Free Heart Quest by Robin D. Owens Page A

blinked at the sight of them all. Shook his head. He’d underestimated the size of the clan. A little dazed, he joined Trif, wrapping his arms loose around her supple waist.
    â€œLet’s go quickly, while people aren’t watching.” She formed an image of her mainspace and he and Greyku shared the vision. Shifting a little, she distracted Ilex so he had to focus hard to keep the image from wavering. “On three,” she whispered. “One, my mainspace; two, my mainspace. Three! ”
    They stumbled a bit when they landed, but Trif whooped with victory and once again danced out of his grasp. “We did it, and you let me take the lead, and I brought us here ! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ilex.” She swept up to him and grazed his cheek with a light kiss. The brush of her lips ignited a firestorm in him. He reached for her, but she’d already spun away, lifting Greyku from her shoulder and holding the kitten high, looking at her Fam and not him. “I think this calls for a drink! I have some brithe brandy.” She glided into the minuscule kitchen, and the sound of an opening no-time door came.
    Ilex couldn’t speak. His physical reaction at the mere touch of her lips on his skin in a friendly kiss fried all his logic. All the rationalizations he’d used to stay in her company were lies.
    All the warnings he’d given himself were true.
    He was in trouble.
    Trif danced out of the kitchen with two small brandy snifters, Greyku trotting beside her. She handed one to him, then clinked it in a toast. “To teleporting!”
    Ilex wished he was anywhere but here.
    Trif went to a small twoseat, settled, sipped, and said, “Do you have a HeartMate, Ilex?”
    His head began to ache. What to say? He’d never lie to her. “I never felt one in my own Passages.” The Third and last one had been when he was twenty-seven, a little more than two decades ago, as was usual. She’d been two years old.
    The incredible lust and joy at touching a HeartMate had come from her during the heat of her Second Passage at seventeen, and the fluctuating echoes of that had continued over the last three years.
    Her mouth softened. “I’m sorry.”
    He shrugged. “It’s rare enough to have HeartMates.”
    â€œYes. We don’t have any in the family now except Mitchella D’Blackthorn and Straif.” Her brow wrinkled. “Though I think there was a pair of Clovers a few generations back. What of your Family?”
    â€œMy mother is a widow. My father died when I was a boy.” He smiled humorlessly. “My aunt and uncle on my father’s side were HeartMates. Childless, but HeartMates. Their line died out, like so many.”
    Trif squirmed a little on the sofa. “My main Flair is to see the past. The cities on old Earth were huge . So were the Families. The entire population.”
    â€œFour hundred years after colonization and we’re still taming the planet,” Ilex murmured.
    â€œThat’s sad.” She stared at the liquid in her cup, lifted her chin. “But HeartMate marriages produce more and stronger children. Offspring better suited to Celta, and with more Flair.”
    Ilex sat in a chair across from her, drank some brandy, and smiled. “So you’re hunting for your HeartMate as a duty for your Family. I think your Family would disagree on that.”
    â€œThat won’t stop me from searching for him.” Her smile lit her eyes. “Everyone in the family older than I am has lectured me. Danith D’Ash has spoken to me. Cuz Mitchella has arranged a meeting with T’Willow for me tomorrow afternoon.”
    He strove to keep his expression placid. T’Willow, the matchmaker, could very well have the ability to divine Trif’s HeartMate by just looking at her. Especially since Ilex had made the mistake of meeting her. To Ilex’s Flair sight, the thread that bound them together was