The ferocious wind finally calmed enough for them to leave the shelter of the rocky outcropping and head toward more substantial shelter. Shadows stretched longer, creeping in with the chill of evening. The forest grew dimmer, its habitual creaking keeping Rain on edge as she and Daric made their way to the nearest treehouse.
Hallerhounds had terrorized people for centuries. Long ago, generations before Daric, the House of Ash had built elevated shelters throughout the Wood of Layton. The regularly placed treehouses protected the royals and their entourages from animal attacks at night during their pilgrimages to Braylian’s Cauldron. The mostly unfurnished rooms saw no regular upkeep and were often home to small creatures, but they were always stocked with blankets and oil lamps, and there would be a nearby enclosure for the horses.
It wasn’t the thought of more hallerhounds that scared Rain right now, however. Each time she used her power, with every new vine she created, Isme dolunde vaten crew dug into her mind a little deeper. She’d already feared its roots were poisonous, but as she and Daric rode toward the treehouse that would be their last stopover before Leathen’s barrows and Braylian’s Cauldron, she finally understood what the combination of sounds truly meant—and how just four small words would destroy them.
The sorcerer in Upper Ash had given her the final ingredient to break the curse on Leathen, but it wasn’t a simple offering they had to make, as she’d originally suspected. It was a sacrifice. And whoever spoke the words to Braylian both gained exactly what they wanted, and lost what mattered most.
“What’s turned you so silent?” Daric asked as they approached the treehouse.
These past few nights in the sacred wood, they’d had somewhere more comfortable than the ground to sleep and more than a campfire to drive back the darkness. But they’d stayed in separate rooms, across a massive tree trunk from each other. Tonight, their last night before this quest likely ended, Rain would make sure they slept together.
“I’ve just realized something.” She turned to Daric, his beloved features harder to look at suddenly. They burned through her, searing a scar across her heart. Winter-blue eyes, strong jaw, thick dark hair, that heavy lock always tumbling over one eyebrow. The way he looked at her… Rain dropped her gaze, trying to hide her sorrow.
“Mockweed.” She grew a plant in the palm of her hand. “No need to go searching.”
Daric grinned. “You never cease to amaze me.”
She handed him the flower, not letting her return smile waver. “Keep it with the bloodstones. Tomorrow, we’ll find the Barrow Witch and break the curse together.”
“It seems rather simple in the end, after all these years of doing nothing.”
“Not nothing, Daric. Everything we could. And we only just received the clues pointing us in the right direction.” Rain forced now dreaded words around the rising lump in her throat. “There’s one more thing. A chant. I heard it from the sorcerer.”
Daric’s brow furrowed. “In Upper Ash?”
She nodded. “I kept it to myself because I didn’t understand it.”
“And now you do? How? What is it?”
Rain saw the confusion in his expression—and the hurt that she’d once again held back from him. “Isme dolunde vaten crew.” Her heart ached, pounding. “The more I use my power, the more I understand the language of sorcery.”
Daric’s frown deepened. “What does it mean?”
“It’s simply to formally present the bloodstones and the mockweed to Braylian.” The lie rose up in Rain and fell from her tongue like acid. “Harmless, but we need it along with the other things when we ask her to break the enchantment.”
Daric tucked the plant she’d given him into his pouch, seeming less worried after her explanation. “Not sure why a goddess wants a weed, but magic is a strange business.”
“It is,” Rain agreed. One that was tearing her apart, even as it made her stronger. “We’ll find the Barrow Witch. She’ll help us. You’ll say those four words tomorrow, Daric, and break the curse on Leathen. You’ve been working toward this your whole life.”
He nodded, repeating those raw and awful magical words back to her. He knew them now and could utter them without trouble.
A shadow crossed his features again as he watched her. “You look too somber for this happy news. We’re almost there, Rain. We’ve almost done it.”
Somber didn’t even begin to describe how she felt. Understanding the sorcerer’s words had opened a chasm inside her and set her adrift. But Leathen would survive without her. The kingdom couldn’t survive without its prince.
That conviction calmed her, left her resolute and sure of herself. “I want you to know that I would never, ever, have shown myself to you that day at the Cauldron if I hadn’t wanted to,” Rain said.
Daric shrugged a little stiffly. “But you didn’t want this.” He waved a hand in the air, seeming to encompass him, her, Leathen… Everything.
She thought back to that Time Before. Want hadn’t been a concept for a season, as far as she could recall. What a boring existence it must have been, with no one to talk to, nothing to discover, no desires or needs, no fears or pleasures.
“The first time I remember wanting anything,” she told him in a voice thick with emotion, “was the day I saw you.”
Daric looked at her gravely. He reached out, feathered his fingers across her cheek, and tucked her hair back. “You’re my every dream and desire.”
Rain’s heart swelled to near bursting. She was done waiting. Done hoping. Done playing by Daric’s rules, because his weren’t the only ones that mattered. “Tomorrow, we save Leathen, but tonight is ours.”
His eyes turned wary—and burning. “Raindrop?”
“You secure the horses.” Rain slid from her saddle in front of the treehouse. “I’ll light the lamps in the room we’re sharing.”
When Daric entered the room she’d chosen for the night, Rain had an almost worrying glint in her eyes and wore an expression that barely sidestepped aggressive.
