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I bit my lip to keep from smiling. Nalhai’s
husband scurried off, murmuring under his breath.

“That one.” The queen shook her fist at him as
he fled. “One these days he step over an edge and then . . . boom. I show him
stars like he never saw in the sky.”

I did laugh then, and so did the queen. “If
that’s all, Your Majesty, we’ll take our leave. You have our profound thanks.”

“No!” shouted Magnus, giving me a start. He
knelt before the throne. “I have a request, if Your Majesty will permit me to
speak.”

“Talk,” was the response.

“There are two girls that I’d . . . well, I’d
like to come back and get them, if you’ll allow it. Mia and Tori are their
names. I’d . . . we’d like to adopt them,” my big man stammered.

“Why?”

It was only one word, but it was terse and
loaded with emotion. I wasn’t sure if Nalhai was suspicious of his request or
she just didn’t care for him personally. In any case, I stepped up to help.
“Mia’s hand was broken by the slavers. Magnus looked after her and her sister
Tori the entire time we traveled. He was able to ease her pain and stop her
tears when no one else could.”

“Where
chipana
now?” The queen furrowed
her brow.

“She’s with the healer. Koram is setting her
broken bones. Malina Blackhorn told us their family was dead, killed in the
attack on their village. We don’t want to split up the sisters.” Though Laiia
was translating as fast as she could, the queen’s look of confusion baffled me.
I decided to put it in the simplest terms possible. “We’ve come to love them,
Queen Nalhai. We want to share our home and our hearts with them, though we
have a quest to finish before we can take them back with us.”

“They Yasri,” she said sternly. “Not
frodjo
,
pale white, like you and man.”

“I know.” I lowered my gaze, prepared for
disappointment.

“What this…quest?” The queen tipped her head.

“The man who held me captive has my sword.
We’re going to get it back.”

Magnus lowered himself even more, pressing his
forehead against the ground. “If you’ll allow us to finish raising them,
they’ll want for nothing. I understand they’re Yasri. Your blood. I would be
more than happy to bring them back to Dorso to visit any time you wish, and
especially when it comes time for them to marry, if you so decree.” A quiet sob
escaped him. “I just can’t bear the thought that I’ll never see them again.”

I held my breath as several quiet,
uncomfortable moments passed. We had no right to the girls. If Nalhai refused,
I’d have to pull Magnus to his feet and haul him out of the hut.

The queen cleared her throat. “Soft heart in
that chest. Big love.” She shooed us away with both hands. “Go! You two go on
quest. Get the strong one’s sword, eh? Then stop here and ask again. If I say
yes, it still up to girls. If they don’t want to go, they don’t.”

“Fair enough,” I said hastily. “That’s more
than fair. We won’t take up any more of your time, Your Highness. Thank you for
seeing us.” Magnus rose, stepped forward, and kissed the queen’s hand. I
hastily gripped his elbow and steered him toward the door, before he said
something he shouldn’t.

We were just about there when I heard Nalhai
call my name. I turned to see her shaking her fists at me. “I got eyes, woman.
You hold tight to that one. He good man. Better than most.”

“He has a few rough spots that need smoothing,
but I agree.” I smiled. “I’ll hold on tight, Queen Nalhai.”

“That went well,” said Magnus as soon as we
left the hut.

“It went extremely well. I thought she was
going to refuse us.”

“Me too. I was getting ready to cry and beg.”

“That would’ve been something to see.” I gave
him a crooked grin.

We filled our water skins at the fountain and
said quite a few tearful goodbyes. We were about to check with the healer on
Mia’s condition, when Tori came running toward us with my boots in her hand.

 “Mia is still sleeping, but the healer said to
tell you it went well. Koram said it went as well as something like that can go,”
the girl huffed, breathless from running. She dropped my dusty boots at my
feet. “You’ll need these, Mistress Kymber. You won’t want to walk so far
without them.”

“Mia is all right?” Magnus asked.

“My sister will be fine.” Tori’s smile was like
the sun parting the clouds. “Healer said her fingers may be stiff for a while,
but she should be able to use them.”

 Magnus knelt and pulled Tori into his arms.
“Kymber and I have something to do first, but we’re coming back to Dorso when
we’re done. I want you to think about whether or not you and Mia would like to
come and live with us in a land far away. It would mean leaving the goat
herders, your people.”

The girl’s eyes went wide. “Why?”

“Because we love you. It’s as simple and as
complicated as that.”

“Do you? Love us?”

“More than you know.” Magnus caught her narrow
chin with two fingers. “You don’t have to give me an answer now. You may tell
me when we come back. I won’t be mad if you say no.”

Tori’s eyes shone like stars in the night sky.
“I say yes. So will Mia.” She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a
smacking kiss on the lips. “Come back soon, Mister Magnus. Mistress Kymber.”

I got a hug and kiss too, and without so much
as a backward glance, Tori scampered off to play in the fountain with the other
girls.

A chill settled over me as I watched her run.

