“Stop!” he roared. Her foot connected with his shin, but still he held on. “You’re going to hurt your—Terena, for the love of the gods, stop!”

She didn’t. The fear engulfing her when she’d realized this was what she’d seen in her dream—what she’d thought was a dream—had, in fact, been a vision.

A memory.

But it had been different, too. Subtle ways that pricked at the back of her mind. Different enough she had paused. At the least, that might mean something had changed.

“Please, Terena.” He pleaded with her to stop, but now his voice was soft, desperate.

Terrified.

“Let me go,” she whimpered and hated herself for it, but she was desperate, too.

Incredibly, he complied, his arms falling away. Terena stumbled, her mind registering him backing up, and she turned. Holding her hands up in a defensive stance, Terena’s wild eyes watched him warily. Daris held his hands up in defeat, his face flushed, the hurt in his eyes almost unbearable.

“Please,” he said, wiping the blood from his nose, his voice low. The way it broke at the end made tears sting the back of her eyes.

She blinked rapidly, watching him as he panted. Her chest heaved as she gasped for air.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking,” he said, “but I will not hurt you. I would never hurt you.”

A tear slipped from her eye. He flinched at the sight of it and backed up a step.

“I don’t—” He stopped, dropping his chin and shaking his head before looking back up at her. “Go. You don’t have to run from me. If you want to leave, just… go.”

Her blood roared in her ears. Terena watched him as he backed up a few more steps. Her heart squeezed, and she wanted to cry. More blood slid from his nose and he wiped it away, shoving his other hand through his wet hair.

Her whole body shook with the need to cry, and she didn’t know why it seemed like her heart was breaking as she looked at him.

“I have… visions,” Terena said, swallowing. She had no idea why, but she wanted—needed—to explain. He deserves to know why, she thought.

“I know,” he mumbled.

Right , Terena thought.

She raised a hand, lamely gesturing at him. “One of them,” she swallowed, “it was just like this. This cave. You and me standing here. But we were different.” She wouldn’t tell him how it had felt when they’d embraced. How it had seemed the most natural thing in the world.

Daris remained silent, his gaze fixed on her, cautious yet filled with a heartbroken expression that pained her.

“You tried to kill me,” she whispered.

He winced and turned his head away. She could see from the way he took a step back she’d hurt him. Again.

She didn’t—couldn’t—speak for a long time.

Daris was still looking away when he spoke, his voice hoarse. “I would never hurt you. I cannot.”

There was a pause, but she didn’t speak.

He looked back at her and started toward her. She stiffened. He dropped his arms at his sides, defeated. “I’ve had many chances, Terena. I could have let Bethana do the job if that was what I’d wanted.”

Daris leaned forward, his face a mask of despair and passion; the power radiating off him should have scared her. The glowing blue light around them limned his pale face, and the scars across his left cheek and ear moved as he worked his jaw.

Considering everything in the past few minutes, that slight movement should have made her run as fast and as far as she could get from him—indeed, it had been her first and only instinct when realization had hit. She had power, too, but she hadn’t used it against him. Even in the dream, she hadn’t used her power and now she thought about it, she wondered why that was.

Emboldened, Daris took another step closer, his jaw tight as a muscle ticked. He narrowed his eyes. “Since I saw you in Aurora, I can’t,” he held a hand up to his chest and exhaled. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Her mouth opened and her heart slammed into her ribs.

“I don’t know what your vision showed you,” he said through gritted teeth, “but it couldn’t have been me. I know it. When Bethana attacked you, I swear to the gods, Terena, it was as if I was dying. I don’t know how I even breathed, seeing her mouth on your arm, the pain on your face, I?—”

He turned his head. Closed his eyes and took a breath. “I know it couldn’t have been me in your vision because I would give my life for you.”

Terena exhaled raggedly.

When she’d seen him at the duke’s palace, she had experienced it too. At the time, she’d thought it was an attraction simply because he’s handsome. But she remembered that feeling of… knowing him. Deep in her bones.

In her soul.

Since she’d fled Metilai and come to know Daris, the guilt ate at her for what she was feeling for him while she should have been mourning Lerek. Whom she’d loved. The man she had wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

And a voice in her heart plagued her, telling her maybe she hadn’t loved him at all.

Terena looked at Daris, vulnerable and overwhelmed. They had spent little time together, but she somehow knew more about him, who he was as a person, than she ever did about Lerek. There was no rationalizing it, and she had the sudden thought that if she had done this before, that if she was reliving this life somehow, she had, in fact, known him in that past life.

