Page 254 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Way to ruin it, Myrrdin!
I shook my head, certain of at least one aspect of my unwritten story. “I’ve already decided—Briar and I have no future.”
Myrrdin’s lips quirked. “Maybe not in a romantic sense, but he remains in the picture.”
That might’ve been okay with me. I might’ve assumed that meant Briar and I would remain friends. But the way Myrrdin said the wordromanticunsettled me. Because even on Earth, romance was an afterthought where royal marriages were concerned.
Mulish as Bob, I shouted so that even the fucking fates above could hear me. “I’mnotmarrying Briar!”
This time, I detected delight in Myrrdin’s inscrutable grin. “As you say, Amy.” Oddly, I got the feeling he wasn’t patronizing me—that maybe he’d been testing me.
After regaining my composure, I cleared my throat. “About the corruption you tried to tell me about last night—”
Myrrdin nodded.
“Tell me about it again.” I grimaced sheepishly. “I’ll listen this time.”
“Basically,MyrrdinsaidBriarhas stopped making decisions based on logic and ethics,” I told Pete later that night as we soaked together in a burbling hot spring. He relaxed across from me, his arms stretched out along the rocky, mossy ledge of the spring. “Instead, he’s making them now based on fear.”
Pete’s heavy brow got heavier. “Fear of what?”
I shook my head, letting my hands float on an eddy of salty, steamy bubbles. “Myrrdin doesn’t know, but the premonition disturbed him. He saw a large royal force preparing for battle.”
Pete’s eyes brightened in the dusky vapor. “Against Gentian?” He sat straight and leaned closer. “If that’s the case, then—”
I grimaced. “If Briarisgoing to war with Gentian, Myrrdin got the sense he wouldn’t exactly be successful.”
Pete slumped back against the ledge again, expelled a breath. “Bugger.”
“Yeah.” I made a face at the blurry outline of my legs.
Several moments passed before Pete turned up a hand. “At the least, it shows Briar’s trying to do right—even if he’s doing it recklessly.”
I wondered what was going on in my—ex’s?—head. “If he’s actually going after Gentian, then yeah.”
Maybe. Briar was, after all, the male who’d literally taken food from hungry children in the name of doing what was right. “But we don’t know if he is,” I reiterated.
“Aye, but who else would he ready a force against? Is there anyone he—”
“Can we stop talking about Briar?” I interrupted, growing flustered at having to anticipate and analyze my betrothed’s intentions. I’d never been good at that. And Ihatedthat I was going to have to do it again very soon.
Pete arched a brow. “Youbrought him up, Shorty.”
“I know.” I pouted. “It’s just reminding me of all the shit I’ll have to deal with when we reach the Spring Palace.” We’d already agreed, we’d leave together in a week. “And I just—I can’t talk about him anymore.”
Pete’s expression softened. He waded across the pool to me and draped an arm across my shoulders. My body melded to his warm breadth. “Then we won’t talk about him.”
Grateful, I cuddled into him, tilting my damp head against his bare chest. Pete kissed the top of my head, and I smiled, content, as fireflies blinked through the mist, birds sung from their perches, and bugs chittered in their mating dances.
Goddess, I’m going to miss this place.
“Hey, why are we the only people who hang out here?” I asked Pete, watching our fingers entwine, a medley of opposites. “On earth, this place would be popping. I mean, people drop thousands on tubs that act like hot springs. They hook them up in their backyards and make party porches.”
Blinking, Pete shook his head at me. “I’m garbled as to what most of that meant. Truly.”
I smirked to myself, not feeling the need to explain.
Pete rolled his eyes. “Anyhow, while I’m in Eden, the residents refuse to visit the springs. They insist I be granted at least one luxury all to myself as the warden—especially as I insist on being equal in all else.”
