Spirit Binder (12 page)

Theo rose and turned to Hugh and Peony. “Peony, will you see them to the farm with Davin? Hugh, have you Ambrose’s coin?”

Hugh handed the bag of coin to Peony, along with the remainder of his own. Theo added her own coin to the bag, and Peony, still sparkling with smiles, quickly returned to settle mom and babe on the horse.

“And you sneered at destiny this morning,” Hugh said, without looking at her.

“Circumstance is not the same as destiny.”

“With you around, isn’t it?”

The horses’ hooves bit into the dirt-packed road as their group moved out of the forest and back on to the mountain pass. Peony and Davin, leading Ambrose, Chelsey and the babe, turned south back to Sammy’s sister’s farm, while Theo, Hugh and Georges continued north toward the castle. Theo would have liked to smooth the request for shelter with Florrie herself, but didn’t want to overly influence her. Peony and the purse of coins would communicate well and fine.

The sun, which had been indecisive about shining, joined them on their journey homeward. Theo caught the sound of Peony’s laugh though she was behind them now, as if it had been carried by the slight breeze that urged them forward. She noticed the tenor of sound was different than it had been. Not that Peony hadn’t meant the emotion before, but now she was actually, fully happy.

Theo threw her head back and lifted her face to the sun. The light wind lifted her hair and her horse danced underneath her, full of life and energy. When they’d parted ways, everyone had been smiling, mostly at the mewling babe in Chelsey’s arms, but the joy was infectious and Theo relished the warm easiness of it.

She glanced over to Hugh to find him watching her. His seat on his horse was effortless and sure. The sun played havoc with the lighter gold streaked through his hair. Even with his eyes squinted against the sun, the admiration in his gaze was unmistakable, and she allowed herself to express the smile that rose from her fluttering belly in response to his open look.

Hugh’s smile widened, and Theo threw back her head and laughed. She laughed like it was the only thing she could, or even wanted to do. It was, in this moment, a good life.

She let her stallion have its head, laid forward over its neck, and cast a grin at Hugh. The horse’s muscles bunched underneath her thighs as the animal sprang forward into a rapid gallop.

She gathered the horse’s mane in her hands and tried to mold herself with the mighty beast, so not to impede its joyful run. She could feel Hugh alongside her, his horse matching hers stride for stride without effort. He laughed a low, deep rumble that she swore she heard in her belly more than her ears.

She turned her head, her cheek practically pressed to the horse’s neck, to look at Hugh, and he reached for her, reached to run his fingers through her hair, which streamed out like a red sail loosed from its winches and pulleys.

Her horse shied away from Hugh’s beast, and Hugh slipped back a few paces to play follow the leader once again.

The road fell off to the right as they climbed the mountain, racing for home. As they veered around a tight corner, Theo could have touched the cliff face if she’d wanted to, and the castle appeared.

She glanced back to see that Georges had tried to keep pace with them, but as the grin faded from the Corporal’s face, she quickly brought her attention back to what was in front of her.

The gates to the castle were closed, which was odd. And, looking closer, she saw crossbowmen on the walls.

She reached for the reins to slow her horse’s pace as Hugh surged forward.

Something was wrong.

“Open the gates,” Hugh yelled, as he approached them and then circled his horse back toward her. “The princess returns!”

Hugh, all the laughter completely drained from his face, galloped back to her. His beast still danced as if trying to entice his rider into further flight.

The gate began to open. The guards on the walls slid into defensive positions, but they were not aiming their bows at her and Hugh.

Hugh returned to her side and all but pressed his horse against hers. Georges was already occupying her other flank.

“Look east,” Hugh murmured, as they continued to trot toward the opening gates.

A small army seemed to be setting up camp in the fields that lay to the east of the castle walls. She hadn’t felt them, which was odd, until she reached out to test the ward that protected them from mind mage detection.

A trio of soldiers was raising a flag, a standard of a line-drawn fox on a solid green background, but they had stopped to stare at her.

In fact, the entire army seemed to be stumbling from their tent-raising and fire-building to stare at her.