Had loved him.

That thought hollowed out her insides, and she became dizzy.

Her mind screamed at her to stop, to turn and run, but she took a step closer to him.

“Me too,” she said. “I mean, I can’t stop thinking about you, either.”

His head snapped up, his eyes blazing. But still wary.

She swallowed and waved a hand at him. “Obviously,” her laughter hitched, and she took a deep breath, “since I have dreams about you.”

That acknowledgment unlocked something inside her. The pain in her chest eased and her mind settled.

Terena wasn’t sure which of them moved first. Daris crushed her in his arms, and she wrapped hers around him, grasping, finding his head, and threading her fingers through his hair. Their kiss was wild and desperate.

Liberating.

He consumed her, greedy, her mouth opening, wanting to taste more of him, all of him. He slanted his mouth and swept his tongue inside, finding hers, teeth clashing, mouth devouring.

His hands slid to her backside, molding, caressing. Terena dropped her hands to his shoulders, to his back, and groaned.

He shuddered as he tore his mouth from her, but she leaned in, hungry for his lips, for more.

He gripped her hips and set her away, his forehead dropping to hers as they panted. Her hands moved to his chest, flexing against the muscles under his leather, wanting to feel his flesh.

“Ren,” he gasped, his eyes closed as he shook his head against hers. “You’re hurt. We should stop. I don’t want?—”

Terena pulled back and nodded, closing her eyes. She opened them again to see his eyes searching her face. Those beautiful eyes she couldn’t stop looking at every time he was near. She gasped out a laugh and his lips twitched up in answer.

“I don’t… there’s no pain.” She laughed again. “At least, not there.”

His smile widened and the heat in her chest dropped low in her belly.

“All right, but,” he said, closing his eyes for a few seconds. “We can’t… here. Not here and not now with you… and your leg. Your arm.”

“Some god I turned out to be, huh?”

Terena tipped her chin up and kissed him again and for a minute she thought she’d won that argument, but he pulled back with a grimace. “And as much as I want to, as much as I’m dying to, if Rydon shows up and sees us like this, it’d be a pity to kill him.”

Terena threw her head back and laughed.

Daris, too, chuckled, hugging her close as he buried his head in her neck. She closed her eyes and savored him here, with her.

“You can’t kill him, remember?” she teased and stroked the back of his neck .

They stayed like that for a long time.

Forever.

And not long enough.

As if he’d conjured him, Terena heard Rydon and the others shouting from above, their voices faint. Daris groaned and pulled back. Terena lifted her hands to his cheeks, her eyes devouring his face, the powerful lines of his jaw, his brow furrowed over those gorgeous eyes narrowing on her as if she was the only thing that existed.

She pulled away slowly, his hands tightening at her waist for a moment before he let go. Daris ducked his head as he took a step back, then lifted his gaze as if bashful. The giddiness sweeping through her made her lightheaded, and she tossed her head, her wet hair slapping the side of her neck.

Terena frowned at how much of her hair had come loose from the tie, some strands stuck to her cheeks and neck. She undid the hair tie and lifted her arms to pull all of her hair up and retied it securely below the crown of her head.

“Ready,” she said.

“I need a minute,” he muttered. Terena laughed and put a hand to her mouth, even as her cheeks flamed when he shifted uncomfortably.

A long time later, he offered her his arm. She took it, hugging close to his side as they turned to leave the cave. Her leg didn’t bother her at all and neither did her arm, even after all that activity. Terena marveled again at the blood tonic Melanos had made for her. Glad Croak had made her drink it.

Terena looked up at Daris with a shy smile he returned.

“Say nothing,” she said impulsively as the voices of their friends became louder, singsonging her name or Daris’s. “Not about—I mean, about the vision. I don’t want them knowing. Especially Rydon. Or Croak. Gods know what he’d do.”

Daris scowled. “They know already. Croak… mentioned it yesterday.”

Terena swore. “Is that why Rydon looked like he wanted to murder you? ”

“There you are!” Croak exclaimed, then frowned at Terena, arms crossed, when he saw how close Daris stood.

“You’re okay? Not hurt?” he asked her, his eyes searching her face. Gabriol and Rydon ambled over, but the natural beauty of the cave captivated their eyes, a sight she was sure they’d not seen before if the looks on their faces were any indication.

Rydon cast a wary glance at Daris, but had only smiles for Terena when he turned back to her.

“All good?” he asked.

“Aye, I’m fine,” she reassured them. “We went for a walk, not to slay any serpents.”

