Crashing water welcomed us.
I opened my eyes to emerald luxury. A roaring waterfall tumbled over giant stones, plummeting into a river that eased out of sight in a lazy warble.
Trees sprawled overhead, casting dappled light. The pristine water revealed rounded rocks on the bottom. The cool lake beckoned my parched throat, hot skin. Behind it, mountains ribboned out of sight in towering rock walls.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“The North.”
“Are you allowed to be here?”
He grinned, already wading into the water fully clothed. “Let them come find me.”
The clear pool, untroubled by the sloshing foam at the bottom of the waterfall, cut into ripples as he eased under the water and back up. Hair slicked back, mossy eyes bright against darkened roots, he beckoned with a crook of his hand.
“Scared of the water, little troublemaker?”
Roaring fire still burned through my ears, a frightful disaster I’d rather forget. I reached out to touch the mist with my fingertips. The velvety soft texture eased by in a cloud, scampering past. I reached down to untie my sandals.
“How do you know about this place?”
“My father.”
The water deepened as he ducked under, disappearing for several moments. When he resurfaced, char and dirt sloughed off his arms, darkening the pool.
Second sandal freed, I tossed it aside, scrambling after him. The cool liquid slipped around my ankles, calves, and knees. I dove under, luxuriating in the sensation as it wrapped my body. Heat dissipated. Coolness returned. I stayed beneath the water until my chest ached.
A hand clamped around my arm and tugged. I surfaced to find Merrick a breath away. He pulled me close, where my toes barely touched. Water lapped around his shoulders, wiping the stains free.
I coiled my arms around his neck, pressed a fast kiss to his lips. Wet cords of hair snaked around his dirty forehead. I pushed them back with a hand, enjoying the languorous way he smiled. His levity faded into concern. Arms wrapped my waist, he closed the space between us.
“I’m glad you’re all right, B. I worried about you.”
“Thank you for not trying to stop me.”
He snorted. “There’s no stopping the Lady-witch of Letum Wood.”
I grinned, hands cupping his face. He leaned closer, devouring me in a kiss hot as the inferno. I tasted heat and fire. We drifted in the water, tight in each other's arms, for minutes. When I pulled back, he grinned with swollen lips.
“You don’t talk about your father that much,” I murmured. “Why not?”
A contemplative expression filled his face. “I don’t know. I think about him all the time.”
“He was important to you?”
“Very.”
“What’s your favorite memory with him?”
He leaned back, wetting his hair in the water. I swallowed a billowing attraction. Merrick affected every part of me: heart, spirit, soul. One look from him could bind all my organs together for hours.
While he fell into thought, I sank back into the water, grabbed sand with my fist, and surfaced. I sat on a rock and scrubbed the sand into my skin. Slashes of black rubbed free.
“My favorite memory of my father,” he murmured, stealing sand from my outstretched palm. “There are so many. The ones I think of the most? The days when he showed me the North. He was proud of his Network, his work as a Master. We transported everywhere, to places like this.”
His head tipped back, regarding the foliage.
“I have so many places to show you,” he murmured.
“I can’t wait.”
“He became a trainer for incoming Masters.” Merrick shoved the hair out of his eyes. “He taught Regina.”
I perked up.
“Really?”
“Really. She was a mess at the time, I hear.” He scoffed. “Doesn’t surprise me.”
His quick clip would have made me laugh, but any mention of Regina made my throat tighten.
“He wasn’t much older than her,” he continued, oblivious. “He’d only been in the Masters a handful of years when she popped up, but he was a natural teacher. A natural at everything, really. One of those witches that prospered at whatever he tried.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“The entire North mourned when my father died.”
He dipped under the waterfall. It crashed against his shoulders before he disappeared beneath. He popped to the top a few paces away. His laid-back air as he swam around mesmerized me.
A jungle-like forest lay at the top of the rocks, about thirty paces high. It stretched out of sight beyond. I wanted to go to one of the trees and press my hand to it. Did Deasylva linger here, as well?
“You like to swim?” I called as I scooped more handfuls of sand onto my clothes to scrub the grime free. Soot and ash ballooned out with each pass. I might have to turn the clothes to rags after this.
“Yes, but it’s too cold to swim near Balmberg most of the time and I haven’t seen any lakes in Letum Wood yet.”
For several minutes I scrubbed, he swam. By the time he tired of it, I had peeled all but my dress off. Stockings, shoes, scarf, lay scattered across the sand under the warm sun. My skin smarted from being scrubbed clean. I worked soft, gray soap that I had summoned from home slowly through my tangled hair. Little bubbles flowed into the lake as I rinsed them free.
Merrick watched as I gently worked a bone comb through the tangles.
“You’re a wonder, B.”
Startled, I met his gaze. He grinned. He’d pulled his shirt off, thrown it on a nearby rock. It lay in a wet pile.
“Thank you?”
He chuckled, then strode out of the lake. Water streamed off his chest as he lowered himself onto the rock next to me, luxuriating in the sun. I brought my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. He closed his eyes, set a hand on the middle of my spine, and lay back. A chill slipped over the day. I glanced up, felt Merrick do the same.
Shadowed clouds blocked the sun. Dark, ominous things that appeared almost black. Merrick’s fingers tensed against my skin.
“What is that?” I asked.
“The storm from the Eastern Network,” he muttered grimly. “It’s been making its way across the North.”
“Are we that far to the east?”
“No.”
“But—”
“It’s been growing without stopping. Covers half the North, most of the East. It’ll cover all of Alkarra, at this rate, within a week or two.”
“Jikes.”
He nodded.
The elation of our hidden sanctuary dissolved in a distant growl of thunder. Merrick sat up and glowered at the sky. I tipped my head back.
“I don’t want to return. Once I go back, there will be questions from the Council about the forest, and Scarlett may want me to ask the trees to fight now, and . . . Arborra and . . . I wonder where my father is? He’ll be upset he wasn’t here to help. I think . . .”
My thoughts trailed off, into exhausted meanderings that didn’t make sense. Merrick fisted part of my dress in his hand, then released it.
“Don’t think about it, B. Right now, it’s you and me. That’s all that matters. Give yourself an hour to not be the Lady-witch of Letum Wood. For an hour, be mine.”
The invitation was too powerful to ignore. I lay next to him on the rock. My hair sprawled in wet strands behind me as I settled onto his shoulder. He curled an arm around my back, pulled me tight to his side.
I closed my eyes.
Sleep pulled me under.