Page 57 of Burn Bright
Evaron shot him a sharp look. "I'm not the same prince that rode north. In more ways than one." He pressed his hand to his chest. "I feel it every day, and it scares me, for there is enough of my father in me to make me wonder if an immortal king should sit on athrone."
"You're not yourfather."
"Notyet."
"And if you even think to resemble him, I would take you to task about it." Cas rested a light hand on Evaron's shoulder. "You have myword."
Evaron smiled. "That's almost arelief."
Their gazes met as Evaron clapped Cas's left shoulder, leaving them locked together for amoment.
"I'll miss you," he told his king. But eagerness whispered through him. A dream he'd not dared dreambefore.
Freedom.
Choice.
The whisper of wild places in his blood, the lure of the forest and strange woods, and the light, fragrant scent that belonged to Neva alone. He could almost feel the silk of her skin beneath his fingers, and for the first time, he let himself look to thenorth.
"Go," the king said, giving him a shove. "Go and find her. Go and find your huntress, Cas, and give her myregards."
* * *
It tookhim three days of hunting through Gravenwold to findher.
Neva's scent had changed, no longer that of sweat and leather, and the musk of a young woman's body. She smelled like pure wildness now, and heat and flame, and burnedspices.
And of course, she was near the bloody waterfall that had almost been theirundoing.
Cas shoved free of the forest's brambles, and brushed the sweat from his brow as he saw her standing at the top of the waterfall, scowling down at him along the edge of anarrow.
"I was expecting a somewhat warmer welcome," hecalled.
Her scowl died, and the arrow jerked up as she released the tension on the bow, her mouth dropping open. "Cas?"
"No." He cast aside his pack, and scrambled up the jumble of rocks that lined the falls, before leaping up, and catching hold of a small ledge. Muscles bunching, he hauled himself up, until he finally gained the top. "Apparently I'm the Earl of Gravenwoldnow."
Neva's face lit from within, her golden-brown skin radiant. "Am I supposed tobow?"
"You could kiss my boots," he teased, remembering what she and her sister had been saying the night they first met. "Unless you'd rather roll in Tolbert'spigsty?"
"I'm not kissing yourboots."
"No?" The rough edge of his voice was a challenge. "How about mylips?"
The spring breeze swirled her periwinkle skirts around her ankles, and whispered through the sun-bleached ends of her darkcurls.
Then she was in his arms, and Cas spun her around, feeling the crush of her skirts between them. A heart skipped against his chest, and the heat of her skin seemed to hint at the furnace of magic within her. He wanted to crush his face to her abdomen and simply breathe in the scent ofher.
Home. He washome.
"What's this?" he asked, tugging at the blue fabric. "Don't tell me you're actually wearing adress."
Her feet were bare too, and grass-strained. Neva shrugged, and his grip on her relaxed, until she slowly slid down in his arms, her breasts crushed to his chest. "It's spring. I was hot. And I do owndresses."
"It just feels strange. I've never seen you... likethis."
"You came back." Her clever fingers pried his shirt open, and her lashes fluttered up swiftly as she saw his barethroat.