Tension poured off Hugh and Georges. The gate was almost open enough for them to pass through.

“Who?” she murmured, not placing the flag.

“Dougal, Chief of the Cascadian Guards, Chancellor of the Midlands,” Hugh ground out through clenched teeth.

Dougal … her uncle.

One of the trio around the flag raised his hand in greeting, and Theo realized what a spectacle she must have presented racing around the side of the mountain with her hair streaming out behind her and Hugh and Georges chasing her …

Ignoring the warning ache she now felt in her head, and the fact that the sun suddenly felt way too hot on her skin, she raised her hand in return greeting.

In unison that couldn’t have been choreographed more perfectly, every soldier in the encampment raised his or her hand in response.

“Fuck,” Hugh swore, and actually grabbed the back of her saddle in an effort to get closer to her. “Through the gate now,” he urged.

Except their way was blocked by about twenty mounted guards. These guards surged forward as soon as they could clear the gate, and quickly formed a protective layer, three men deep, around her, Hugh and Georges.
 

As one, the guard pulled them through the gates and into the keep. Hugh had some trouble keeping the Beast calm, and once inside, the guard wouldn’t let her dismount despite Hugh’s curses and orders; he still held tight to her saddle. The guard circled around them until they were all facing, with swords drawn, the slowly closing gate.

“He’s here for me,” she whispered to Hugh.

“Yes. Looks like the game is about to change.” Hugh nodded toward the grand entrance of the castle where Jamin, Peony’s father and her own mother’s counselor, stood waiting.

∞

The gates finally closed and the bulk of the guard dispersed. She and Hugh dismounted. Their horses were whisked away by practically unseen stablehands, though Hugh’s horse didn’t go gently.

As a pair, they strode to stop before Jamin, who bowed before Theo formally. He’d been silvered-haired even when she was truly sixteen, though his face was only lightly lined. For the first time, she wondered if his hair color was a result of being able to see a person’s spirit significantly enough to understand their gifts and talents before they developed.
 

“Your mother requests your presence in her library, after you have had a moment to tidy up from your ride. I understand you are without a lady’s maid, and have asked your mother’s servant to attend you.”

Theo gathered that messy hair was not the accepted dress for this afternoon’s audience. Swallowing a sarcastic comment, she nodded and stepped forward to the entrance with Hugh at her side. Jamin continued, but this time addressed Hugh. “The Apex wishes you to excuse yourself from the library gathering, but to remain closely on hand. A message has been sent to your father.”

Hugh didn’t even bother to nod as he stepped by Jamin to follow Theo inside along with two new guards. Georges had seemingly been relieved.

“Peony,” she pitched her voice low, and hoped only Hugh could hear her.

“I’ll send a messenger through the fields. It is perhaps best she stay the evening at the farm, though Jamin will be wondering where his daughter has gotten to. No, I’ll send a guard and have him lead her through the forest paths. It will take longer, but is perhaps a safer route.”

“Thank you.”

As they mounted the grand stairs, the servants, who had been bustling nervously around, stopped to gape at them.

“It will be well,” she murmured as she passed. They relaxed at her assurances.

She and Hugh moved through the upper halls, and as they approached her suite, the guards backed off from a pointed look from Hugh.

“I don’t like the requested separation. I believe we are stronger together,” Hugh murmured to her, and she had to tamp down at the surprise she felt in the change of his behavior. As if they’d come to some understanding in the race to the castle. She remembered his fingers brushing through her hair, and knew that she had to trust someone. There had to be someone … she hoped it was him.

“You mean I am stronger when you are around. More grounded. You’ve noticed.”

Hugh didn’t answer right away. Not as if he was hesitant, though, but like his head was in too many places at once.

“Yes, a … connection, perhaps best discussed soon but later.”

She agreed and then added, “Mother never makes requests lightly. There must be some reason she thinks it is best.”

“Yes, but is it a good reason or more game playing?”

“It is game playing, needless to say, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the right play. Perhaps it is simply that you are an unknown, and Mother likes to keep power she thinks is in her control, close but secret.” Theo reached for her door handle and Hugh stopped her with a light touch on her shoulder.

