Echoes in the Dark (25 page)

I
will Sing you home and Sing you asleep. Music is the cure for all.

Jikata
smiled, let the music of the growing things, the buildings, the people,
surround her. Music was wonderful.

Ishi
had never been able to appreciate that. She’d been tone deaf.

Tears
trickled down Jikata’s face.

Creusse Crest

F
aucon walked
Raine to her room and she was glad of his undemanding company. Servants were
moving around, preparing the castle for night, helping the retiring Exotiques
and their men, or getting it ready for morning. She didn’t know what all. But
it was a lot quieter than being with a bunch of people, or watching a bunch of
guys.

Just
having Faucon hold her hand and match her steps was soothing. She still got a
little sparkle inside from him and his Song, and even his nearness, but it
wasn’t overwhelming. Somehow the events of the day and night had given her more
inner balance. Maybe it was the time on the water, maybe it was just that so
many experiences had crowded in this day that she was numb, perfectly happy to
sort them all out later.

Then
they were at her door and she glanced up at him. God, he was handsome. Steady
brown eyes, sculpted mouth, strong jaw. Looking just like a nobleman should.

“I’m
not captaining that ship for the invasion,” she said.

A
line formed between his brows. “We all know that. You’ve made that clear,
including tonight. You are free to choose.”

“Ayes.”

“But
you are designing and building the Ship.”

“Ayes.”

Keeping
his gaze on hers, he lifted her fingers and brushed a kiss over them and
suddenly the sexual attraction was there, rushing through her, heating her skin
from the inside. She put her hands on his shoulders and somehow the floor
beneath her feet began to rock like the deck of a boat and she hung on tight.

18

F
aucon bent his
head, closer, closer, until she scented the liquor and dessert on his breath.
She yearned for his taste, had for longer than she’d admit. Her neck tilted
back and her lips parted. A whisper away, he said, “It’s not just the innate
attraction, Raine. It’s just you.”

“I
know.”

Then
he pressed his lips on hers and she swept her tongue across his mouth and was
lost. He gathered her close and it was just where she’d wanted to be, caught
safe in someone’s arms, in
his
arms. The lovely sparkle went hot. She
opened her lips, tasted his tongue in her mouth and knew that finally,
something she’d needed all along was within her grasp.

He
was strong, and hard, and his Song thundered through her like the surf. Her
arms curved under his, around his shoulders as she let him taste her. He angled
the kiss deeper and she clung. He was a shelter, a harbor. She could almost
believe he was hers, her man.

He
trembled and it was sweet and heady. His hands stroking her back was the touch
she’d missed all this time.

Then
his mouth tore from hers and she moaned. He kissed the sweep of her cheeks, her
brows, her temples. Lips hovering above her own, he made a rough sound and
stepped back.

She
let him go. It seemed he was always pulling back and she was always letting him
go.

But,
like all the other times, this time it was the right thing to do.

Standing
on tiptoe, she kissed his chin.

“Raine…”

“Ssshhh.”
She stepped back and came up against the door, beyond it she could hear the
ocean, or perhaps that was her own tide of blood. She found the doorknob with
her fingers, kept her eyes on his. “Thank you, Faucon.
Merci.
”

He
jerked a small nod, his fingers came up and touched her face. “Sweet dreams.”

“You,
too.” She opened the door and backed in and fell on the bed. She didn’t sleep.

F
ool, fool, fool!
Faucon ran lightly through his castle, knowing how to avoid everyone.
Suppressing his Song, his turbulent emotions that threatened to burst out of
him in a cacophony alerting all that he’d been a fool.

Raine
would be going home after the Ship was raised, he wasn’t deaf to that fact, had
agreed with those who’d bet in the Nom de Nom against her staying. Despite what
her father said. That man didn’t know this Raine, she’d changed from the pretty
young woman he’d seen in an image hanging on her father’s wall.

Faucon
was a fool to want her in his bed, and especially in his heart, which was in
bloody shreds from the loss of Elizabeth and Broullard. He flung himself
through a door to the outside, couldn’t prevent a rough curse, shed his vest,
shirt, undershirt as he ran until he reached the smooth spot on the cliff and
dove into the sea.

The
impact was hard on his fists, the water sliced cold along his body. He let his
breath out in a cleansing scream as he plunged. When he ran out of air, he shot
to the surface, gasped for breath between wave ripples, shook his head so his
hair was out of his face. And saw two pure white ducks with yellow beaks and
one fuzzy duckling paddling serenely near them.

He
stared at the three feycoocus: Sinafinal, Tuckerinal and Enerin.

A
little cheep came from the duckling, Enerin, Raine’s companion, a lilting Song.
Why do you fight your destiny so?

Sinafinal
gave her child an admonitory peck.
Because he is human.

Tuckerinal,
the male, swam close.
Raine will stay if she loves you.

“She
has family at home. I saw those pictures of ships on the walls, the metal ones
with two hulls, near her image. We can’t give her that challenge here.”

Snorting,
Tuckerinal said mentally,
She has plenty of challenge here.

Faucon
couldn’t argue with that.

She
will stay if she loves you,
Tuckerinal insisted.

Faucon
didn’t believe that.

Sinafinal
came and rubbed her feathery body against his face.
You have lost your
faith. I am sorry.

Peeping,
Enerin said,
You must find it again. Know that she
can
stay, that you
can
love her, that you
can
destroy the Dark together.

His
eyes stung. From the ocean.

Tuckerinal
gave him a look Faucon couldn’t decipher.

“A
lot of that going on, tonight,” the male feycoocu said. “Here and on Earth.”

