Page 115 of Lake of Sorrow

“Wrestling with temptation?” she asked.

“Around you? Always.” He smiled again, but his eyes were haunted. “I wish you could be…”

“Your mate?” Kaylina raised her eyebrows.

“Is that what the beast said?”

“Yeah. He growled it.”

“He’s not as conflicted as I am.”

She started to smile, sensing he meant it to be a joke, but the words made her pause, remembering her conversation with Targon. “Are you only conflicted because you worry about us being together waking the beast or… do you not want…”

“What?”

“If we weren’t— If you weren’t drawn to me or my blood or whatever it is, would you want to be with me?”

“You’re beautiful, Kaylina. Many men want to be with you.”

“I don’t mean just for sex. Would you…” She trailed off. What did she want? For him to say he adored her personality as well as her body and that he wanted to marry her? They hadn’t known each other that long, and she didn’t want to get married. All she wanted was someone who could care about her, maybe even love her, even though she wasn’t normal. “Would you be into me, as a person, if we weren’t attracted to each other because of this strange magic?”

Vlerion hesitated.

Kaylina looked away, a lump of disappointment forming in her throat. Before he spoke, she knew what his answer would be.

“I don’t know. I believe it’s possible, but the draw makes it hard to tell. I do admire your bravery and tenacity.”

“Yeah, I hear those are sexy.”

He frowned, and she lifted a hand to wave away the discussion. She wasn’t being fair by wanting more from him.

“I don’t wish to hurt you,” Vlerion said, “but I don’t want to be dishonest with you either.”

“Honesty’s good,” she mumbled.

And it was. She’d just come to care too much and wanted too much. But could she answer the question any differently if he asked the same of her? She admired him for his bravery and abilities as a ranger, but would she risk rousing the beast if she weren’t so intensely attracted to him? To that side of him?

“Sorry.” She made herself meet his eyes again. “It was a silly thing to ask.”

“It’s not silly to wonder that. It’s natural. I…” He paused to look around.

Only then did Kaylina realize that Levitke had slowed down and that they weren’t alone. Numerous sets of brown taybarri eyes stared out at them from tunnels, clumps of boulders, and the alpine grasses of a valley.

31

No matter how grand the adventure, the yearning to return home always arises.

~ Elder Taybarri Ravarn

Levitke whuffed, then let out a high-pitched noise that Kaylina hadn’t heard from a taybarri before, a cross between a goat’s bleat and a bird’s cheep. Several answering bleat-cheeps came from the tunnels. Levitke rose up on her hind legs, forelimbs swatting at the air, and Kaylina snatched fistfuls of fur to keep from falling off. Vlerion gripped fur and her.

As soon as Levitke’s paws touched down again, he said, “Get off. Your taybarri is overly excited.”

“She’s not my taybarri,” Kaylina said but obeyed the order to slide to the ground. “She’s simply been kind enough to give me rides in exchange for honey drops.”

Levitke bounced around like a puppy as other blue-furred taybarri ran out of the tunnels. To greet her, Kaylina assumed from Levitke’s reaction, but these wild taybarri had the same fangs and powerful muscles of the ranger mounts. Getting in the way of one would not be wise.

Unconcerned, Levitke romped over to meet them. On the way, she bounced and hopped.

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