She turned back to him and momentarily struggled to not just stare into his eyes, which were very, very close to her own. This was a moment to be serious. He was so.

“Theo, can you feel who is here in the castle? Is anyone in the library?”

She closed her eyes, not that she needed to, but to avoid further distractions. She immediately sensed her mother’s presence in the library. “Mother is in the library, she’s deliberately dropped her shield so I can —”
 

Her mother’s mental shields snapped into place, but not before Theo felt a little burst of reassurance, such as she’d given the servants, from her mother.

“And?” Hugh prompted.

“One other, who I can only sense because he feels familiar, not because I can touch him in any way.”

“Right. I’m going to send my own message to my father, but I will not leave the castle. And you’ll call me if it goes badly, whether or not your mother wants me on the board.”

She smiled at his continuation of the game metaphor, and even though it embarrassed her — magic could be an intimate thing — she broached the subject of his baffling personal shields, which continually kept her guessing at his meanings and feelings. “Hugh, I can’t … I don’t feel. Your shields. I could probably rip through them if …”

Hugh raised an eyebrow. “My shields?”

“Yes.”

“You can’t hear my thoughts?” He was surprised, and maybe a little relieved. She tried to gain access to his thoughts once again and came up with nothing.

“I can feel you. Feel your presence. Feel if you are near.”

“Oh, yes?” He grinned suggestively, and she couldn’t, didn’t, bother not to return the grin. Obviously things were not so dire.

“Yes, but I can’t read your mind.”

He turned serious again. “Interesting. But I’m not wearing a shield, not one that would remotely register for anyone with your strength. What would be the point with your mother around? Though I suppose it would bother her.”

“And you do enjoy bothering her.”

“True.” Hugh gifted her with another grin; she could get used to looking at him. “I must have a natural resistance to you, which makes sense.”

“How?”

“Given the prophecy.” His eyes shifted away from her for a moment. He meant his prophecy, not her own. The one that somehow bound him to her since before she was born, though she didn’t know the details or wording. “It should be our secret. Theo?”

She’d been staring at his neck, specifically at the part that joined his shoulder, which had been slightly exposed underneath his collar when he’d turned his head. She tore her eyes away. “I hear you.”

“You should still be able to call me. It wouldn’t make sense, again given my prophecy, if you couldn’t.”

Hugh
, she thought in the direction of his so, so bright spirit.

“I hear you,” he responded aloud. “You call me for any reason if you need me.” He brushed a piece of hair from her cheek and then immediately yanked his hand away as if it had moved without his permission. So she wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the layer of comfort and intimacy that had slowly gathered around them as they stood whispering by her bedroom door.

“Excuse me,” he murmured, and started to move away.

“I do …” she stuttered, and he halted his retreat. “I do feel more grounded when you are around.”

He looked pleased at her admission, so pleased that she felt like maybe … she dropped her eyes to his lips, part of her wondering how far this feeling could be stretched. Not wanting the joy of the ride to be just stripped away into the vast uncertainty that had plagued her since she’d woken. Part of her was vaguely aware that she shouldn’t be making commitments when she wasn’t completely sure, but part of her also wanted …
 

He closed the gap between them, angling his body to block her from the view of the guards, though their backs were toward them.

“Hugh,” she felt her own whisper brush against his skin, as she dragged her eyes up to his.

“Yes?”

“I was wondering if you would kiss —”

He swept her toward him. His hands on her hips, then on the small of her back, and then in her hair, as his lips so, so gently pressed against hers.

Pleasure akin to the horse race, but far more concentrated, flooded through her, and she parted her lips in a sigh and wrapped her hand around his neck, claiming the spot that had fascinated her earlier.

She tentatively touched her tongue to his. He groaned and flexed his hands around her waist to pull her firmly toward him. She felt his energy wrap around her, more intensely wherever their skin touched. Heat bloomed between them, and for one fleeting moment, she imagined reaching back, opening the door to her bedroom, and inviting him inside.