Faucon
rubbed his face and swam to the pier.

He’d
ruined his boots.

He
was falling in love with Raine, might already love her. One more lost love
would shatter his heart forever.

S
he was waiting
for him on the dock, wearing a long robe that shimmered in the moonlight. He
climbed from the water and shivered. Her gaze was as deep and fathomless as the
sea. Her tongue touched her lips nervously.

Their
Songs had mingled and the links between them were stronger than ever, but her
Song had a little hitch that betrayed those nerves, no matter how serene she
appeared.

He
wanted her, again and forever.

“I
couldn’t sleep.” Her hands pleated the sides of her gown.

She
was beautiful beyond compare in the moonlight. When he said nothing, she lifted
her chin. “You were all churned up, and so was I.” She swallowed. “I want you,
have wanted you from the moment we met. Is it wrong to wish for pleasure and
comfort and companionship with a man you want in times like these?”

He
couldn’t think. He should definitely say “ayes” in the answer to her question,
“ttho,” to her…or was it the other way around? He wished he was anywhere else.

A
lilt of a woman’s teasing laughter came from one of the castle’s open windows
and he was swamped with loneliness. Not just for friends, but for a lover who
understood him, an intimate companion. In the past months he’d lost his lover
and his father-friend. He needed…he needed. And he needed Raine. For herself,
the person whose Song he’d finally heard yesterday and today. The
friend-woman-companion he’d found on the sea, sailed with and meshed with.

Raine’s
eyes widened, her face fell into those soft, sad lines that hurt him. “It’s not
time,” she whispered, as she made an awkward gesture. “Still too early or too
late.” She turned.

And
the sea breeze flattened her nightgown against her and his body reacted as
usual, even encased in cold trousers. His blood wasn’t cold.

“Wait,”
he croaked. He couldn’t step away this time, couldn’t protect his heart, had to
trust the Song. His breath whooshed out and when he inhaled the air was delicious,
freeing. All the masks he’d used with her fell away. Denial was over. “I want
you, too.”

Overhead
three seabirds called out and he thought a cheerful blessing settled over
him—and Raine. “I want you, too.” He slicked water from his hair. He glanced up
and down the pier. There was his yacht and the boathouse. Both would have
towels.

The
boathouse had a better bed.

“I’m
having a hard time knowing what I feel, knowing what I truly want.” And those
words that came from him emphasized his foolishness. Was denial back? What was
foolishness, giving in to his and her need, or running away from her?

But
she smiled. “Thank you.”

“What?”
He was incredulous.

“Why
should I be the only one floundering around in a net of tangled emotions? Thank
you.” She took a gliding step toward him. “You are the most beautiful man.”

The
breeze of the sea was offset by a flush of embarrassment. “No—”

Her
delicately arched brows raised. She touched outside her eyes. “To me you are
the most handsome of all.” She held out her hand. “And the kindest.”

He
felt even warmer, hunched a shoulder, didn’t move a step.

“That
responsibility bred into you,” she said, and walked up to him, took his cold,
wet hand in her own. She glanced at the castle, sighed, her mouth turned down
before she said, “I’d love to go there, but we are always aware of the future,
aren’t we, Faucon? That’s why there’s been so much friction between us, we both
know there will come a time when I’ll leave.”

Her
hand was hot, as hot as the licks of desire heating him, his blood pooling
below his belt, as fast and strident as his Song. He could barely hear her
words as his body angled to hers, wooing her with brushes of skin against skin.

“And
when I leave—” Her voice broke and he sensed it was from that confusion of
emotions in her…sorrow for what might come, grief at what was past. Once again
he lifted her fingers to his mouth, kissed her hand gently, tasted Raine and
the sea.

She
quivered, shook her head as if to clear it. “You will see me in places I was,
after I am gone. So I will leave you your private castle rooms. You’ll not see
me there.”

He
didn’t know what to say. She, too, was kind.

And
terrible with her knowledge.

“Come
to bed with me in the boathouse, Faucon. Where you sheltered me that first
night we met. We will find a harbor together.”

And
desirable.

Then
she hesitated. “Perhaps it will be worse for the both of us if we do this—”

“No.”
The time for questions was over. His fingers trembled as he tilted her pale
face up so he could study it, wished he could see the green of her eyes. She
didn’t want heartache, neither did he—who did? “This time between us is meant
to be. Don’t deny us this.”

She
smiled with her lips but her eyes held sorrow. “No.”

He
stiffened at the hurt, then her hands covered his that were cupping her face.
“No, I won’t deny this.”

Raine
felt his hand warm in hers, but the rest of his body quivered and she thought
it was more from the chill of the breeze than desire. Concentrating, she
thought of hot Mediterranean winds, and a low rasp of tuneful notes came to
mind. She sent
that
heat through her hand to warm him. He stilled and
she looked up into his eyes—serious eyes though she’d heard he’d been
lighthearted once.

She
stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the lips as lightly as the last droplets of
sea spray. His mouth opened, his tongue swept out and her brain went fuzzy. She
didn’t want that, wanted to keep this easy and gentle and tender as he had
their kiss before. If she glanced down, she’d see his body wanted hers and just
the thought of that had her body readying, too. But now was not the time for
fierce and mindless sex.

What
was between them should never be simply fierce and mindless sex.

So
she led him the few yards to the door, hummed the small spell to unlock and
open it. The scent of the place—seaside and fresh cleaning—took her back to the
night she had saved herself and he and Blossom had come and flown her away from
her old life on a moonlit ride.