Free Unbound Enchantment (Unbreakable Force Book 1) by Kara Jaynes

tall,” she added, looking over her shoulder at Aaric, her eyes twinkling. Aaric looked away, feeling the heat rise to his face. He'd always been a little self-conscious about his height.
    But wait. She said she wasn't in love with this Bran fellow. “Why?” he asked, standing up. “Why don't you love him?” He found himself standing right behind her, so close he could smell the pine scent in her hair. He coughed self-consciously. “Is there . . . someone else?” Heavens, let it be so.
    Adaryn placed a wet dish on the counter and turned to face him. She looked nervous when she spoke. “Ah . . . no. Well, maybe. Actually, I don't feel good.” There were two spots of color on her cheeks, and she dropped her gaze, looking at the floor. “Excuse me.” And with that, she fled to her room, leaving a disappointed Aaric behind.

 
    22
    Adaryn
     
    A aric spent most of the next several days alone, only sharing my company at mealtime. He spoke to me if I had a question but didn't attempt at any conversation. I didn't press it. Something was wrong, but I didn't know what. Or I didn't want to know what. My confusion about him grew by the day. His big gray eyes, unruly hair, and ready smile were beginning to take up more of my thoughts than I cared to admit.
    It was over a week before he seemed to be more like himself again. I was sitting at the kitchen table finishing my porridge when Aaric thundered down the stairs and catapulted into the kitchen, a big grin on his face.
    “It's done!” he said excitedly. He rubbed his hands together with glee.
    I frowned, puzzled. “What is?”
    “My flying machine!” he said and laughed with pure delight. I smiled, glad to see he had snapped out of whatever had been making him cranky.
    Aaric poured himself a glass of milk and sat in the chair opposite me. “I was beginning to wonder if it would all come together, but it did.” He swallowed too much milk at once and choked. When he caught his breath again, he went on as enthusiastically as if nothing had happened. “I'm going to take it out in the woods and test it, and I want you to come with me.”
    I stared. “The forest? You want to take me?”
    Aaric shrugged. “Why not? You know them better than I do, so you can help me find some high ground.”
    He then frowned at me as the same thought that occurred to me occurred to him. “You're not going to try and escape, are you?” he asked anxiously. “That . . . would not be good.”
    I forced a smile. “It's not like this collar is just going to fall off now, is it?”
    Aaric nodded, visibly relaxed. I sat there as he prattled on, pretending to listen. It was going to be my first and possibly only opportunity to get into the woods so easily, and I wasn't sure if I'd be given such a lucky chance again. Collar or no collar, I needed to escape.
    Aaric's eyes shone with an eager light as he talked about birds and flying machines. He called his contraption a glider. I smiled. I was going to miss him, I realized. It was an uncomfortable thought, and I ruthlessly squashed it.
    “When do you plan to go?” I asked him.
    Aaric looked at me, puzzled. “Go where?”
    I wanted to roll my eyes but didn't. “The forest? To try out your glider.”
    “Oh.” His expression cleared, and I realized belatedly that while caught in my own thoughts he had moved on to a different topic. “I can't go until this rain clears up, unfortunately.” I was reminded of the weather. The rain drummed a steady beat on the roof and had been going for several days.
    “But,” he continued, “I plan to go the very first day it's clear.”
    “I do know some high ground,” I said, fiddling with a blob of leftover porridge in my bowl. “I can show you then if you like.”
    “Great!” Aaric stood up, smiling again. “I need to look over the glider and make sure everything is as it should be. Again.” He went back upstairs, leaving me alone.
    I sat for a moment longer, then fetched my cloak and boots. I