“Our roles intertwine, and I wanted then, and I still want now, for her to be happy here. That’s what you were picking up on.”
“I know. But for a while, I had convinced myself that she was going to be the one you fell for. After all those years of watching you rebuff the female centaurs, I had let myself hope.” He swallowed. “But I just decided if that was your path, I would try to be happy for you. Though I have to say I’m glad things didn’t work out that way.”
I chuckled and ran my fingers along his shoulder. “About Faye, there is something I haven’t told you. I’m surprised she hasn’t said anything. In fact, if roles were reversed, you would have brought it up a dozen times by now.”
His eyebrows jumped up. “What would that be?”
“Faye was the one who goaded me into talking with you. The day we left Trinity Peaks, she pulled me off to the side and basically said she knew I was in love with you and that I was being a coward.”
Alec dropped back against the bench. “I remember you two slipping away. It was one of the many things that convinced me you were in love with each other. Well, now you know why I was so surprised when you told me.”
“I thought you were horrified.”
He kissed the corner of my jaw. The softness of his hair contrasted against the scratch of his unshaved skin. “I was just shocked. It was like having this one dream your entire life and you know it will never happen. And then someone just handed it to you one day over breakfast like it was a mug of cider. And to think, Faye was the catalyst.”
“Well, I’m sure you can come up with a colorful way to thank her if you feel so inclined.”
“If she isn’t afraid of me.” He sighed.
“Alec,” I whispered.
“I’m not offended. But I hate that I’m triggering whatever is causing her to struggle right now.”
I frowned. “And now we come back around to what I was out here thinking about. I hate having no solution. I don’t know how to protect her from her own mind.”
Alec rested his chin on my shoulder, a dimple showing in one cheek. “Well, I don’t have an answer for you, but if you come back to bed, I believe I know a method of getting your mind off things for a while at least.”
I huffed a laugh and stood up, following him back to our room.
Fog curled around the hills of the forest, the sun peeking over the top of the mountain in the distance, lighting up the mist that draped like a veil hovering over the earth. The tents of the protector’s camps glowed in the morning light.
Telanes approached. “I was hoping I could speak with you alone for a moment.”
“All right,” I said.
He nodded to the path away from the camp. Moss crawled along the dark dirt by our feet, trees bowing towards the earth. Telanes tucked his hands behind his back. His eyes drifted out ahead. “Faye can’t continue to be involved with any skirmishes or weapon drills for now.”
“I agree.”
He nodded. “She needs time to heal and recover.”
“Do you know what might help her?”
“I’ve seen beings go through similar things before. I’m afraid the path to recovery is not simple or linear.”
“But you know some things that might help her?”
“Perhaps a bit,” he said.
Telanes had always been far too humble. “Would you work with her some? I don’t wish to disrupt your training or the plans you had for the group, but if you could help, I would appreciate it.”
“Of course. I can keep my training up in the evenings if necessary.”
I sighed. “We’ve both had to do too much of that.”
“Mmm,” he said.
“One day this war will be resolved. Gods willing, we can move on with our lives out of these camps. This is no lifestyle to keep up for years on end.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Do you truly wish for that? To leave the protectors?”
“More now than ever,” I said. “Do you not?”
“I’ve always wished for that,” he said.
Alec’s fiddle soared and hummed through the evening air. Faye sat hunched in her cloak, but Telanes spoke to her in a hushed voice and her expression held an ease for the first time in weeks.
My father stepped into camp. “Son.”
I rose and clasped his hand. “Father? Is all well?”
He moved away from the light and group members and I followed him. “I’m well. But I have a message.”
“From who?”
“From Marious, the crown prince of the merfolk.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What does he want?”
My father’s eyes glistened with his own curiosity. “Faye.”
8
Faye
Wind whipped through my hair as we flew on the sun chariot over an ocean of indigo clouds splashed in the oranges and blushes of morning light.
“I’ve heard the merprince is quite attractive,” Scyla said to me over Daron, who rolled his eyes.
“Who cares what he looks like?” Orlo said.
“I do, clearly,” Scyla said with a smirk.
Orlo made a sound in the back of his throat. “Are you telling me you would actually find a merfolk attractive?”
She cocked her head to the side, her black braid sliding over her warm brown skin. “Oh, absolutely. Attractive is attractive. I don’t care about race.”
“Whatever, Scyla,” Orlo said.
“Judgement coming from someone who has never been with a being outside his own race is really going to break my heart.”
“I never said I haven’t been with a being who wasn’t my race.”
Scyla laughed. “No, I just did.”
They continued squabbling, but I turned towards Daron. “What do you not like about the merfolk?”
“Merfolk are known to be slippery.”
My lips parted with a snapping sound. “You always judge the water types as suspicious or slippery or self-righteous.”
He narrowed his eyes. “They often prove themselves to be that.”
“Am I that way?” The words had more heat behind them than I had felt in weeks. Daron’s eyes widened. “I’ll remind you some of those slippery water types helped save all of our lives not that long ago.”
The chariot landed with a chuff in the sand and I stepped out. Irritation prickled all over me. Daron was always making snap judgments about people before meeting them. God, I was glad I couldn’t read his mind. I’d hate to know what he actually thought of me.
My hands tingled with heat, with magic. The last time they had done that was at the battlefield. My throat tightened, and I took a shaky breath of the briny air.
A small group stood on the shore, waves lapping behind them. Each person in the group had a brutal beauty about them. Where the selkies stood slim and elegant with cool features, the merfolk were muscled with tanned and dark skin that glistened in the rays of sun that filtered through the clouds. Gold and green scales covered the fabric of their clothing. They wore silky golden capes lined with netting. Long, sharp-edged weapons peeked over some of their shoulders, the blades glinting.