Page 39 of Fated Flames: Volume Two
Before I can gather a response, he bends down, seizes my hand, and draws me to my feet. A fur is snatched from the bed and flung over my shoulders, and I hold to it wordlessly as Soren shoulders on the pack.
“Ready?” he asks.
“I have no idea.”
He very nearly grins at this.
Outside the tent, two of my guards—Boyd and Fuller—keep watch, though they don’t so much as glance my way as I emerge with the king. I’m looking at them and wondering at this sudden change when Soren sweeps me up into his arms, making me gasp aloud.
“What are you—?”
But I cut my own words short as great wings unfurl behind him, wings the deep scarlet of dark rubies, which might make me think of Princess Rosa just then and begin my spiral anew if Soren weren’t crouching down as if for an enormous leap. His arms, already tight on me, press me closer to his bare chest.
He’s going to fly.
No sooner has the thought flitted across my mind than he leaps.
I clap a hand over my mouth as we burst off the ground. We’re higher than the tents, then the lake’s rim, and now I’m staring out in awestruck wonder at an endless ocean of sand, the crests gleaming in the moonlight, the moon itself staggering in its nearness.
“Soren,” I say, the only breathless word I can manage.
He does grin then.
“Look up,” he says.
I tilt my head back, my stomach swooping, my mouth falling open.
The stars.
I’ve seen them through my telescope, of course, seen their brilliance winking back at me, but this—I know it’s silly, that they’re innumerable leagues away—but this makes them seem near enough to touch.
“Soren,” I say again.
Wind listing through my hair, I cling to him and the fur as we fly. I have no sense of time or distance, only the beauty above and the warmth beneath, holding me secure.
At some point, we begin to descend, and the dropping sensation that comes has me tightening my arms around Soren’s neck, but we settle to the ground with the easy grace of a tern come to rest.
“When you said we were going to the stars,” I say, laughing as Soren sets me on my feet, “I didn’t know you actually meanttothem.”
He shakes tousled hair from his eyes. “You liked it then?”
My gaze drifts back to the sky before returning to him. “I loved it.”
His mouth curls with satisfaction.
“Come,” he says. “Sit,” and when I do, he follows suit and begins to draw parcels from his pack, each of them wrapped in bright napkins.
“Is it cake?” I ask, fighting a smile.
“Of course it is.”
To my surprise, there are also some savory options, chicken, cheeses, and the like. We settle into a comfortable quiet as we eat and gaze at the stars.
“Selena won’t believe me when I tell her,” I say, “that we flew like that.”
“When she comes, I will take her as well, if she wishes.”
A swell of affection spreads through me, and I can’t help glancing at him, though I had been avoiding doing so for fear of blushing at his attire, or lack thereof. He’s still studying the sky, his wings like dark sentinels on either side of him.
