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  “Go,” Rowan whispered.

  When her sister turned and fled, Rowan breathed out a sigh, aware that Grantland had watched the whole exchange. “I pray to Ravina that she’s safe here. I always thought this place was a refuge. I have trouble believing that now.”

  “You were right. Things will get back to normal,” Grantland said. “And some day they will realize what we did for them.”

  “I hope so.”

  “Come here,” Grantland said.

  She looked at him, shocked by the tone of his voice.

  “What?”

  “I’ve been so stubborn. I tried to cut off my feelings for you, but there’s no time for that now.”

  He reached for her, and she came into his arms, clasping him to her and sighing as she let her head drop to his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “Sorry for getting so angry in the cave. And for hitting you with the rock and cutting you with the knife. Those things were unforgivable.”

  “You thought I was a witch.”

  “Don’t try to excuse me. I got my ideas of witches from stories I heard. I had no true sense of what it meant.”

  She eased far enough away so that she could meet his eyes. “What do you think it means now?”

  “That your people are like mine—only they have talents the world fears. But most of the inhabitants of this refuge are only trying to live their lives in peace. Even the council members. They’re doing what they think is right for the community.”

  She sighed. “Yes. You’re wise to see that.”

  He laughed. “I hated my training for kingship, but mayhap it was not all in vain.”

  “You have good judgment.”

  “Even when I tied you down and tried to force information from you?”

  “Yes. You were trying to protect your people. Like the council members.”

  His face contorted. “We make assumptions. Sometimes the wrong assumptions. Unfortunately, I learned that too late.”

  When she started to speak again, he shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about politics and government. I want to talk about us. I want to tell you the things bursting inside me. You are the bravest woman I have ever met. No woman from Arandal would dare what you have dared.” He stopped. “Well, my sister might. But she is long dead.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “The castle was under siege. I think she believed she could bring us help. Mayhap she did.” He tightened his grip on Rowan. “But that was long ago. This is tonight. If we are going to die on the morrow—or if they are going to do something horrible to our minds—I want to spend these last hours with you. I don’t mean because we are locked in a cage. I mean sharing myself with you. I want you to know that I fell in love with you but couldn’t admit it, even to myself.”

  “Oh Grant. I longed to hear you say that. I love you so much, but I thought I could never tell that to Prince Grantland.”

  “Here with you, I’m only Grant. The man who loves you.” He lifted her chin and covered her mouth with his, sipping from her, then shifting his lips, playing with the tender curve of her ear before stiffening his tongue and probing inside, drawing a sigh of pleasure from her.

  “That feels good,” she whispered.

  “I have all night to discover what pleases you.”

  His hand moved, slipping under her shirt, his fingers spreading across the warm skin of her back.

  She did the same, caressing his back and shoulders.

  “Someone could be watching us,” she whispered. “I don’t mean the elders. They know this cage will hold us.”

  “Do you care who else is lurking around out there?”

  “I should.”

  “Don’t think about anything but my giving you pleasure.”

  “And my giving it to you.”

  There was a mattress filled with straw in one corner of the cell. Rowan turned and took his hand, leading him to the crude bed.

  They each pulled off their boots, but she was still shy about taking off her clothes in the public square, so they lay down together, still dressed.

  She reached for him, snuggling close. She’d been worn out, emotionally and physically. Lying in his arms brought her back to herself.

  “Tell me something about your life,” she said. “Something I don’t know.”

  “My father expected much of me. I don’t think he ever loved me. I was only a pawn in his game of power. I spent long hours with a tutor. Long hours learning the craft of war, and politics. I was good at the war part.”

  “And you have good political sense, too. I can see that.”

  When he made a scoffing sound, she went on, “I was luckier. My parents loved me and did their best to see that I wanted for nothing within their power. I thought my future would be happy—until Telman came.”

  She didn’t want to think of Telman. Not now. She cupped her hand around the back of Grantland’s head and brought his mouth to hers.

  The feel of her lips on his was like a jolt of molten sensuality that sizzled through her body.

  Closing her eyes, she kissed him as though they were the only two people in the world, giving and taking from each other because it was what they both craved.

  His hand slid down her body and slipped under the back of her leggings, cupping her bottom, caressing her there with lazy strokes.

  “That’s nice,” she whispered.

  “On this end, too,” he answered, pulling her closer so that she felt the hard shaft behind the front of his leggings.

  The layers of clothing were in the way. Each of them rolled to the side so that they could drag off their leggings. He pulled off his shirt, then came back to Rowan, opening the ties down the front of her shirt but leaving the garment on her for modesty’s sake.

  Reaching inside, he caressed her breasts, then traced the point where his knife had pierced her skin.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said again.

  “I understand.”

  “I was a lout.”

  “You were Prince Grantland, doing your duty, trying to protect your people. Now you’re Grant, the man I love.”

  “And the man who loves you.”

  He stroked his thumbs across the crests of her breasts, making them harden. When he leaned forward to take one tight nipple into his mouth, she gasped at the warm, wet feeling. As he suckled, he tugged on the other crest with his thumb and finger, the twin sensations amazing her.

  He added to the amazement when he slid his hand down her body, dipping into the folds of her woman’s parts, stroking her slick wetness, making her cry out.

  She felt his rigid cock pressing against her thigh as he lifted his head, looking down at her. “I want to please you in every way a man can please a woman.”

  “You are.”

  “Open your legs for me.”

  She saw his hard shaft standing out from his body and thought he wanted to enter her now. Instead he raised up, then leaned over her, bringing his mouth to her womanhood.

  The intimacy of the caress shocked her, and she tried to pull away, but he held her in place.

  “Let me.”

  “Men and women do this?”

  “Oh yes.”