She held out her hand to him. Daric took it, and she tugged him closer.
Her silver hair was down, cascading around her shoulders like a river. She’d even removed the starflower, which she’d worn every day and night of their journey. Her eyes flicked up, meeting his, and they were like dusk, both dark blue and on fire. A knot tightened in his chest. He loved her more than anything.
She unclasped his cloak and began loosening the laces of his tunic.
“Rain?” Daric’s mouth went dry, and his voice croaked like a lad’s. He ached from the need to touch her.
“I’m counting on you to guide us, Daric. I mean… I understand the basics.”
His pulse pounded, heavy with desire. There were four walls. A bed. Privacy, even from the stars above them. And Rain was making herself perfectly clear.
He couldn’t resist smoothing his hands into her hair and weaving the silken strands between his fingers. “We have to break the curse first. We’ll be each other’s reward for saving Leathen.”
“Right now, Daric, I need you more than Leathen does.”
A wild burst of heat tore through him. He struggled against raw craving but felt his control slipping when Rain plucked at the laces of her tunic. The front gaped, revealing pale skin and the upper swells of her breasts, round and perfect.
Daric stared, mesmerized. He was two ragged breaths from undressing her entirely. His hands slipped to her shoulders, half pushing the material off, half trying to keep it on her.
“There could be consequences.” Daric’s hands flexed on her shoulders. “And if we fail, I’ll have to marry Astraea.” He already loathed the idea. Now, he could hardly contemplate it.
Rain stepped back and took off her clothing piece by piece until she stood naked before him. She was exquisite, so unbearably tempting. She was everything he’d dreamed about and more. If anything, her skin was smoother and her body more made for worshipping than he’d even imagined. The sight of her before him like this would haunt him forever if they were forced to live out their lives separately.
But then, as she backed right up against the bed she’d prepared for them, she made him a promise. “You won’t marry her. I won’t let that happen. Tomorrow, this ends forever.”
She was the most glorious being he’d ever laid eyes on, powerful in ways he knew he’d never truly understand, and when she vowed with such absolute certainty that he wouldn’t have to marry Astraea, Daric believed her. And it freed him.
His control evaporated. Rain was his. She always had been. Just as he was hers and would be forever.
Daric stripped off his clothing, and the way Rain looked at him made him believe he might almost be worthy of the goddess before him. “I love you more than all the magic and might in Braylian’s Cauldron.”
A shiver rippled over Rain, making her skin pebble with goose bumps and her nipples harden. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, and Daric believed that promise also.
He would do everything in his power to deserve her and the love she offered. He hadn’t kissed Rain before for fear of losing his mind to wanting her, but he couldn’t deny her—or himself—any longer. His devotion had always been there, laid out at her feet. Now, he couldn’t wait to spend the rest of his life proving how wholly his heart belonged to her.
Daric reached for her, that first touch of naked skin scalding and wonderful. His heartbeat accelerated. Rain wasn’t ignorant, even in sexual matters, but she had no experience. He knew he needed to be gentle and go slowly. Daric had little experience himself. He’d had exactly one encounter and had spent the entire time fantasizing about Rain, which had left him with a hollow feeling that lingered. Trying again had seemed pointless. Rain was the only woman he wanted.
Daric dipped his head and kissed her neck and shoulder. He trailed his mouth toward her jaw, soft as a feather. Her pulse fluttered, and she gripped his arms, drawing him closer. Her short, quick breaths warmed his skin, and then their lips met for the first time ever.
His blood ignited. With a deep rumble, Daric hauled her against him. Rain moaned into his mouth, her body scorching. She wrapped her arms around his neck and claimed him back, that first crush of lips hard, frantic, and intense enough to set alight the treehouse. Heat surged through him, stealing his breath, stiffening his cock, and setting his heart to pounding.
She broke away with a gasp. Both their chests heaved. Their eyes met, and Rain’s gaze was hot enough to sear him to the bone and leave him in ashes. Daric swept her into his arms and laid her on the bed. She reached for him, and he stretched out beside her, pouring a lifetime of passion into every kiss and an eternity of want into the reverent way he touched her. Rain rolled toward him, nestling inward, and kissed him back with a fever that made him delirious. Daric rocked against her. A harsh breath groaned out of him. She was soft and smooth and hot as a bonfire.
“I’ve dreamed of this so often,” he murmured between deep, soul-altering kisses.
“I feel you pulsing against my belly,” she whispered.
“I want you so much, I hurt.”
Rain lifted her hips, pressing into him. “I want to help.”
“You are.” He kissed her. He wanted to kiss her a thousand times for every beat of his heart. “You’re the ache and the cure.”
Daric bent his head and nuzzled her breasts. His hands skimmed her ribs. Rain shuddered, breathing faster. Already drunk on the taste of her, Daric took her nipple into his mouth and gently sucked. She groaned, arching against him and tilting her head back, her hair like a cloud around them.
Sensation rushed down his spine and flooded his groin. Everything tightened. His heart hammered and Daric pulled back, his jaw clenching. He let out a slow, shuddering breath and moved his hand down Rain’s body. He needed to bring her pleasure now, because he had no illusions about how long he would last once she was beneath him.