Black Moon Draw (25 page)

They began to fall.

He held his breath and willed her to use the magic in the medallion trapped between their bodies.

A flare of heat ignited at his core and flashed through him. It was followed by the sensation of the tide nipping at his boots. Sand squeezed between the fingers of the hand clasping the back of her head while a flavorful ocean breeze ruffled his hair.

The Shadow Knight opened his eyes and lifted his head, taking in the dried barnacles and seaweed scattered across the sands of a beach lining the bay. Water seeped into his boots and wet his toes.

The heat inside him subsided, and he rolled onto his side, eyes roving down the battle-witch’s body to ensure she was unhurt. The pulsing purple light around the Heart nestled between her breasts faded as he watched, a sign he had indeed been right about triggering the magic.

He had gambled – and won. The instincts of a battle-witch were buried beneath her surface; it was her fear standing in her way from accessing it, her belief she had no power over her magic at all. Without it, when she had no time to doubt herself, the magic obeyed.

She rolled onto her stomach, coughing.

The breeches hugged her rounded hips and ass snugly, the outline of her thighs and calves hinting at their shapeliness. He had explored every inch of her body while she slept, first to help put her back together and then to ensure she suffered no infection that might prevent her waking as soon as possible. Seeing the taut outline of her backside and thighs stirred the intense desire sparked by the kiss. If he had no war to fight, he would make love to her here.

“How did I . . . get sand in my mouth?” she gasped. She pulled her knees under her, ass in the air, and sat back on her heels.

His gaze went from her body to her face. She was pale where she had had a healthy radiance before. The magic took a toll on battle-witches; this much he knew.

The Shadow Knight pulled his gaze from her face reluctantly, aware he had a world to save before he dared take a moment to indulge his own urges.

“Your name is
Atreyu
?” She was staring at him.

“Aye.” His eyes narrowed. “Why do you react this way?”

“You don’t have a magic flying Luck Dragon do you?”

More of her nonsense.
“Come, witch,” he said and rose, holding out his hand.

She shook her head at him and ignored his outstretched arm, climbing to her feet.

“My plan was sound,” he added.

“Your plan,” she echoed, hands on hips. She glared up at him. “The one involving letting us both die in the slim hope my magic worked?”

“Aye.” He gazed down at her, their bodies separated by a foot that was strangely too far. Recalling how she had felt beneath him, and how he could never let them go farther, he clenched his fists to keep from reaching out to her. His man parts had not fallen off after that encounter, either.

Pink spread across her features once again, a sign she was thinking about the kiss. “It was an awful plan,” she told him. “I still don’t know how to use this thing.” She patted the medallion.

“I do.”

She waited.

“It involves kissing you each time I want it to work.”

Anger sparked in her eyes. She whirled and started up the beach.

He watched, amused and grateful she was angry again. Her emotions were too delicate for him to predict entirely. But he knew anger and that it would help them get to where they needed to be as well as encourage her to maintain her distance from him. It was growing more difficult for him not to take an afternoon to slake his desire for her shapely form.

“I’ll tell you this once, Atreyu,” she called over her shoulder.

He jerked, not accustomed to hearing his name aloud.

“If you kiss me again or put us in danger to manipulate my magic, I’ll sell off your name to the battle-witch of Brown Sun Lake.”

“Brown Sun Lake has no battle-witch.”

“Then to some other kingdom.”

He trailed her up the beach. It was a threat by a woman who had no knowledge of his world. Every kingdom but the Red Knight’s, including Brown Sun Lake, had a battle-witch. It was far too easy to dismiss the hollow threat from someone who had proven for a second time she was not about to let him die, let alone betray him to an enemy.

“You should not use my name,” he said, trotting to catch up and drawing abreast of her. “Someone may overhear it.”

“That’s your problem,” she said tartly. “I don’t believe this nonsense about names being dangerous.” She glared at him defiantly.

He did not look at her, gaze on the cliff separating him from the hills that rolled between them and his keep at Black Moon Draw. “You have shown me you will do naught to harm me or my war.”