There was no guarantee we’d come back at all.

K
ymber and I rode away from Dorso the next
morning with heavy hearts. We spent most of our travels that day in quiet
reflection. When the sun began to glow gold and sink into the landscape, we
stopped, gathered wood, and made a fire.

I wanted to say something to fill the void, as Kymber
seemed to be pulling away again, but it turns out I was the one in trouble. Leaving
the girls behind had left my heart feeling like burnt shoe leather.

The long silence stretched out between us, a
vast expanse growing deeper with every moment that passed. I finally pulled my
courage together and glanced up from the roaring fire, only to find her staring
at me.

“Kymber,” I said.

“Magnus,” she said at the same time.

“Ladies first.” I couldn’t look away. The fine
lines of her jaw, nose, and brow entranced me. The flames played across her
cheekbones and danced in her eyes. She might have come from the chisel of a
master sculptor.

I had never been curious about her parentage.
She existed, and that was enough for me. Tonight, I couldn’t help wondering
about the man and woman who’d come together and created this marvel of fire and
ice, silk and steel. Who were they? Why had they given her up?

She tossed a pebble into the fire. Sparks
jumped when it hit the glowing coals, breaking my muse. “I never wanted that
kind of life, you know,” she said.

“What kind of life?”

“Children. A family.” Her blue eyes caught mine
across the fire. “I never wanted to be a mother.”

A little part of my heart died inside me. Would
she tell me she didn’t want Tori and Mia now that we were miles away from the
village? “I didn’t know that,” was all I could say.

“How did they do it? How did they change my
mind?”

“Does that mean you still want them?”

“Of course I want them, but it’s pulling my
focus. Distractions are often fatal.” A half-smile curved her lips. “How can I
go to Pentorus if all I can think about is decorating a room for two little
girls?”

I caught her in my arms, pushed her flat on the
ground, and stretched my body over hers. She squealed once, pounded on my
chest, and gave up. “Brute.”

“Distractions.” I ran my hand beneath her tunic,
savoring the feel of her skin, so warm and soft. “I could teach you an
excellent lesson about distractions tonight.”

Her eyes gleamed when she smiled. “Said the
biggest distraction of all.” She shifted her right hip against my erection.
“What’s this?”

“I don’t know.” I moved one hand to the waist
of my breeches. “Let’s get it out and have a look.”

“No! Not yet.” She stared past me and into the
night sky. “Tell me something first.”

“Anything.”

“It’s a silly question, but . . . did the world
notice I was missing for eight years? Did my absence create a void?” She ran
two fingers over my brow and through my hair. “I know I’m a small pebble on a
vast beach, but even the smallest stone can cause ripples upon water. I’d like
to think I caused a ripple or two.”

“My world noticed you were missing.” I brushed
my lips over her cheek and breathed her in. “Ordinary people died, but not
Kymber Oryx. Not the woman I adored.”

Her lips quivered upward into the tiniest smile.

“Did your absence create a void? I became one
when I lost you. I scoured the battlefield from sunup to sundown, then I walked
the streets of Jalartha until I couldn’t feel my feet anymore, searching for
some sign,
any
sign, that you still lived. Tariq was wrong, I was sure
of it. Someday, I’d see you step out of an alley or find you sprawled out on
our divan with a book in your lap. Every moment that went by engraved the truth
into my heart. You were never coming home. A full half of my whole was gone.”

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and
fell onto the ground.

“I had to face it then. You were dead. Gone,
just like that, under tons of mud and rock with all the others who died that
day, as my brother had said. I dropped to my knees and vomited until I brought
up blood.” The agony of that loss was still so sharp, I ran my thumb over her
jaw, just to reassure myself that she was real beneath me.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about your braid soaked
with blood, trailing across someone else’s body. Your eyes. Gods, Kymber, I
have always loved your eyes, but they’d have been open and crusted with dirt in
that grave. By the time I faced the truth, you would’ve been unrecognizable as
the woman I loved, but I didn’t care. I dug for half a day with my bare hands,
then collapsed into the hole and wept. I thought maybe, if I could hold you in
my arms one more time, I could let you go. It was a lie though. I never
could’ve let you go.”

“Shh.” Kymber pressed her hand to my lips. “I
don’t need to hear this.”

I was too deep into the telling to stop. “Tariq
came then.” I swallowed. “No matter how many times he dragged me off your
grave, I went back. He finally tied my wrists and pulled me into Jalartha,
trailing behind his horse. And to think he watched me suffer, knowing where you
were the whole time.”

“No. Not another moment, Magnus,” Kymber said
firmly. “Tariq paid for his treachery. I will not give him another second of my
life, and neither should you.”

My own tears fell freely. “I’ll never know what
deities conspired to send you back to a broken man, and I don’t care. My heart
started beating again when you woke up and hit me at The Blue Lantern Inn. A
punch to the face never felt so damned good.”

“My silly Magnus.” She choked on a sob. “I love
you so much.”

