Page 70 of Galadon
Finally, the pain inside abated, and Rayna caught her breath. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
“I sensed you needed it,” he said.
It was then that she noticed his eyes were moist, too. The flames in them were banked. He’d cried for her, and maybe for some of his own suffering as well. The famous lone-shifter who never showed his deeper feelings or a moment of weakness hadgiven her the gift of seeing this vulnerable and intimate side of him. It was incredibly humbling.
She rested her head on his shoulder, and they sat in silence for a little longer. Two people with different—yet—shared pain. It meant so much that he didn’t hide his from her either. Now that they were together, they’d find a way to heal all their past trauma. It wouldn’t be in a day or week, but they’d get there with time. Something told her it would all work out. For the first time in a long while, she dared to hope for a brighter future.
“Isn’t there something else you’re supposed to show me?” she asked, looking up at him.
Galadon cleared his throat. “Yes, though I don’t have a name for it. It’s probably best you see it soon because the sun will set in another hour.”
That’s when Rayna remembered Onyx and the meal she’d brought. She turned her gaze toward the woods and found the horse had pilfered through the bag, and the contents were spilled across the ground. Whatever treat was inside for him was long gone.
“Really, Onyx?”
I was bored and hungry,he said into her mind.You were busy.
Galadon chuckled, staring at her horse. “He gets more interesting by the day. Now he’s speaking into our minds simultaneously.”
“You heard him, too?” she asked, shocked.
“Yes.” He nodded. “That is no ordinary stallion.”
“I think we’ve already established that, and everyone who has met him would agree.”
Galadon rose to his feet, pulling her up with him. “And they’d be right.”
“Okay, so what are we looking at next?”
Galadon pointed to a spot off in the distance that she could barely make out with the sun low in the sky. “That way.”
He took her hand and led her in that direction. As they came closer, she sensed the difference in the magic. It wasn’t bad exactly, but it felt so foreign. Then she frowned as she saw how the vegetation in this area was very different.
“Is that blue-green grass?” she asked, frowning.
“Yes. I take it you haven’t seen that shade anywhere in your travels.”
She shook her head rapidly. “Definitely not. Those flowers are weird, too.”
“I learned the hard way not to get close to them. They come every spring for about six weeks, and then go away,” he said, stopping once they were about ten feet from the edge of the grass. “They spray anyone who gets too close with poison.”
“Why are they here?”
Galadon gestured toward the middle. “There is something buried down there that seems to encourage the growth since it expands a little each year. I tried digging for it during the summer when there are no threatening flowers, but it’s impossible and causes intense pain to try.”
Her mind turned at the new information. She glanced back at the fairy ring a few hundred feet away and then to theland with the buried artifact. “Someone left a powerful object of some sort down there and went to a lot of trouble to protect it, but they have a way back with the ring.”
“That’s what I think, and my mother has confirmed that’s why she brought me to this place as another layer of protection. The seers impressed upon her that I must guard it, though now she has added that you are part of the plan, too.”
A shiver ran down Rayna’s spine. “The Kandoran were creepy enough, but this is even weirder. People from another world may come back here someday. We’re supposed to just guard it until then and hope the right ones show up?”
“As I said, I am only guessing at that part.”
“Thank you for showing me this,” Rayna said, surprisingly fine with the idea of joining him for this duty. He’d done it alone for long enough.
He gave her a self-deprecating smile. “You probably shouldn’t thank me, considering we have no idea what will happen.”
She jumped a little as she felt the gentle touch of a spell settle onto her skin, compelling her to protect and defend this place. She wondered if Galadon had even been old or wise enough yet to recognize the spell when he first came here.