She was breathing hard from the march across the beach of loose sand. He motioned for her to start walking, eyes on the sky. It was midmorning – and his time was nearly up. He had given orders for the attack on Brown Sun Lake to start this evening, even if he was not present for it. However, he did not plan on missing the great victory.

They walked quietly up the narrow trail leading from the beach to the top of the cliff. She went ahead of him, setting the pace, while he cast occasional glances over his shoulder out of instinct rather than belief they were in danger. This was his land; there was no danger to him here.

Near the top of the cliff, the battle-witch paused and rested a hand against the rocky granite wall on one side of them, panting.

“I can’t believe that,” she said, twisting to look back the way they’d come. Several more prisons hung in the sky. “How are they suspended like that?”

“Magic,” he replied, unconcerned. “They have been used by battle-witches serving Shadow Knights for two eras.”

“Wait, those are your dungeons?”

“Aye.”

“So the Red Knight put you in your own prison.”

“Aye.”

“Um, isn’t that the biggest insult possible? To trap you in your own dungeon?” she asked, puzzled. “Why aren’t you mad?”

“’
Twas better than being placed in
his
dungeon,” he pointed out.

“I really don’t get this world,” she muttered.

He glanced at her, eyes sliding from her plump lips to the medallion. “Mayhap, if you ceased fighting your fate, ‘twould not be so vexing,” he advised with some impatience.

She shook her head.

“I never had the luxury of avoiding mine,” he added. “My father, his father, all the way back to the curse, we have fought to win the kingdoms before all was lost.”

“I understand why you’re doing it.” Her voice softened. “I can’t imagine what it’s like for you.” Her gaze was torn, her blue eyes searching his features for he knew not what.

She was expressive, unlike the controlled emotions of his betrothed, a woman raised from birth to manage a court and rule alongside a powerful Knight.

“I fight. There has never been a choice, and I have never questioned my fate. You need to accept yours at my side.”

She was watching him, expression growing more troubled. “It’s not that easy to give up everything I’ve known.”

“Nay, ‘tis not,” he agreed. “But I think, should we succeed in saving the kingdoms, you will find Black Moon Draw a good home.”

She said nothing.

“You view it out of fear. If you saw it the way I did, as worth saving, you may find it looks differently.”

There was a long pause. When she caught her breath, he nudged her to start walking, aware of how little time they had.

“You’re right.” She sighed finally. “I am afraid. I’m afraid I won’t make it home. Afraid I will and end up miserable. Afraid this really is my fate.”

“Why would that be undesirable?” he asked, bristling. “Black Moon Draw has the most beautiful lands of any kingdom and a warrior-knight worthy of any woman in any world, not to mention coffers of gold and gems.”

“I don’t really care about gold or power or whatever,” she replied. “When you conquer the world, you’ll just sell me anyway. I’m not really looking forward to that.”

He laughed, suddenly aware of where she was coming from. He had meant the idea of selling her as a jest, one she clearly did not understand.

His battle-witch looked at him in clear disapproval.

“Nay, Naia. I do not intend to sell you,” he said, shaking his head. “Although I may make you my queen.”

“Your
what
?” She stopped walking, staring at him.

The Shadow Knight turned to face her. “The warrior-queen of Black Moon Draw.”

“Are you proposing?”

“Proposing?” he echoed with disdain. “I propose naught. If I choose to take you as my queen, then I shall, and you will obey the command.”

Her face was red again. There was anger in her gaze, along with a different kind of fire. “You can’t just ditch the woman you’re betrothed to or force me to marry you.”

Aye, there is that.
But his betrothed would not be his betrothed when the war was over. His oath of secrecy prevented him from revealing the truth. “Very well. You will become my mistress,” he reasoned.

“Absolutely not! I’m not some back up! Is this because I know your name?”

“Nay. ‘Tis because you belong here, or you wouldn’t have been sent to me.”

