Page 69 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

I nodded, picking idle flint off my jacket.

He mumbled something to himself in rage and then gestured to the horses.

“I didn’t ask you here to discuss your courses, nor Fayzien’s behavior. I have a present for you, and his name is ‘Romeo.’ He is a proud seventeen hands and a wonderfully clean ride. Unlike some of us around here,” Cas said, throwing another wink in with his last comment.

I rolled my eyes and approached Romeo. I showed him my hand, letting him warm to me as I stroked his face down to his velvety muzzle. “You’ve winked entirely too many times for this early an hour. And don’t think this makes me forget yesterday.” I paused. “But I will say, he’s a beauty.” I said the last part more to Romeo than Cas.

He moved behind me. “I’m sorry, Terra, truly. My words were cruel.”

Heat pricked my eyes. “Cas, I have no one to trust here,” I whispered, still facing away from him. “You are supposed to bemy oldest friend, my partner in crime, my confidant. But you give me half-truths—you didn’t even tell me Jana was my aunt. And yesterday, you treated me less than—less thanyou. Like if I didn’t fulfill the purpose you’d laid out for me, I was worth nothing.” I choked on my words.

If my revelation about Jana surprised him, he did not show it. He only placed both hands on my shoulders and brushed his lips against my neck. “I’m sorry,mi karus. I’m sorry,” he whispered into my skin.

I let my eyes shutter, tilting my head back into him, but I snapped out of it a moment later. I shrugged him off and turned around to face him. “That might work on you lovers, Cas, but it willnotwork on me. I don’t want gifts or murmured ‘I’m sorrys.’ I want a genuine apology.”

He chuckled, and I shot him a menacing look. He raised his hands in guilt and said, “Okay, okay. I’m sorry for speaking so cruelly and wrongly to you. I didn’t treat you as an equal. You deserve much better from me, Terra. I will… do my best never to address you that way ever again.”

I almost rolled my eyes. Something told me to have little faith in what ‘his best’ would translate into.

I followedCas on horseback through the winding cobblestone streets of Valfalla.

“Is it usual to be unaccompanied by guards?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I have a shadow, always. You probably haven’t noticed him. But other than that, a lot of those who live within these city walls are Fae. I fought alongside them in battle. They have my respect, and I theirs. I’ve never had a serious issue.”

After what felt like hours, we exited the city perimeter and reached open farmland. He kicked his horse into a gallop, and Romeo followed on instinct. Whether or not Cas intended it, simply allowing me space to run a horse out of the palace made my anger toward him slip away.

By the time he slowed, we had come upon what looked like a small, abandoned farmstead with a clear pond on its border. I recognized the place, remembering it from our youth. If we behaved, and if the heat of the day peaked to unbearable levels, our tutors would bring us here for morning studies. In the afternoon, Cas and I would swim in the pond.

It wasn’t quite mid-summer, and on the coast the temperature never rose to such heights, but here the air had heated up. The leather-corseted riding jacket stuck close to my body. A part of me longed to strip down, to feel the cool silky water on my bare, sweaty skin. Cas looked back at me with a devious smile, as if he thought the same. But instead of diving in, he walked around to the other end of the pond and knelt at the base of a large oak tree.

I lowered myself beside him. He ran his fingers over the bottom of the trunk, landing on a carving. He traced a line straight down to the ground from the marking and dug in the soft dirt.

I watched him in silence. He parted the dirt, making a mess of himself and getting nowhere. After a few minutes, I placed my hand on his. “Want me to help?”

He looked up at me in confusion, which then dissipated into a grin. “Go right ahead, Princess.”

I removed my riding gloves and rested my hands on the Earth, sensing the target of his digging. I found it in a moment and curled my power around it, a root pushing it to the surface.

The root rose, placing a worn leather pouch in his hand. He looked at me, awe creeping into his purple eyes. “What’s it like?” he asked after a moment. “Having power over something alive?”

“Some days, I think the Earth has power overme.” I chewed my lip. “But it’s not really like that—having power over something. It feels like a part of me… as essential as my breath or heartbeat.”

The side of his lip quirked and he turned back to the pouch. “Do you know why I always gave you purple stones when we were young?”

“Because they matched your eyes?”

Cas offered a rueful smile. “That’s part of it. Once, maybe a year or two after you arrived at the palace, you told me you liked my eyes because they were your favorite color. After that, I bought every purple stone I could get my seven-year-old hands on.” He laughed at the last part.

“But though I loved bestowing tanzanite and amethyst upon you,” he gestured to my left hand, “I never meant to propose with it.” He tipped the pouch into his palm, and a clear-stoned ring, set on a golden band, fell out.

He blew on it, clearing off the dust, but it scarcely needed it. Even in the tree’s shade, the stone reflected prisms of rainbow-colored light all around us. I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

“Seventy years ago, my father gave this to my mother when she won the Skøl. It belonged to an original High Fae Viri queen but had been lost for centuries. Darlan found it during his youth campaigns and swore he would give it to the female that proved to have the fiercest heart. The myth of this ring is that only the fearless can possess the power of the unknown stone. On her deathbed—my birthbed—my mother requested it be given to me as soon as I could close my fist. I had nearly nothing of her growing up, save for tales of her greatness. And this ring. Though I was young, I knew from the moment I met you thatyou, and only you, would wear it. When you were gone, I buried it and told my father I lost it. He beat me with a wet rope for that. It was worth it. Even if you never returned, Terra, I would have never placed this ring on the hand of another.”

Cas finished, and I realized my cheeks were wet. “Cas,” I whispered, “I don’t know what to say?—”

“I know you don’t want to get married yet; I know you still have many questions and doubts. And possibly feelings for someone else. That’s okay.” He met my eyes. “We’ll take it one step at a time, figure it out together. I just wanted to show you.”

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