Free The Myatheira Chronicles: Volume Two: Beyond the Veil by Melissa Collins Page B

willingly, soft and warm, sending a wave of surprise through Aiva at the sensation. It had worked too well. There was no turning back now, Dacian’s body closing in tightly to hers.
    In that instant she was aware of the panic building in the back of her mind. She’d overlooked a very important detail in her plan. When Callum had kissed her, there was a different feel to it all. There was no passion, such as she felt emanating from Dacian now. They had been children. Or at least she had been. Callum was only newly entered into the adult world. His intentions were innocent with her, whereas Dacian would be different. She wasn’t a child anymore. Dacian considered her a woman, and he was definitely a man, having been out on his own in the world for years. Away from Tanispa on some ship sailing the seas with no one but the company of his fellow soldiers. There was more at stake in letting him so close to her.
    Through her fear, she found it hard to think clearly. His hands were moving over the bodice of her dress. The emotions she felt were unfamiliar. Reacting to his passionate embrace in a way that she couldn’t have predicted. Her heart was racing. She could feel his lips moving away from hers, sliding over the exposed skin of her neck. Tilting her head to the side she allowed him to continue. Why couldn’t she think? She had to stop this. It couldn’t go on any longer.
    Someone was coming. It took her mind a moment to register the sound of footsteps nearing the door, not wanting to believe it at first, horrified at the thought. “Dacian,” she whispered, hoping to catch his attention. Instead, he tightened his hold on her, oblivious to her desperate, quiet plea. “Dacian, there is someone…”
    The door opened slowly. It seemed to take forever in Aiva’s mind for the person outside to come into view. Callum. She wondered at first if she was hallucinating. Conjuring his image out of guilt for what she was allowing Dacian to do. The look on his face was enough for her to know that it was no illusion. He stared at her, their eyes meeting in horrified silence, her body going rigid under Dacian’s embrace. Confused by her sudden stiffness, Dacian lifted his head, glancing toward the door to see what had caught Aiva’s eye. Nervously he stepped away from Aiva, stammering excuses for what Callum had seen. It wasn’t what it looked like. He could explain.
    Callum said nothing. His eyes remained on Aiva, filled with a combination of emotions that she couldn’t decipher, shifting from shock to revulsion, contorting his face into a look of utter misery. Without a word he turned away, disappearing into the darkness outside.
    With the distance restored between her and Dacian, Aiva’s mind began to function again, immediately calling forward all the possibilities that could come from their being discovered. Callum could tell his father. Or worse, he could take the discovery directly to her parents. She couldn’t let that happen. Dacian would be punished and she didn’t want to think of the disapproval that would fall on her for the deeds. She was letting her parents down. How could she have let this happen?
    There would be time for guilt later. Right now she had to stop Callum. She needed to talk to him. To secure his silence. “Callum!” she shouted, running out into the garden where he’d disappeared. “Callum, wait!”
    Breathless, she came to a stop in the middle of the courtyard, staring helplessly around the shadows. He was gone. Twice now she had walked out of that tiny shed to find him vanished. With any luck, he wouldn’t return this time. Not only for her own anger toward him, but the humiliation she felt at what he’d seen. How could she look him in the eye now? Any respect he might have still had for her would be gone. Dissipated by the knowledge of what she’d done. But she couldn’t continue after him. People would be watching. Aware of the troubled look on Callum’s face upon entering the palace.