Page 89 of Spar of Hearts

Anya growled and bucked her head back, shifting the dress to her shoulders. Of all the places you could throw it…

“Apologies, my furry little Princess. Consider it payback for the seaweed.” Roderick leaned back on his hands and smirked.

Anya trotted over to the tree line, tail flicking with annoyance. She quickly shifted and threw on her dress. Every second she spent unclothed made her more and more conscious of Roderick’s presence just a few paces away. She forced the tied bodice over her chest. She wasn’t about to ask him to tie it. If she did, she may have him do the exact opposite.

When she returned, Roderick was laying back in the grass, looking as comfortable as a gryphon on a warm roof. She stood over him, tapping a foot impatiently. He wrapped a hand around her bare ankle and flashed that fanged smile of his.

“Lay down for a moment.”

“What? Why?”

“Far be it from me to order you around, Princess, but I do believe you have earned a moment to revel in your hard work. Look around. You got us to Aquillas.”

He was right. She wanted nothing more than to stare up at the sky for just a minute. This moment was months in the making. A few minutes wouldn’t hurt.

She laid beside him and stared up at the cotton clouds, relishing the tickle of grass on her arms and feet as it shaped around her. The soft grass, temperate breeze and floral symphony made her feel like they were carefree lovers, not two leaders with dozens of lives hanging in the balance.

Roderick popped the knuckles above him.

“Why do you do that?” she asked.

“Do what?”

“This.” Anya tried popping her knuckles, but nothing happened.

“It helps me think when I’m nervous. The sound, the sensation. It helps.”

“You’re nervous?”

“Any man would be nervous lying next to you. You could kiss me, or kill me. I find it rather thrilling.”

Yesterday had certainly tipped the scales closer to kiss than kill. And it was only going to get worse as the moon tilted to full.

Then there it was.

That damn whisper. It was almost like Roderick was tugging on a thread from the center of her chest. Each word disappeared under the chirp of birds and brushing strands of flora. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the words.

He’s right there…

Right there…

Your—

Roderick stood, and the voice evaporated. “We should move while it’s still daylight.”

They decided to head south, following the creek through the grassy hills and dodging chunks of ice that jutted from the earth. As the morning gave way to afternoon, the terrain slowly changed. The creek morphed from a little thread winding through the landscape to a tremendous river that joined a body of water that could fit the Lupus Star twenty times over—but there was still no sign of the ship. Or any ship, for that matter.

In a few short months, the Lupus Star had become her home, and she hadn’t taken even a moment to appreciate everything that made it so. She wanted to celebrate the dry land. But all she could think about was how every step brought her closer to being back on Eteross; how she’d never truly be home again.

Anya frowned at her reflection in one of the shiny chunks of ice. It was a little distorted, but she could still see the mess she’d become. Her hair was down and tangled, dress sea-stained with patches of mud on the skirt. She felt the same on the inside too. Mucky. Tattered. Lost.

“Ah!” Anya reeled back as Roderick’s distorted figure appeared on the other side of the ice, neck long and eyes the size of dinner plates. He flashed his fangs and hissed.

“You scared the daylights out of me!”

“Smiling is how you show fear?” Roderick stepped out from behind the glacier and chuckled to himself. “I’m learning new things about you every day.”

Anya pressed a hand to her face, feeling the heights of her cheekbones.