Page 106 of Sun Elves of Ardani

She slid into halting Ysuran, speaking slowly to be sure she pronounced every syllable correctly.“I learned to say ‘I love you.’”

Just when she thought he couldn’t look any more pleased, he did.

“And also ‘shut up’ and ‘idiot,’”she added.

“Ah. Those are important.”

Her skin was growing hot, and she didn’t think it was only from the sun. “Do you get sunburned when you lie out here like this?”

“No. But you will,”he said, still speaking Ysuran, which she didn’t object to. She understood enough to keep up, and there was something about him speaking his own language to her that was strangely intimate. It made her feel closer to him.

“I can protect you from the sun,”he said, and climbed to his hands and knees and straddled her, letting his body shade her. The way his hot gaze raked her made her feel like her insides were on fire.

She shifted slightly beneath him, comfortably caged in by his arms and legs on either side of her. “I should have known this was a trap.”

He laughed softly.“Of course it was. It was from the start.”

“That’s why you were lying out here?”

“No. That’s why you found me standing in your garden that day when this all started.”

He leaned down to kiss her, then slowly dragged his lips across her throat, over her collarbones, and down her chest. She shivered as goosebumps rose all over her body, and she realized she had no intention of stopping him. She had no self-control when it came to him.

Fortunately, he saved her from herself. He pulled back, resting his hands flat on the ground beside her shoulders as if to force himself to keep his distance.

“You came to Refka… because of me?” she asked. “You knew I was here?”

He blinked slowly at her, his eyes fastened on hers, as if awaiting her reaction. He did not smile. “Yes.”

She thought back, reframing everything that had happened in the past two months.

He had come back for her.

“I loved you,” he said simply. “It’s a pity I refused to admit it to myself until after I left you.”

“It is a pity,” she agreed. “That’s five years we didn’t have together.”

“We have the rest of our lives.”

She tilted her head a little. Everything around them seemed to go still as she looked at him. They had not talked about this directly until now. “Do you mean to spend your life with me?”

“Of course, Kadaki. I told you I don’t plan to let you go again.”

“What about your work? What if you’re called back to Ysura?”

“I’ll bring you with me, if you allow it.”

She felt a thrill at the prospect of seeing Ysura—really seeing it, not just furtively rushing through as an illegal visitor, as she had once or twice in the past. But she didn’t know if she wanted to spend her whole life there. “What if I didn’t want to go?” she asked.

“Then I’d stay here. I’ve been enlisted long enough that I’m permitted to leave the military whenever I wish.”

“You’d give it up that quickly?”

“It’s just a job. It’s a means of living. I won’t lie, I would miss the money. But I would find some other employment. I crave comfort in life, but I crave you more.”

“Neiryn, you don’t have to worry about money when you’re with me. Being a mage pays very well. Once I start working with the Conclave, it won’t be a problem. Send in your resignation tomorrow, if that’s the only thing keeping you there.”

He looked stunned, then laughed, taking her face in his hands. “Sweet goddess, you’re too good to be true. How do you know all the right things to say to me?”

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