Pure Destiny (PureDark Ones #12) - Aja James Page 0,62
in between breathless laughter.
“Right then.” The tail disappeared from whence it came, and Papa focused again on the story.
“And I saw your Mama and fell in love with her straight away,” he intoned. “The end.”
“Papa!”
He turned towards her and arched a tawny brow.
She arched her own right back at him. But because she didn’t have perfect control of her eyebrows like he did, her comically contorted expression squeezed an amused snort out of him.
“Careful your face doesn’t become fixed like that,” he warned in a serious tone, belied by the mischievous glint in his eyes.
“Quit stalling,” she needled.
“Well,” Papa said, turning back to look up at the cloudless blue skies once more.
“It is no secret that your Mama is the most beautiful woman in the world,” he said softly. “You see her everyday. You know I only speak truth. But it wasn’t her outer beauty that entranced me when I saw her at first.”
“She was tending to the wounded and sick under an outdoor tent. I was browsing the blacksmith stand adjacent to pick up some hooks and a new skinning knife. I didn’t know why, but my eyes kept wandering back to her, over and over, as she cared for one person and then the next.”
He squinted his eyes a little in memory, as if he wanted to get the details just right.
“She was always so solemn, her face pale, her eyes dark. I couldn’t hear what she said, but I could see that her gestures were firm but gentle, her voice low. Those she bandaged and healed thanked her with gifts, smiles, other gestures of gratitude. But she never returned their good will, simply nodding when she was done. She looked so alone. Closed off. Separate from the bustling town around her.”
“And then…” Titi couldn’t help but whisper, anticipating what came next.
“And then, when the sun was setting, and the last little boy got his treatment, after which he threw his arms around your Mama’s neck and thanked her with a hug…I saw a sight more captivating than the burnished-gold skies of my favorite time of day.”
“Mama’s smile,” Titi sighed.
“Indeed,” Papa rumbled low, almost a purr.
“And suddenly, I felt it was my duty, my honor…my destiny…to make this woman smile for the rest of my days.”
“But you didn’t court Mama right away,” Titi admonished.
Papa huffed a breath and said wryly, “Recall that spotted leopards are shy. I was young besides, only twenty summers. I’d barely spoken to females my age much less held their hand or courted their favors, having spent most of my life in solitude in the mountains. All I knew to do was to visit the village whenever I could, and stay as long as I could with each trip, on the chance that she would see me…the way I saw her.”
“And she did!” Titi sighed happily.
Pap nodded.
“She did,” he said quietly.
“What did you see in Mama? How did you know she’s The One?”
Papa was silent for the longest while. So soundless, Titi couldn’t even hear him breathing.
She turned to peer over at his profile, but his eyes were shadowed by the shade of his lashes. There was an indefinable look on his face.
Part wistfulness. Part sadness. Half joy. Half pain.
Titi’s heart ached just gazing upon Papa’s beloved face. She didn’t know why, but she suddenly had the urge to throw her little arms around him in the tightest, fiercest hug.
And then he said:
“Darkness is in all of us. Just as there is light, hope and joy, there are those shuttered spaces in our souls, those whispers in the seething night, yawning chasms of blackness and doubt.”
Titi didn’t understand most of the words. Papa had never said these things before. This wasn’t how the story went. A tingle of apprehension snaked down her spine.
She opened her mouth to tell him to stop. She didn’t want to hear any more. She wanted only to hear the good bits, the parts that made her smile.
This…this filled her with uncertainty and worry. The ache in her heart spread until her entire chest felt afire.
But her voice wouldn’t come.
“I saw those things in her,” Papa continued in that deep, low voice, though Titi was no longer certain he was speaking to her or to himself.
“My Mistress of Night. Most would be frightened by what they saw. Most would turn away and hide. Or try to overcome, control, and destroy that which terrified them. But to me…”
Titi saw Papa’s strong throat move vulnerably in a swallow.