“As I love you. You asked me once if there was
something wrong with the old Kymber Oryx. The answer is no, a thousand times
no. What you’ve suffered is contemptible. Despicable. I’m still furious. So
furious, I pressed you hard, hoping you’d feel the same way. I wanted you to
fight for what you’d been, so Tariq and Garai didn’t have the final say.”

“I couldn’t. I wasn’t ready. That was a long
period of darkness, Magnus.” She threw me a ghost of a smile. “I would’ve
gotten there in my own good time.”

I ran my hand over her wet cheeks and down the
graceful column of her throat, unable to take my eyes off the pulse that beat
there. “Scarred hand or no, you needed to be able to fight. I knew that, and I
think you did too. You had what you needed when you faced Tariq and those
slavers. I never want to lose you again, and if that makes me a selfish,
hateful bastard, so be it.” I entwined my fingers with hers. “I have a rather
lopsided apology to offer you. I don’t regret pushing you, only the way I went
about it. I’m sorry.”

“I know,” Kymber whispered. “And that was a lot
of words for someone who denies he has a romantic side. Apology accepted. Past,
firmly put behind us, where it belongs.” She grazed her fingernails across the
back of my neck. “Will you make love to me now?”

“My pleasure.” I lowered my mouth to hers. She
was mine.
Mine.
Only death would part us permanently, but not for a good
long time.

I shifted my weight onto one elbow, so I could
look at her. She was real and solid beneath me. Not the starved waif she’d been
when I found her, but the curvaceous woman I remembered. So beautiful. So very,
very brave.

My romantic words had amused her, but I had
more. Too bad my throat closed every time I tried to speak them. “Oh, Kymber,”
was all I could manage.

“It’s all right.” Her fingertips trailed across
my cheek, my jaw. “I know.”

She
didn’t
know.
I
didn’t know.
She was my magic. The wind to my waves. I loved the feel of her beneath me, but
she was so much more than that. Perhaps my poor male brain would never be to
put a name to that mystery.

I couldn’t tell her, but I could show her. I pulled
her up to a sitting position with me. The faith I saw in her eyes…Gods, after
everything that had befallen her, after everything my brother and I had done to
her, she still trusted me. I wanted to weep.

She trailed her fingertips across my palm when
I reached for the hem of her tunic. I undressed her slowly, the gift of my life
given back to me. I then forced her onto her back with kisses and slid her
leggings over her hips and thighs. “I wanted to tell you what you mean to me,”
I whispered. “But I don’t think those words exist.”

She smiled and helped me off with my shirt. I allowed
her pull it over my head; I then dispensed with my breeches as fast as I could,
eager to feel her skin on mine. Tucking in next to her on the blanket, I
covered us both with the ragged end.

We had a bond that transcended understanding.
It was at once a fragile thing, a breath of frost, the most delicate links in a
gilded chain of sunlight, yet unbreakable and as strong as steel.

We’d been intimate a few times since being
reunited, but this… this was something more. I kissed her, her every breath
mingling with mine. I cupped her breasts, marveling at the way they nestled into
my palms. What else could I do but bend my head to pay homage?

 “Feels so good.” She gripped the back of my
neck as I moved my tongue over her nipples. “Don’t stop.”

I had no intention of stopping, not until I had
her screaming my name to the sky, but I had one last thing to tell her. “There
was never anyone else. I wanted to move on, to forget, but I couldn’t.” The
agony in my voice was sharp. “How could I ever
forget you?”

“Fool. So many women who will never know how
wonderful you are.” She gave me a gentle kiss. “I love you for waiting until I
was brave enough to free myself.”

“You are that. Brave. The bravest person I
know.” My fingers trailed across her taut stomach.

She lurched beneath me, trying to force my hand
lower. I resisted with everything I had, and it almost wasn’t enough.
Easy,
Magnus, nice and easy,
my fevered brain screamed, but I wanted to ravage
her. I wanted to claim her as mine before the moons and all the stars in the
sky.

She jerked as my fingertips found the soft
curls between her legs and moved beyond. “Magnus, you’re killing me.”

“No, I’m adoring you. For all the nights I
missed you, wept for you, ached for you. You’re alive, Kymber.
Alive
.” I
laughed. “It all went very, very right for us, and I am so grateful.”

“Well, then.” She shivered beneath me. “You’re
saying all the right words. I certainly won’t stop you.”

 I knew every square inch of her lovely body,
and I played her with expert fingers. How many lovers got a second chance like
this? A man could spend two lifetimes searching and never find a woman like
Kymber. Two halves of a whole, I’d said, and we were.

Gods, we were.

When I could stand it no longer, when I ached
with wanting her, I eased myself into her softness. She cried out and
shuddered.

I took her hard and fast right there on the
ground, whimpering her name against her shoulder. My love, my life, my woman.

I held back as long as I could, savoring the
feel of her around me, then spent myself inside her.

This.
This,
I thought as tears coursed
down my face.

It felt like redemption
.