by Shona Husk
I sighed. I was sure no Lord would look kindly on a man who turned a blind eye to a woman in danger. “I couldn’t do that. I knew too much about him.” I took my eyes off the road for a heartbeat. “I’d spent six years imagining what it would be like to see you again. I couldn’t walk away without knowing if you were happy. If you had been…” If she’d have married anyone other than Brixen I still would have sought her out in the market just to be sure. I shrugged and let it go. I didn’t have to wonder and imagine anymore. She was sitting next to me. “Would you have sought me out once you heard my name being mentioned?”
“Yes. I needed to know why you never wrote.” Her thumb moved against my thigh. More certain this time.
I covered her hand with mine, needing to feel her skin against mine. “And now you know. Ex-whore Rogue Arcane with little to no prospects. You could’ve turned me in.” I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed her knuckles.
“Why would I? No good would come from it.” She leaned her head on my shoulder. “I meant it, Haidyn. Whatever Lord you serve, I will follow.”
I slid my arm around her waist and drew her closer. She molded against me, the heat of her body invading mine, her hand on the back of my hip. I didn’t know what I wanted to do; I hadn’t let myself think that far ahead. I couldn’t follow the Arcane Lord I was born to serve unless I joined the Free Arcane Association. While not exactly a trade, it was better than what I had. Was it what I wanted? “Even if I joined the FAA?”
“Even then. They want magic to be affordable. I can support that, even if I don’t like how they are going about it.”
I nodded, my lips in a thin line. I didn’t like the way they worked either. Union and FAA were almost equally as bad. Besides, I didn’t want to get caught in a battle and risk losing what I’d just found. I kissed the sun-warmed top of her head. “I don’t think I can join them. I can’t sell myself any longer.”
She turned her head, her lips meeting mine in a slow and sensuous kiss that made me want to promise her everything and anything if she’d keep going. The buggy’s path wobbled, snapping my attention back to the road. My heart beat loud in my ears.
“Just promise me you won’t leave again.” Her hand covered mine on the tiller.
“I swear by the Hunter…” I almost made the marriage declaration there and then, but she was still married to Brixen, “…to stand by you.”
“I swear by the Hunter…” she used the Lord I was swearing, not her father’s, “…to stand by you. I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”
“I like the sound of that.”
Could we really pick up where we’d left off and pretend nothing had happened? Probably not. But we could start again, smarter and stronger than we’d been six years ago.
The buggy rolled on. After a little more silence I realized I had no idea where I was going. When we reached a crossroads I’d have to decide. We’d have to decide. “We need to make plans. We can’t go home.”
“I know.” She nodded. “You used to talk of seeing the ocean. After you left I used to imagine you’d come back dressed in black and take me to Kamala or some other city by the sea.”
Kamala was out of the question; the Arcane Union ran most of the trade out of there. “Maybe not a city, but we could head to the coast.” My father had often spoken of his grandfather, who used to work on the ships that crossed the ocean for trade. Maybe I could pick up work. Whatever coin we had between us wouldn’t last for long. I’d have to turn hand to honest labor.
She smiled up at me. “Anywhere with you, Haidyn.”
Epilogue
The ocean is far bigger than I’d ever imagined. It stretches endlessly to the sky. The town we’d settled in clung to a cliff. Down the stairs cut into the side of the rock face is the harbor, where fishermen and small traders come and go.
Despite the fading brand, I had no trouble finding hire on a fishing boat. Turns out, a man is more use than a boy, and I have a knack for knowing what the captain wants done and where the fish will be. I can sense them massing to feed and mate. Their emotions, while different, are no less powerful when there are thousands of them.
Through the fish I’ve learned how to balance the magic so it doesn’t swallow me or kill me. At first, letting my mind slip into the ocean and sense what was there was just a way to bleed off some of the magic and dull the noise in my mind. Working with my hands gave me the opportunity I needed to learn to keep other people’s thoughts out. I can still sense people’s emotions and read their thoughts—that will never leave me—but if I dig deeper or try to change a person’s thoughts, it means opening the door to my mind. I opened that door wide my first night on the streets of Reseda and then never had a chance to close it. Now I have no desire to open it. I have no need to.
My days are filled with sky and sun. At first my skin burned, but it’s now golden and freckled, like the rest of the men. My hair is cut short and practical. While my hands are roughened and my nails broken, I sleep easy and for the first time in years feel free to breathe. And I have my apprenticeship papers. Receiving them and swearing to the Hunter was an honor I thought I’d never get.
A few of the other men have asked about my past, but I’m vague. A misspent youth, saved by the love of a woman. All true of course, yet I see no point in sharing details that could find their way to the wrong people. Anisa helps with the mending of the nets and sails. And at night she’s there, waiting for me. I understand why people long for the touch of another and physical pleasure. There is a joy of being that close to someone that nothing else matches. The only thing better is waking up and seeing her sleeping next to me.
Occasionally I still glance over my shoulder when I hear the latest gossip brought to town. There is a new Lawman in Reseda after the last one went mad. There are whispers that the FAA secretly now controls the town, and it’s not the only one. But for every pro-Rogue rumor, there’s another supporting the Union.
I listen and say nothing. I want no part in the war that is brewing.
My life is simple, my mind clear of everything but my love for Anisa and hers for me.
* * * * *
Not ready to leave Shona Husk’s Western-style fantasy world? Then check out her first book, Dark Vow,
available now!
Dark Vow
Jaines Cord plans to kill the man who murdered her husband, even though killing a Bounty Hunter is said to be impossible. One bullet took away her livelihood, her home and her love. One bullet made by her. Fired from the gun she completed for the Arcane Bounty Hunter.
Obsidian wears the scars of disobeying the powerful Arcane Union. He barely escaped with his life and now lives quietly, in a town the lawmen forgot. When Jaines arrives asking too many questions, he’s faced with a decision. Help her or run…again. Obsidian knows that if he flees he’ll always be looking over his shoulder. His name is one of the first on the Bounty Hunter’s death list.
Yet when Obsidian is offered an opportunity to stop the stone taking over his body in exchange for retrieving the gun, he asks Jaines for her help. Now Jaines must choose: a dead man’s vengeance or a living man’s hope?
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About the Author
A civil designer by day and an author by night, Shona Husk lives in Western Australia at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Blessed with a lively imagination, she spent most of her childhood making up stories. As an adult she discovered romance novels and hasn’t looked back. Drawing on history and myth, she writes about heroes who are armed and dangerous but have a heart of gold—sometimes literally.
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ISBN: 978-14268-9511-1
Copyright © 2013 by Shona Husk
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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