Page 287 of Kingdoms of Night

His nose led him to her usual haunt of the gardens. He could tell she’d been there. The fertile soil was turned over where he could see two Enid-sized footprints and a few plants behaving in an unusual manner. Unusual in that they hushed one another and hid their faces when he looked down.

Looking down, he also saw her flower seed. She’d planted it. Did that mean she was truly committed to staying with him? Then where was she? Her scent lingered, but he could tell she hadn’t been here for some time.

Lifting his nose to the wind, he searched her out. But he couldn’t grab the direction of the scent. He wandered for a time before returning to their rooms. As he came to the door, something smelled... off.

Enid was inside the room. She sat in the window seat, gazing out at the setting sun. She didn’t start when he came in. Geraint doubted she sensed his presence at all.

Her brows were drawn in, and she worried her lip. As Geraint drew nearer, he noted she wasn’t looking up at the sun. She was looking down at the soil.

“I wondered if my rooms were up too high for your comfort.”

Enid’s sharp intake of breath stole the sweetness from the air. She blinked up at him, clearly startled. Her surprise only lasted a split second before she fixed her features. When she let go of the breath she’d sucked in, Geraint couldn’t help but notice a hint of bitterness in the air.

“Candor.” Enid pushed away from the window seat and came to stand. But she didn’t come to him.

Geraint could see the hesitation in her. It was as though she wanted to run to him but held herself back. He could also see the soil at the hem of her pale gown. Her lavender toes were bare. He expected to see the same rich, brown earth covering her heels from the gardens. Instead, the dirt there was a pale tan. More like dusty sand.

“Your rooms are perfect, my lord.”

My lord. She hadn’t called him that since they’d arrived in Camelot.

Geraint reached out his hand to her. He held his breath as she looked down at his open palm. He released that breath when her hand came into his.

He tugged gently, making the directive a suggestion and not a command. Her footsteps faltered, but she came to him. She rested her free hand on his chest, right over his beating heart. Then, as if she couldn’t help herself, her body melted into his. She wrapped both her arms around him, holding him tight as they snicked into place.

They stood like that for a long moment. Possibly for the rest of the night, Geraint couldn’t be sure. Time moved differently when he was with her.

Their courtship had been brief by the measurements of her world, but back in his reality, it had been months. It had felt to Geraint as though he’d experienced every one of those seconds in real time in his heart.

“Are you homesick, Enid?”

“No!”

The word was spoken so harshly he didn’t need to question the sentiment. Her body jerked, as though to pull away from his. He held her fast. She did not fight his hold.

“If there was something you needed, you would tell me?”

He felt her shift. Instead of looking up at him, she turned her head from the right side of his chest to rest on the left side. Her hold tightened slightly around him. He felt the tendril of a vine snake out of her fingertips and wind its way around his torso.

Geraint had learned that this was an involuntary response of hers. Much like a dog wagging its tail when it was happy. He looked forward to her body twining with his. It let him know without any doubt that she wanted him.

“Where were you today?” he asked. “I looked for you after training.”

“I was in the gardens.”

Another vine sprouted from the opposite direction. It tightened around Geraint’s torso.

“I must have just missed you,” he said.

Enid bobbed her head, still looking away from him and not up into his face. The bitter scent swirled around the crown of her head.

“You seem tired tonight,” he said. “Did you get enough to eat for your stomach and your stems?”

The hold around him tightened more. It wasn’t her vines this time. It was her arms. For a second, her floral scent returned to what he’d grown accustomed to.

“Enid?” he asked softly. “If something is wrong, if you are in need, you have only to ask, and I swear I will do all that is in my power to make it right.”

“No, no, no.” She pulled away from him then. “You must stop doing that.”

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