“WHOA, BOY,” I URGED KOS, and the stallion halted. I slipped from his back and he pawed the ground with his hoof, uprooting the grass and flinging it backward. I stroked his soft, gray muzzle, and the stallion settled. “Off you go.” The horse shook his thick neck then blew air through his nostrils before he trotted a few feet away to graze.
Glancing up at Delara, I watched as she stared stunned at the hundreds of almond trees across the land, their white blossoms dazzling as they swept the orchard like a blizzard of petals.
She swung her leg over Xade’s rump and jumped to the ground. “Wow. It’s beautiful.”
Her emotions seeped into me and I grinned. She needed this, the simple beauty that nature offered. A breath of life. This land was magic this time of year, when the willowy almond trees blossomed, covering acres, setting a scene as if from a fairy tale book.
I clucked to Xade and the gelding walked off to graze. “My parents wed right over there.” I gestured to where two trees made what appeared to be an arch with their branches. “It was in January, when they bloomed.”
“They had a traditional wedding?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yes. My mother insisted on it. She used to bring me here after Father died and we’d sit beneath those trees and she’d sing. She loved to sing here. Said the land was magical. It would give to you, if you gave to it.”
“That’s where you get the singing from.”
“Mmm.” I walked toward the arch then sat under one of the trees and leaned up against the trunk. Delara followed suit, her shoulder inches away from me. The thin branches hung low over top, white petals occasionally floating to the ground as the wind blew across the land.
One landed in her hair and I plucked it from the strands.
Too much had happened with this woman; her trust in love was blown into fragments and scattered. She was desperate to grab hold, but Waleron kept her from capturing the pieces and putting them back together again. I believed in love, but it wasn’t something I ever wanted in my life.
“He’s all around you, kitten.”
“I can’t give up on him,” she blurted.
I inwardly smiled. No, she couldn’t. And she never had. She may have tried, but there’d always been hope. “I know.”
Her entire body sagged and it was like the façade finally shattered and lay in shards at my feet. “I can’t get him out of me. It’s like he’s a blanket covering me and it is so warm and protective and yet….” Her voice was quiet, pain filled. “My heart belongs to him whether I want it to or not. He is who I am.” Her eyes reached mine and there was devastation in the depths. “I can’t leave him even if he refuses me. Even if the Wraiths separate us.”
“Are you sure it’s him refusing you?” She needed the truth, whether she wanted to hear it or not. If she loved Waleron, she had to throw away all her fears and take a chance on losing him again. “That man is terrified of you leaving him when you see who he has really become.”
“He says he’ll hurt me.”
“Do you believe that? Do you think he’d ever come near you if he honestly thought he was capable of harming you? That man lives and breathes you. He’d kill himself before he ever laid a hand on you.” I added, “So would I.”
She met my eyes. “I love him.”
I pulled her into my arms and kissed the top of her head. “I know. Why do you think you’ve been with me? You’d do anything to have a piece of him.”
She jerked back. “What?”
“You were never with me because of me, Delara. You were with me because when I’d brought you back from the depths of despair, I’d masked myself in Waleron’s scent. I didn’t know it in the beginning, but after a while I figured out why you kept coming back. You found a piece of him in me.”
“Oh God.”
“It’s time to fight for all of him, Delara.”
She nodded, tears sliding down her cheeks. “Yeah.”
“Good. The Wraiths are a problem, but I’ll do what I can to help.”
She pulled back to look up at me. “He… he can’t lose his Taldeburu. It defines him.”
I chuckled. “Kitten, you define him. I saw you two together for five seconds and saw it. Come on, we better head back before Jasper pisses off Damien and there’s a war in my house.”
I whistled to the horses and they raised their heads and trotted toward us.
After I helped her mount Xade, I vaulted onto Kos. I was about to urge Kos into a walk when Kos’s nostrils flared and he pawed the ground, his ears alert and eyes looking off to the right. His muscles tensed and bunched up, like he were ready to burst into a galloping mass of hooves.
Kos jerked forward and something flew past me. Kos pranced around in a circle, snorting.
“What the hell was that?” Delara said as she gripped Xade’s mane.
The horse suddenly screamed with pain and reared up. Delara tumbled from his back.
“Fuck.” I leapt from Kos and ran to her, but she was already on her feet and trying to get near Xade and the arrow that protruded from his flank.
“Leave him!” I grabbed her arm and hauled her away from Xade as another arrow came straight for us. Xade whirled and blocked its path with his body, and the arrow pierced his throat.
“No,” Delara yelled.
Xade’s white coat slowly turned crimson as the blood seeped from the wound. He squealed a horrid sound then pawed at the ground, swinging his head back and forth.
Then he dropped to his knees.
“Oh God, no!” Delara screamed. She pulled toward the horse, but I held tight.
“Delara. No.”
“But—” Another arrow hit the beautiful horse in the shoulder.
“Fuck.” I couldn’t save Xade, but I sure as hell was saving us. “Jasper. Contact Waleron. Tarek knows she’s here.”
I hauled Delara up and threw her on top of Kos, then leapt up behind her. “Stay down.” I pushed her forward so she blended into Kos’s neck.
Xade fell to his side, groaning.
“Xade,” she murmured.
“Wrap your hands in the mane. We ride hard.”
I looped one arm around her waist and pulled her snug against me. “Kos, home, boy.”
The stallion took off in a mad gallop for home, and Xade’s final snort echoed amongst the almond trees.