Free 03 - Sworn by Kate Sparkes

which should be helpful.”
    I nodded at the thin white bandage wrapped around his right hand. “Was that part of taking care of it?”
    “It’s nothing.” He held up his hand to wiggle his fingers, as though that proved the point. “You’ve seen how Nox fusses. I would have been fine.” I narrowed my eyes at him, and he smiled. “Nice to see that Patience is still your friend even now that you’re using your real name.”
    “Oh, yes. She’s going to be my source of information, you know. I have to get in good with the locals.”
    Aren smirked at my facetious tone. “Your big assignment. Are you disappointed?”
    I shrugged. I didn’t want to admit to him how being overlooked undercut my confidence. “Should I be?”
    “No. You should be glad you don’t have to sit with him at meals. Come here.”
    I stood and shuffled sideways to the door in two steps, and he pulled me close. He smelled of heavy smoke and something herbal that reminded me of Nox’s potions the night after we’d escaped Ardare. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered.
    “What, since you saw me at supper?”
    “Mmm-hmm. It’s been far too long. I’d have come here with you earlier, but my father—”
    “I know.” The situation left much to be desired, but at least I had him for the moment, and everyone else was safe. Well, everyone I knew about.
    “Not to change the subject,” I said, “but you haven’t seen Florizel around yet, have you?”
    “No. I wouldn’t expect to.”
    I leaned back. “Do you think she’s gone for good? I told her to escape, but...”
    “She’s a flying horse, and flight is in her nature in more ways than one. Her instinct is to rely on her herd, and she’d be trained to flee at the first sign of danger. It’s incredible that she fought that off for long enough to get you out of the city, but to ask her to spend her days with this many ignorant humans and their weapons would be cruel. She’s probably suffering from the after-effects of your escape just as much as you are.”
    I crossed my arms. “I’m not suffering anything.”
    “Liar,” he muttered, though not unpleasantly, perhaps remembering all of the times he’d said similar things to me. He didn’t press the issue. We’d talk when I was ready.
    Gods, I love you, I thought as a familiar, pleasant ache spread through my chest. We had our differences, but the deeper ways in which we understood each other covered the gaps.
    “I hope Florizel will come back,” he continued, “but she’ll be better off away from camp and our problems here.” He released me and looked around the tent. “Not bad. Are we alone?”
    I grinned. “Taking the smaller tent was a terrible hardship, but I volunteered even though it means I have to be alone with you all night.”
    “How horrid,” he agreed as I ran a hand down his arm.
    “I’m sure the others will have much more fun together in their—”
    He pulled me into a kiss that turned my knees to clay. One of his arms wrapped around my waist as I tangled the fingers of both my hands in his dark hair, drawing him closer, urging him on as his lips brushed over my jaw, my throat, and my collarbone. I moaned softly as his free hand grazed my breast. He pulled the hem of my shirt out of my pants, and I raised my arms over my head to pull them out of the sleeves.
    He slipped out of his shirt and reached for the laces on my pants.
    “We can’t lock that door,” I said.
    “No. Do you care?”
    I took in the dim outline of his body, and tingling heat spread through my own. Instead of answering, I pushed his hands away and undid the knots myself, hooked my thumbs into the waistline of my pants, and slipped them down over my hips.
    He took in a sharp breath and pushed me back on the crate bed. With only a few blankets covering the wood it was hardly comfortable, but I was beyond caring. This was the first time we’d had alone together since he’d left Belleisle to search for his father. Not a day had gone by