Page 158 of Witchlight
She wasn’t ashamed of her marks.
Merik envied her that.
“If I didn’t know better,” she said with a tip of her head, “I would think you were worried about me,Prince.”
He snorted. His attention shot back to her face—which had plenty of its own scars, from blades and sparks and icy winds in a storm he’d tried to protect her from. “OfcourseI was worried, Safi. The last time I saw you was the Great Collapse. For all I knew, you’d written that letter and then flung yourself into the mouth of a sea fox.”
“Yes.” Safi walked her fingers up his buttons. “That does sound like something I would do.”
Merik’s temper kicked up another level, and this time, a slight wind kicked with it. Just a twirl of hot air to flip around them. To tug at Safi’s skirts and spray her short hair from her face.
“Well, if it’s any consolation,” she continued, “you’re going to be seeing quite a lot of me. In fact I was hoping you might be the first, Merik.”
He swallowed. “First… what?” She was very near—and those blue eyes of hers were as choppy and unpredictable as the sea.
“The first place we visit, of course. The Cahr Awen must travel across the Witchlands to ensure magic is never drained or misused. Are yousuremy uncle explained all of this at the luncheon?”
Merik swallowed again. His winds were well and truly coiling now, while his chest ached with the need to… todosomething other than simply stand here while she toyed with his buttons and skimmed her hands down, down, toward the silken belt at his waist. “Your uncle did indeed say all of this, but…”Focus, Merik.“But he made no mention of your first stop.”
“Well, that’s because I only just decided it would be Poznin.” Safi’s grin turned almost triumphant.
And Merik caught both her wrists. She had reached his belt, and that was quite far enough. “Then I suppose that makes you as impulsive as ever.”
“You like it.”
“Noden hang me, but I do.”
“Then I think you will be especially pleased by the music that’s about to begin.”
He frowned, confusion whittling into the shadows. It whittled into his magic too, cooling his temper like a wind.
That’s not your temper, you dolt. It’s your magic responding to a woman.Kullen had told Merik that on theJana,and blighted if Safi wasn’t currently realizing the same thing. Or at least, that was what the challenge on her face suggested.
Then Merik heard the throbbing strains of an opening movement, followed by the first stamping of heels on marble. And hefeltas Safi’s fingers moved from his buttons to his shoulders, where they could tap and trickle against him like rain against a ship’s sail.
“The four-step,” he tried to say, although his voice came out rough as the Nihar coastline.
“Hye,” she agreed. “I thought we could dance it for old times’ sake, and… perhaps for new ones, too.”
Merik didn’t reply. His body told him there was too much danger in the ballroom—for his temper, for his sanity, for his safety. Because if he danced with the light-bringer, then all of the Witchlands would see his scars beneath the glowing chandeliers.
And all would know how much he had changed since he’d last been here.
But then, Merik supposed Safiya fon Hasstrel was as transformed as he was, if not more so. If she could face them all with that gleam in her blue eyes, then surely he could do the same.
Which was why Merik let Safi pull him toward the ballroom’s heart. Why, as he felt the bay’s humid breeze reach for his magic—and as dignitaries of all colors and sizes and creeds cleared away to watch them—he let himself take the starting position before Safi.
It’s why he also let himself laugh. Because he recalled how he’d begun this dance with her the last time. With arrogance and competition and yes, genuine temper.I don’t move, Domna. People move for me.
How childish; how absurd—and how childish, how absurd for Merik to keep hiding behind that column. Trust Safi, though, to bring out this other side of him.
Moonlight and chandeliers caressed her golden skin and gleaming hair, just as they had months ago. But this time, instead of people murmuring,Do you see with whom Prince Merik dances?it was:Do you see with whom the light-bringer dances?
Safi smiled at Merik.
Merik smiled at her.
The music shifted; the storm began; and together, they danced for all of the Witchlands to see.
