plan to do while you wait?” she asked tentatively. “I hope I won’t be too long—no more than a few days—but you’ll be alone out here.”
He shrugged. “I’ve waited ten years. A few more days is little more than an inconvenience.”
“Are you sure I can’t convince you to come with me? Farhall has quite a few residents who aren’t human, and I’m sure Soren would welcome you.”
“No,” he said, and there was no room for negotiation in his tone.
When he showed no signs of continuing the conversation, Leisa fell silent again, feeling weary and confused. Perhaps he preferred not to talk. Or perhaps he simply preferred not to talk to her.
But despite her weariness, as she trailed him through the forest, she couldn’t help but continue to be awed at the way he moved through the trees. Effortless and graceful, he seemed to blend with the shadows, his form a mere flicker that could easily be mistaken for a passing fancy of the imagination.
Once, he stopped to listen, then signaled her to halt while he disappeared, so quickly she couldn’t even tell which way he’d gone. When he returned just as suddenly, he took her by the wrist and led her in a different direction, giving her all manner of heart palpitations at the feeling of his skin against hers.
It was possibly the strangest day of her life, and despite her need to return to Arandar with news, she didn’t want it to end.
Too soon, the sun began to sink, and Leisa began to recognize their surroundings. Too soon, the bright, narrow ribbon of a road appeared through the trees up ahead.
Kyrion stopped.
“You will be safe from here?” he asked, staring at the road instead of looking at her.
“Yes.” She stepped up to stand beside him. “I know where I am. If I stick to that road, I’m sure to run into a guard patrol before long, and they can take me the rest of the way.”
He nodded, a single jerk of his head. “I will return to the other side of the border. If you approach that general area, I’m certain I will be able to find you from the noise you make blundering about in the forest.”
It was on the verge of being a joke, but he looked almost angry.
“You shouldn’t have to wait for long,” she reminded him. “Hopefully, Soren won’t keep me above a day or two to answer his questions, and then I’ll be free.”
“If I let you go”—he paused for a moment, his jaw clenched tight—“you will come back.” He said it as if trying to convince himself that trusting her was the right thing to do.
“I won’t betray you,” she said firmly, but she could tell it did no good. He still wasn’t sure of her, and she wasn’t certain there was anything she could do to change that.
Unless… Touch had always strengthened their link, so perhaps there was one last thing she could try.
Before she could think too hard and lose her nerve, Leisa reached out and took his hand, wrapping her short, calloused fingers around his stronger ones. “I don’t know if you can hear me better this way, but it’s worth a try.”
She took a deep breath. “Kyrion, I swear I will come back. There is nothing here that I want—no one I need to stay for. I love my kingdom, but King Soren used me, and I don’t know if I can forgive that. I think I need to get away for a while, and even if I didn’t, I would never leave you in these chains if there were any way for me to help.”
With an abruptness that nearly knocked her over, he pulled her around to face him.
“I know that you mean what you say,” he insisted, almost harshly, while staring down at her as if perplexed. Whether with her or himself, it was impossible to say. “But that has nothing to do with trust.”
He was right. Trust did not always follow where the mind led. Trust was a matter of the heart, and the heart followed its own dictates.
“Then trust this.” Leisa pulled from his grip, but only to turn his hand over and place the hilt of her dagger in his open palm. “It doesn’t look like much, but it’s my one link to my parents—the only thing I have that might someday lead me to them and the answers I want. Take it. That way, you’ll know that I’ll at least come back for