“You can’t do that to your princess. I won’t
let
you hurt her like that by breaking it off with her or hiding away some woman on the side! What happened in the tower was a mistake, one that can’t happen again.”

He snatched her arm and pulled her to face him. “I do not make mistakes, Naia. Should I choose to claim you as my queen or mistress, I will do so.”

Her mouth opened and then closed. Wordlessly, she yanked free and climbed the rocks blocking their path from the top of the cliff and stopped.

“My god,” she breathed.

He hurried to join her and scoured the familiar territory that was his. “What is it?” he asked, seeking out some enemy or other cause for her alarm.

“This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. Like a cross between Scotland and New Zealand. Ruled by an absolute asshole.”

He chose to ignore her slight, angry with her the way she was with him. Assuming the names he had never heard of were from her world, he relaxed, gaze sweeping across the landscape he had known since he was a child. Rolling hills coated by emerald grass that clung to them like moss filled the peninsula, leading up to jagged purple-blue mountains in the near distance. The scent of his home always made something melt inside him, the sweet clover grass welcoming him home from battle.

After years of never thinking about what happened after the war, he found himself yet again dwelling on what life was going to be like when battle was over, when he could ride the familiar hills and mountains, breathe in the sweet grass, and listen to the ocean’s tides near his home every day, make love to a woman who stirred his body and heart several times a day, if he pleased.

And the sky . . .
He had only heard of it being blue and always imagined what it was like beyond the fog.

It would be a surprisingly pleasant life.

“This is all yours?” she asked, her hushed reverence for Black Moon Draw making him swell with pride.

“Aye. ‘Tis.”

“Have you ever thought about putting a cottage right there?” She pointed to the edge of the peninsula.

“Cottage?” he echoed. “My hold is there. ‘Tis but half a day’s ride.” He indicated the place where the mountains, sea and hills met.

“That works I guess.” There was a small smile on her face, one he wasn’t certain how to interpret. “I can’t believe this is your home.”

“’
Tis yours as well. Whether as my queen or my mistress.”

“Don’t start that shit again.” She averted her gaze, but not before he saw the hurt in her eyes. Uncertain what caused it, he trailed as she began walking quickly, headed towards the dirt road winding among the low hills bordering the ocean.

He sensed a thaw without truly understanding her resistance to the idea of living there. The way her face lit up, she meant what she said about it being the most beautiful place she had ever seen. Why then, if sent here from another world, did she not welcome his offer?

The Shadow Knight began walking. It was not in his nature to dissect the mind of a woman, especially when he had offered the queen-ship to her without first breaking off his alliance with the Red Knight’s sister.

If he did it before the end of the era, he risked alienating a kingdom he did not have time to combat, which meant he lost and his world was gone.

It was good she refused it. For now. That would change once the curse was broken. Of that, he had no doubt. He had lied about knowing a way to send her home to win her cooperation. Once he was in a position to offer her the position of becoming his queen, unencumbered by war or his betrothed, he was not going to take no for an answer.

Home.
The moment I set foot on the hill overlooking the beach, the sensation of being where I belong hit me so hard, I almost fell over.

I can’t explain it, except I’ve never seen anywhere this amazing in real life. I’m sure it exists, but people living paycheck to paycheck don’t go to random parts of the world to discover what’s there.

The hills ahead of me are so green they almost glow, and the
smell
. . . I had no idea places have scents. It’s honeyed, happy, welcoming, peaceful – the opposite of the brooding Shadow Knight beside me. That this world produced him baffles me. The sky stretches forever overhead, the heat of the brilliant sun tempered by a layer of gray fog and a cool ocean breeze.

This
is love at first sight, not with a man, but with a beauty of a world I didn’t know existed. It makes me happy. Not even the thought of losing a man I’m not sure I like to another woman bothers me.

“Come, witch.” He starts towards a narrow dirt road winding through the emerald hills.

Okay. Maybe there is something about him that does bother me. That kiss was too amazing. The scenery manages to buffer the emotions building, and I drink in my surroundings instead of letting my mind drift to what it might be like to live here with him.