Accidental Sorceress (Hardstorm Saga Book 2) (38 page)

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Authors: Dana Marton

BOOK: Accidental Sorceress (Hardstorm Saga Book 2)

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He kissed away my tears. “Not Orz. Yours.” He gave a lopsided smile. “You asked what I was.”

“Yours,” I whispered back as my heart filled with so much love it nearly burst. “I wish I had known.”

“I had nothing to offer you. The only thing I could think of was to keep following you. If you were set upon by brigands, I could at least jump on their swords and give you a moment or two to escape.”

I moved up to kiss him.

He kissed me back hungrily, but I pulled away after a short time to bury my face into his neck. “I lost our babe,” I whispered against his warm skin. I did not know of how aware he had been back then.

His heart thudded like funeral drums. I clung to him in silence.

“There will be other babes,” he whispered into my hair at long last, his tone soothing, but I caught a thread of grief in it. Then his voice roughened as he said, “You are here. You are well. We are together.”

And then we found each other’s bodies again.

* * *

We sailed out the next day, the Emperor’s diminished army nowhere in sight. They had withdrawn to the east to recover from their losses. We had to secure the Gate of the World before they could attack Dahru. All my instincts said that the Emperor’s sorcerer was even now working a plan for that.

Part of Graho’s navy stayed behind to protect Uramit, a larger force to protect Landria’s own islands. But we still had all the ships we needed to transport our army. And we had plenty of food, given to us as payment by the city for defending them. We had no shortage of weapons either, many taken from the fallen enemy.

While Batumar, Lord Karnagh, and Tomron trained the troops up on deck, I went to the captain’s cabin to thank Prince Graho.

“A prince keeps his word,” he said, sitting behind his desk.

It was the first I saw him brooding.

“You would have been better off with me,” he said.

I smiled. “Batumar told me the same thing.”

The prince frowned. “It is difficult to hate a wise man. And a hero. He came back from death for you. How is a prince to compete?”

“You will find your princess,” I promised.

“There will be ballads, in any case,” he said, his tone milder. “The crown prince leading the navy through the hardstorms and regaining the Gate of the World.”

“Maidens will swoon.”

He frowned. “They will not be you.”

“But there will be one you will love more than you ever loved me.”

He looked doubtful. But then he said, “Mayhap it is better this way. It is a dangerous business, loving a powerful sorceress. One little fight over dinner, and you could wilt my…sword.”

I grinned even as I rolled my eyes at him. He grinned back.

And then Batumar burst in.

* * *

“You know, my lord, you do not have to drag me off to bed every time I talk to the prince,” I scolded Batumar, lying spent across his body in our cabin a while later.

Truly, with his healed fingers, he could peel me out of my dress as fast as a beggar boy peeled a sweet, juicy dindin.

“I want to make up for our lost days.” He caressed my rib cage, all the way up to my breast. “We will be entering the hardstorms tomorrow.”

Somehow, when we were together now, everything was different. We had spent so much time apart, yet I felt as if we were closer in spirit. Of course, we were different people now than when we left Karamur. Batumar was no longer High Lord. I was no longer the High Lord’s concubine.

Yet our bond was tighter than it had ever been.

He cupped my breast. And then he suddenly shifted me so I was under him, and he between my legs.

Again?
But my body quickened with need. Yet I couldn’t help teasing him, making a face as if I was terribly put upon. “Oh, what now?”

He claimed my lips. Then he was inside me in one smooth thrust. “In Uramit, the prince kissed you,” he growled the words. “More than once.” He growled again. “Only when I am here…” He ground himself into me, filling my body with pleasure. “Can I bear that thought.”

He held my gaze. “I love you, Tera of my heart.”

And my spirit sang.

THE END

Titles in the Bestselling Hardstorm Saga Series:

RELUCTANT CONCUBINE
,
book 1

ACCIDENTAL SORCERESS
,
book 2

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