“Ha. Ha.” Croak said with thick sarcasm.

“I feel tired, though,” Terena said, although she was anything but. She was exhilarated, her smile wide enough to hurt. She caught Rydon’s eye and her smile slipped. “We should go back. You stay, if you want. Daris can walk me back.”

Rydon and Croak both vetoed that option, and they all turned to walk back to Melanos’s cave.

Terena took Croak’s proffered arm, listening as the others chatted around her. A million thoughts chased each other in her mind.

What did it mean that her vision—a memory—had been different? She should have asked Pytho more about?—

Pytho .

Terena stopped, the blood draining from her face.

“Pytho!”

Terena told everyone of the vision she’d had of Pytho, and her fear something had happened to the oracle. They’d all agreed to leave in the morning and talk to the king as soon as they had returned.

Standing near the cave entrance, Terena had tried to pull Melanos through the cave but it hadn’t worked. Whatever she needed to do to free the god, she either didn’t yet have the power or she needed something else to make it happen .

A thought had popped into her head. “Perhaps the oracle knows of a way to free you. On our way back north I’ll come back and try again.”

Melanos had looked at her with a frown and a shake of his head. She hadn’t the time to try to convince him of her word but she vowed she would return. Whether or not he chose to wasn’t something she had time to worry about.

The trip back to Sparta took the better part of a fortnight. Terena had not healed enough despite having another round of the disgusting drink from Rydon’s blood. A part of her had almost felt weird drinking it in front of Daris, so she’d snuck away for some privacy and taken the drink with her. While it helped her recover much of her strength, it still hadn’t healed her wounds as quickly as Melanos had claimed it should.

Something else she needed to ask Pytho about.

The late morning sun beat down on them when they finally made it to the city. The day promised to be beautiful, a cloudless sky with the sun bright, but with a bite in the air that spoke of autumn. As they crested a hill overlooking the city, Jason called out.

Below them, four soldiers on horseback thundered toward them and Terena shifted her eyes to Daris. He was frowning, looking not at the soldiers, but beyond. Terena followed his gaze to the city walls and squinted. She could see movement on the wall walks.

“What’s going on?” Croak asked.

Daris urged his horse on, and they all followed. The soldiers slowed when they neared. One man pulled off his helmet and bowed his head at Daris.

“Commander, one of our scouts caught sight of your return. The king is asking to see you at once.”

“What’s happened?” Daris asked as the others reined their horses a respectful distance away.

The soldier looked at the others and pursed his lips. He dismounted and a second later, Daris did the same. While they conferred, Terena shot a look at Rydon, who looked back at her, his mouth pinched .

Daris strode back to his horse and mounted. “Heylisia attacked from Elis,” he said. His face was tight, and Terena could see a muscle in his neck jump. He flicked a glance at her before he addressed his men. “They captured Messene and took the oracle.”

Everyone spoke at once. Or rather, shouted. Terena surged forward on Nyx, her hand clasping Daris’s forearm. He spared a glance at her, patting her hand with his before he roared for silence.

“Terena and I will go to the palace,” he said, then turned to Rydon. “I need you and your men to gather your things. We’ll meet you at the Champions Gate and then we ride for Messene.”

“Wait, what?” Terena demanded. She shook her head, casting a look at Rydon, then Croak before turning back to Daris. “No. No, I can’t do that. We can’t do that, Daris.”

“What are we even going to do in Messene,” Rydon asked, his arms wide. “Is the oracle even there still?”

“We’re wasting time,” Daris snapped. He turned his mount and Terena’s hand slid away. “You need to come with me, now, to the palace.”

There was no speaking to him after that. Daris spurred his stallion and his men followed, leaving Terena to gape at his retreating back. She swiveled her wide-eyed gaze to Rydon, her mouth slack.

“What the fuck?”

“Fuck!” Rydon slammed his hand on his thigh.

“Let’s get our shit and meet them at the gate,” Croak said, his voice shaking. “We can leave them in Messene and head north from there, right?”

“We can’t!” Terena yelled, then swallowed. She turned in the saddle to face Croak. “Pytho’s in this mess because of me, I’m sure of it. And then there’s my promise to Melanos I’d get him out of that fucking cave!”

Terena threw her head back and screamed, her hands on her head. Nyx shifted uneasily beneath her. “Gods! Give me a break already!”

She opened her eyes and huffed, glancing around at the others. “Let’s go. Fuck!”

Terena turned Nyx and raced after the Liodari.