Page 120 of Enchanted Shadows
The tallest waterfall had to be seventy-five feet or more. The others about twenty feet. The water fell and crashed into a small creek at the bottom, which thinned out and carried the water away. I watched the water drop over the top, fearlessly rushing down to the bottom as if it were chasing its one great love.
“This is beautiful,” I told her. In the daylight with the sun, likely even more so.
“It’s my favorite place in Agria,” Kessara admitted.
“Not the castle?”
She shrugged. “I’ve always thought that place is a paradox to the saying that people who throw stones shouldn’t live in glass houses. Granted the palace glass is reinforced and not normal glass, but still.”
I let out a laugh.
“Now, let’s see how good you are at finding me, Commander.”
I grinned, up for the challenge. Though I was still sans shirt, the temperature out here had already dropped considerably, the cooler water from the falls helping even more.
It took me a full minute the first time. I was too distracted by the beauty of the scenery. She’d moved the pocket of shadows shehid in slightly, and that was when I saw the difference between her shadows and the darkness. True darkness still reflected some light, Kessara’s shadows ate all light.
I sent a tendril of my magic to wrap around her shadow haven and light it up where she hid around a tree. “Found you, Princess.”
She dropped the shadows. “Close your eyes and give me ten seconds to go again.”
“Really?” But before I could say a thing more, there were shadows over only my eyes. She’d shadowfolded me.
Humoring her, I counted to ten out loud. Once she allowed me to see again, this time I sent traces of my magic out all around me, seeking out the darkness. Where they struggled, there she’d be. I couldn’t penetrate her shadows, only light them up.
Sure enough, around a big boulder, I found a mass of darkness so brutal, the brightness of my small strand of green magic disappeared into it.
We went again; this time it had been a little harder, as she’d hidden up in a tree.
The thunder by this point was much louder. “Don’t you think we should head back?”
“One more,” she said on a sigh. Like she was disappointed to leave.
“One more,” I agreed.
She shadowfolded me again, and I was off to find her. Except none of my earlier tricks worked. She wasn’t in a tree. She wasn’t hiding around rocks. She wasn’t back down the path. Everywhere I sent my magic out was perfectly seen. Rolling lightning in sheet form was helping to light up the area, and even then, I could not find her.
I was about to try to talk to her, say something which would make her respond and give away her location, when I realized the only place I hadn’t checked was the falls themselves.
I sent out my magic to find out what was behind those falls. Asit moved, my magic struggled behind one of the smaller falls, like it had to go around something, and had cut off again before becoming visible.
I quickly moved up a five-foot rock pile and onto a foot-wide ledge which ran behind the waterfalls.
Unafraid to get wet, I needed a shower anyway, I stepped up next to the shadows. I whispered, “Found you.”
She dropped the shadows so I could see her. “I let you. I could’ve moved when I sensed you heading this way, but I play fair.”
Another loud clap of thunder hit the sky. As if that was commanding the storm, the rain unleashed in a torrent around us. Other than being splashed by the spray from the waterfall, we were safe tucked into this little cavern behind the waterfalls.
She gave me a smile and then took off, running directly for the waterfall.
“Are you mad, Princess?” I called, even as I chased after her.
“Wrong Zavatari sibling,” she called back over her shoulder.
I wasn’t about to be shown up by my wife like that, princess or not, so I jumped through the waterfall after her. The force of the water falling was brisk and far stronger than it looked as it stole my breath momentarily. A weightlessness hit me, right before the freezing water at the bottom of the falls slapped me back into reality. It was deep enough my feet only brushed the bottom, which I trusted Kessara to know, her having lived here her whole life. But the rush of cold water instantly chilled my bones. It was heaven.
Rain ricocheted off the water while we swam until we could touch better. Laughing, hair plastered to her face by the water and rain, my wife had never looked so damn beautiful.
