Page 7 of Chaos and Destiny
“What?” I’d been lost in my own thoughts.
“Where is your mind lately?”
“It’s here. I’m here.” I forced a smile.
She stopped and crossed her arms. “You’re not here, Temir. You’re exactly the opposite of here. I’ve stopped by several times, in fact, when you were nowhere to be found. Tell me what’s going on. I hope you know you can trust me.”
It was so hard to look into those feline eyes and lie, but I had made a promise to the rebellion, and until it was time to recruit Gaea, I would have to keep her out of it. For both of our sakes. “I’ve been around. Usually in the garden rooms or my solar. The more inexperienced soldiers we have coming in to train, the more demanding the use of my healing is.”
Her eyes looked back and forth between mine as she tried to ascertain the truth, but I held her gaze, and eventually she gave up, leading the rest of the way to the barn.
As she had guessed, Marte stood just inside talking to the boy. “You’ve got to get the mare out of the pit and get her into the third stall before nightfall. You leave her tied up to the post too long, we will have a repeat of last week.”
“Yes, master. I’ve done that already.”
“And you—”
“Ahem,” Gaea interrupted.
The stable master turned to see us waiting and took a step back into the barn. He’d been careful around me ever since I threatened his measly life. I was still not ashamed. I watched him clutch the whip in his hand, and knew I’d do it again if needed.
“He’s just finishing up his chores now, my lady,” Marte said.
She sauntered across the barn, touched a finger to his small hand, and with his jaw on the floor, she pulled the whip from him.
“I don’t think we’ll be needing this today, will we?” she asked in a tone that stirred something feral inside of me.
Sometimes I forgot that I wasn’t the only male enthralled by her beauty though, as far as I knew, I was still the only male she’d acted upon those desires with. If only she would come back to me. If only I didn’t spend half my time pining over a female I loved who would not love me back.
She hung the whip above the tack table and winked at the smiling boy.
“You may go, boy,” Marte managed to get out.
“Thank you, master.” He dropped his saddle on the workbench and ran for the door. “Hey, Tem.” He bounced on his feet.
“Hey, Rock,” I answered, turning back to the castle.
“Gaea, tell him not to call me Rock. It’s not a name.”
She chuckled and looked at me questioningly.
I shrugged. “He needs a name.”
“Oh yes, he sure does.” She smiled down at him. “What would you like to be called, then?” She took his hand in hers as we walked back to the castle.
“I dunno. Hey,” he said, stopping. “I thought you said we could go to the river for dinner this time.” He dropped his hand, giving her a pouty face.
“Come on, kid. Dinner’s already inside.”
“No.” Gaea lifted her palm to stop me. “I did promise, and a deal is a deal. Hands in.” She held her palm out.
I scoffed, and she gave me a death glare, so I shook my head and took her hand, smashing the boy’s hand between ours. One moment we were standing in the cold snow outside the castle stables, the next, we were surrounded by lush green grass and the sound of a river rushing by on the edge of a dense forest.
“What will we eat?” the boy asked.
“Should have thought about that before you insisted we leave,” I grumbled.
Gaea swatted my arm and knelt before the kid. “Leave it to me.” She was gone before I could protest and then back again moments later. “Shall we?” She held a towering tray of food I knew she had stolen from the kitchens.
