Page 17 of Forbidden Obsession
Mother, as if sensing this, stands up, brushes off her skirts, and puts her hands on her hips. “Well, go on, then. I know you want to.” Her eyes twinkle when she looks at me.
“You don’t mind if I tell him?”
She laughs. Relief courses through me to see her jovial nature shine through even the most dramatic of mornings. “Never in a million years. I’m glad you and Jindal don’t keep secrets from each other. It’s a good thing.”
I kiss her cheek. “Thank you, Mother.”
“Come back tomorrow and tell me what he thinks of this registration and pledge business.”
“I will.”
The door sticks on my way out, swollen in its frame like it always is when the weather warms, reminding me that some things never change. I hurry to prepare Magna for a ride, eager to find Jindal, who’s cloistered off with his father getting this season’s crop into the ground while the temperature is perfect.
They won’t have heard the news and won’t be expecting anything more than the usual good tidings. I’ll need a good excuse to steal Jindal away from his father today, and I have only the ten-minute ride to their place to think of one.
ChapterEight
Jindal
The sun warms my back,dirt clings underneath my fingernails, and every seed gets a little whisper of my magic to help it along. All the makings of a wonderful day.
I love this time of year. Planting season. I love the harvest too, but there’s something about a fresh beginning, a clean slate, and a tilled field full of potential that both energizes and calms me at once.
Father is working on our leafy greens section while I’m tending the beans. Long beans, purple runners, succotash, dragon tongues, and winged snake beans, all planted beneath the scattered shade of the trellis Rahz and I built together so they can climb as high as they want.
The telltale clomping of hooves catches my attention, and I glance up. Rahz is racing our way astride Magna.
What’s got him in such a hurry?
I stand and stretch my body while he dismounts and loops Magna’s reins over the fence. For a few seconds, he doesn’t move, a distressed expression on his face. Something is wrong. Without a backward glance at my father—he’ll disapprove of anything that pauses my work in our fields today—I trot over to Rahz to find out what’s going on.
He meets me halfway. “Jin.”
His eyes look sad. I reach for him, and he scoops me up. While this sort of greeting isn’t unusual for us, the way he holds me feels different. Like I’m a lifeline and he’s a drowning man.
“What’s happened, Rahz?” I murmur against his neck, where my face is practically smooshed against his throat. “Why are you sad?”
He sets me down. “Can we go somewhere? The lake, maybe.”
“Of course.” Father won’t like it, but I don’t care. I’m too old now to be thrown across his lap for a spanking, and he can be mad all he likes. Won’t be much different from any other day.
Rahz gathers Magna’s reins, and we walk through the fields, past our cottage, and out of my father’s hearing range.
“So what’s the matter? I’m worried now.”
“Where should I begin?”
He’s not really asking me. He’s sorting it out in his mind. I can tell by the look on his face, both thoughtful and troubled. I shift my gaze to the yellow buttercups dotting the ground ahead of us and give him the time he needs.
As we walk, a slow meandering amble, the story unfolds one shaky sentence at a time. First his mother’s tale. Much of which we’d already expected. At least something along those lines, that is. We’ve done quite a lot of speculating over the years, as she’s never spoken at length about Rahz’s father before now. We knew he was fae, of course, and that he was gone but not dead, and that was it.
As he recounts his mother’s words, I hold Rahz’s hand, knowing he feels he’s to blame for his father’s absence. For the abandonment of his mother in her time of need. I also know there’s nothing I can say to him in this moment to change his mind, but perhaps, over time, he’ll understand it’s not his fault.
Magna, too, senses his distress. She snuffles his hair, lipping the flowing silver locks and covering them in nose slime, which, at least, makes us both chuckle despite the somber mood.
By the time we reach the grassy banks of Mirror Lake, he’s telling me of the royal delegation’s visit, their fancy wagons, and their strange proclamations. With the flurry of activity spring planting entails, I’d all but forgotten they’d be passing through. But Rahz was in town with many of the other villagers to greet them, along with Jodpirn’s representative, Anax Grippa.
“Wait, what?” I stop midstride. “They want us to go all the way to Lemossin to sign some fancy piece of paper?”
