Page 79 of Daughter Of The Ninth Line
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tightly. “He’ll be back. He’s devoted to you—he’ll never leave you unless you make him.” I could relate to the little rodent.
Letting out a shuddering breath, she leaned into me. The forest around Boellium was beautiful. Not as beautiful as my home, but still, something settled in my chest to be surroundedby animals and wilderness after being cooped inside the walls of the war college.
“It’s so peaceful out here,” she whispered. She’d be happy in the wilderness around the Third Line Barony. I knew she would.
“It reminds me of home,” I said simply. Hearing a rustle in the bushes, I smiled. “Ah, here comes your surprise.”
In the blink of an eye, the clearing was consumed by soft purple fur and the sound of Avalon’s soft laughter. “Oh my Goddess! Where did they all come from?” There must have been fifty little stolts in the clearing now, from mature adults to the smallest of kits.
“They all come here to den on the island and have their young. No one really knows how they get here, but it’s one of the few places in Ebrus where stolts reproduce. They don’t live here all year around, though, preferring the mainland forests for food. Your Epsy wanted you to meet his family.”
Avalon lay back and allowed the creatures to swirl over her in a soft flurry of fur. Watching the pure joy on her face made happiness bubble in my own chest.
I wanted to make her this happy every day for the rest of my life.
chapter forty-nine
Avalon
Happiness had always feltlike a fleeting sensation, something so warm and bright that it briefly chased the chill from the cold, dark crevices of my life before disappearing again. I felt like I was forever chasing just a taste of sunshine.
Right now, though, I was basking in that happiness, lying on a blanket in the middle of a forest with a man I barely knew, but who somehow felt like home. In fact, he felt more like home than any other place or person ever had, and I didn’t understand why.
At some point, the hounds had joined us in the clearing, and the stolts hadn’t been even remotely fazed about the apex predators in their midst. A lack of self-preservation must be a stolt trait, because they played up and over the wiry fur of Braxus’s coat, hiding beneath Alucius’s legs, and generally playing, like a mass of purple fur.
I laughed as one ran up my torso to curl up on my chest. Within seconds, it was asleep, like someone had flicked an off switch. Hayle stared down at me indulgently, lifting a strawberry to my lips so I could eat without dislodging the stolt. It seemed… intimate. Frighteningly so.
Not because I was scared of Hayle; I was just terrified by the whirl of emotion that had lodged in my chest as I watched him.The joy, the desire… the something else I couldn’t name because it would make no sense, but it wasthere, resting deep in my chest.
“Do you believe in soulmates?” The question burst from my lips before I could swallow it back down.
Hayle froze, the berry pausing inches from my lips. He cleared his throat. “Yes. The concept of a soulmate is revered by the Third Line. We call them Soul Ties, though.”
I hummed a thoughtful sound, reaching up to take a bite of the strawberry. “What’s it like? Being part of the Third Line?”
He chewed his lip, his gaze running all over my face like he was memorizing the lines of it. “It’s like the comfort of strong arms. Like having someone you trust at your back, so you can rest.”
I closed my eyes against the words, trying to imagine what that felt like, to be able to trust like that. “Sounds nice.” I tilted my head toward a small patch of sun, feeling the warmth on my face, the light turning the world pink behind my eyelids. “I don’t think I’ve ever trusted anyone that much.”
“Not even your family?” I could hear his frown.
My lips turned down. “Maybe my siblings. Kian especially—he’s the Heir. He cared for me the best he could, I guess. He was older when my mother died.” I cut off the words. The sun and good vibes were making me a little more free with my past than I should be.
“What about your father? Surely he protected you?” Hayle asked, and I shook my head once. “Anything you tell me stays with me, Avalon Halhed. I swear this on the honor of my Line.” His voice was soft, so filled with compassion, that I opened my eyes. He was right there, staring down into my face with an expression that I couldn’t understand, but made my heart race.
I believed him. “My father hates me.” It was the truth, one that I’d expressed to myself and my siblings many times, theone that was generally accepted by the people of the Ninth Line Barony.
The Baron of the Ninth Line hated his youngest daughter because she’d murdered his wife, the great love of his life, his only guiding light.
Hayle didn’t negate my words. Didn’t smooth them over with gentle denials that a father could never hate his daughter. “His loss,” he said gently. Then he dipped forward and brushed his lips along mine. The kiss was so soft, I wondered if it was just a dream, a desperate hope.
But when he deepened the kiss, something settled in my chest. This was happening, and when I kissed him back, he groaned into my mouth. He leaned over me, pressing his chest to mine, his arms bracketing my shoulders. Pulling back, he stared down at my face as if I wasn’t real.
“You feel so fucking perfect. How can you feel this right?” he whispered against my lips, before diving back in and kissing me again. The stolt that had been asleep on my chest wiggled out from between our bodies, then it was just me and Hayle and no space between us. My body curled up toward him, like no space was still too much space.
One of his hands reached down to slide along my side, gripping my hip with firm fingers and dragging me closer, like he too wanted to crawl inside me and be one person. It wasn’t my first kiss, but kissing one of the stable boys when I was fifteen had been nothing like this. This was so much more.
Finally, Hayle dragged himself away, moving back a little, his forest-green eyes almost glowing, wild and uncivilized. “I swear this isn’t what I brought you out here for.”
