Page 21 of Legacy of Roses

He was laughing at her, but there was kindness behind the expression. She stared up into his eyes—now disconcertingly close. Her heart rate picked up despite her lack of motion, her gaze locked with his. At this distance she could see even more differences between Jace’s eyes and his. Dimitri’s were not only a lighter hazel but contained flecks of gold that amplified the warmth radiating from them.

Her heart picked up further. He was holding her as if she weighed nothing, his grip firm and light. If he bent his head just a little…

She wrenched her eyes away, turning her head slightly to break the moment between them. Her traitorous heart needed to go back to its usual rhythm. She had fallen for a pretty face once before, and she wasn’t going to do it again.

Dimitri stepped off the road, carrying her up the long drive.

Rosalie’s eyes immediately latched onto one of the new golden roses. Seeing it from closer range, it looked as if it were truly made of gold, the last of the sun’s rays bouncing off it and making it shine.

What price would such a perfect golden rose fetch? Glandorians were used to roses, but not ones like these. If she took just one, she could cure her family’s financial woes. They might even be able to move back into town again. All she needed to do was wriggle down and pick one. Just one. It would be?—

She gasped and shut her eyes tight, turning her face into Dimitri’s chest as if he could shield her from the Legacy. His muscles jumped, his arms tightening momentarily, but mercifully he said nothing. As humiliating as it was, she apparently did need him to carry her.

After what felt like several endless minutes, she cracked her eyes open and risked peeking toward the castle. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw they were nearly there.

“Aren’t you getting tired?” she asked, breaking the silence between them. She flushed slightly. “I’m not exactly light.”

He laughed. “You’re extremely light to me.”

She gave him a disapproving look. “I’m not interested in empty flattery.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he reassured her, although the amusement was back in his eyes. “But I didn’t mean it as a comment on your size. Carrying you really is easy, but I think that’s because of the Legacy—or at least the effects of it.”

“Why would the Legacy make me lighter?” Rosalie asked doubtfully.

“I don’t think it made you lighter; I think it made me stronger. Remember how I said that the Legacy weighed me down while I was growing up in the mountains? I’ve been waiting for the sense of lightness to wear off as I adjust to life here, but I’m not sure it’s going to. I didn’t just carry that weightfor a year or two—it was for all my growing years. I think my muscles—maybe even my lungs—grew stronger because of it.”

Rosalie’s eyes widened as he carried her up the front steps of the manor and used his shoulder to push the unlatched door wide. What he was saying actually made sense, and it made her feel a little better about using him like a beast of burden.

He put her gently down on her feet, and she pretended she didn’t feel cold and a little bereft when he stepped away from her, taking his strength and warmth with him. She looked briskly around the large entryway, turning her focus back where it belonged.

“Where’s Daphne? Shouldn’t she have heard us arrive? How far into the castle did you send her?”

Dimitri frowned. “Only into the sitting room. It’s that door there.” He pointed at a door on their left.

Fresh fear gripped Rosalie. Had something happened to her friend, alone in this enchanted castle?

She hurried toward the indicated door, bursting through into the room beyond. It was a long room, lined with windows on one side and a large fireplace on the other. A banked fire smoldered in the middle of the grate, giving the room a warmth that the entryway had lacked.

Along with the fire, the sitting room contained a range of furniture, including at least two writing desks, several clusters of chairs, and a number of small tables. One of the sofas and several armchairs had been pulled into a close semi-circle in front of the fireplace, creating a cozier circle in the large room. Rosalie’s eyes jumped straight to that space, but there was no sign of Daphne.

Rushing closer, Rosalie rounded the end of the sofa to find her friend laid out on its length. Dimitri gasped from behind her as Rosalie dropped to her knees beside Daphne.

“Is she all right?” Dimitri asked. “Is she under some kind of enchantment? I didn’t think leaving her here would?—”

“Relax.” Rosalie rocked back on her heels. “She’s just asleep.”

“A…sleep?” Dimitri looked so astonished, Rosalie couldn’t help bursting into laughter.

“Even…Even for Daphne this is a bit much,” she got out between giggles. Her eyes were watering with a combination of mirth and the release of tension, and she struggled to suppress the laughter.

Daphne responded to the noise, yawning and opening her eyes. As soon as she saw Rosalie kneeling beside her, she sat bolt upright.

“You’re back!” she cried. “Are you all right?” She leaned to the side, running her eyes over Rosalie from all angles, clearly looking for injuries.

“I was abducted, and you werenapping!” Rosalie tried to glare at her friend, but she hadn’t mastered the giggles that kept slipping out.

Daphne stretched, sitting upright again. “I paced for a good twenty minutes, you know!” She sounded indignant. “But then I realized that tiring myself out wasn’t doing you any good, so I thought I’d sit down.” She cast an affectionate look at the sofa. “It was very comfortable.”

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