  He stopped talking and brought his mouth back to her core, stroking his tongue through her folds, then circling the small bud that was the point of her greatest sensation.

  “Grant, you’re going to make me…”

  She felt him smile against her as he continued working her, licking and sucking, driving her higher, then higher still. She cried out as she flew apart into a thousand pieces, then sighed as he continued to give her every ounce of pleasure that he could.

  When she opened her eyes, he was smiling down at her.

  “I didn’t know about that,” she whispered.

  “A nice surprise.”

  “What about you…?”

  “Plenty of time for me. For both of us,” he murmured as he nuzzled her cheek.

  She raised up, looking down at
his stiff cock. “What you did to me, can I do something like that to you?”

  “If it would please you.”

  “I want to do everything with you.” She laughed. “Well, you’ll have to show me what everything is.”

  “Why don’t you do some exploring?”

  He grinned at her, lying back on the pallet, staring up at her with a look of complete trust in his eyes.

  He was fully aroused and so open to her that she almost wept. Instead she bent over him, feeling a little uncertain as she touched her tongue to his shaft, feeling it jerk as though it had a life of its own.

  Taking him in her hand to hold him steady, she stroked him with her tongue, then closed her mouth around the crest, sucking away a bead of moisture.

  When he sighed deeply, she knew she was doing the right thing. Still sucking, she took him farther into her mouth, moving her head up and down, imitating the motion of sexual congress. When she felt his hips rise and fall, then his body go rigid, she sensed he was on the edge of spilling himself.

  But he stopped the motion of her head with his hand. “Let me finish inside you.”

  She rolled to her back, reaching for him, and he entered her. She thought he would start to move immediately. Instead he held himself still and looked around him, a strange expression on his face.

  “Something’s happening.”

  Chapter Nine

  Rowan gasped. “What?”

  “The cage looks different.”

  She had been so focused on Grant that she hadn’t noticed the enclosure that confined them, but he had obviously kept a lookout, even as he made love to her. Now she turned her head and stared at the field that enclosed their cage.

  It appeared thinner. Less visible, and when she realized that, a shiver went through her.

  “What is it?”

  “I think we’re changing it.”

  “How?”

  “By what we’re doing. There are couples who have great power when they…connect in this way. But usually it’s only after they’ve been together for years.”

  His voice filled with awe. “I think we’re turning hours into years.”

  He could be right, but she hardly dared hope it was true.

  He looked down at her, his total focus on her, and she gazed up at him.

  “What should we do?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. It’s too far beyond my experience.”

  “Then it should be what pleases us both.”

  He moved slowly, in and out of her, and she focused on each stroke. The motion driving her up and up, until the slow rhythm brought her to the point of madness.

  “Now, please, now,” she begged, and she knew he was helpless to deny either one of them the ultimate pleasure.

  As he began moving faster, pressing against her center with each thrust, she felt her inner muscles tighten around him. The contractions were like small lightning shocks, radiating from where they were joined, vibrating through the rest of her body, sending waves of pleasure through her, and crackling in the air around them.

  She gasped, muffling the sound against his shoulder as he went rigid above her.

  They clung together as they came back to earth.

  “Lightning,” he breathed.

  “Yes,” she answered, shaken to the depths of her soul. She had never imagined such pleasure—or such power. Her heart drummed inside her chest as she turned her head and saw that the barrier that enclosed the cage was gone. But for how long?

  “Quick,” she whispered. “We can get out.”

  They both staggered to their feet. She fought a wave of dizziness as she grabbed for her clothes. But she was afraid to stay here a heartbeat longer than necessary, afraid that the barrier might come slamming back.

  They each clutched their clothing as they turned to the bars. They were still in place, but Grantland easily pulled two bars apart, and they slipped through.

  He was naked. She wore only her shirt as they headed for the shadows of a nearby garden wall where they pulled on their clothing as quickly as they could.

  “We have to get out of Valleyhold,” Rowan whispered.

  “Through the barrier?”

  “Yes.” She wondered if they had the strength to break through again. But they had to. It was their only hope.

  She looked around. It had been getting dark when the councilmen had thrown them into the cage. Now she saw the gray light that came before dawn. More time had passed than she had thought.

  Still feeling lightheaded, she pointed to the path that led up the mountain, but they were barely out of the village when she heard shouts behind them.

  Someone had seen them and given the alarm.

  She ran up the mountain, Grantland beside her, toward the barrier, but it was far above them. They’d never make it in time.

  One more alternative leaped into her mind, and she reached for Grantland’s hand, tugging.

  “We have to try something else.”

  He didn’t spare the breath to ask what. He simply followed her, giving her his total trust. They were both puffing as she led them up the mountain, veering off to the right, to a place where there was no barrier because no one could come up that way.

  Or get down and live?

  She couldn’t say, but she knew it was their only chance.

  She heard footsteps pelting behind them, closing in. Then she felt something that made her blood run cold. An invisible force grabbed her, pulling her back, and she cried out in fear.

  Some of the men were using their powers to hold her and Grantland back.

  He turned to face the attackers, a grim expression on his face. From his boot, he pulled a dagger and held it up.

  When the men saw the weapon, they stopped short, twenty paces away.

  “Who is controlling the power?” Grantland asked her.

  She scanned the men. “Kendar, I think.” She pointed to a short, lithe man with dark hair caught at the back of his neck.

  “Don’t kill him,” she cried out as Grantland drew back his arm.

  He threw the knife, hitting Kendar in the shoulder. The man made a strangled sound and fell to his knees. Instantly, the mental tug against them died.

  Rowan grabbed Grantland’s hand. They turned and ran again toward a place where the ground ended abruptly and the sky began.

  Grantland gasped as he stared out into space, then down at the jagged rocks below.

  “It’s the only way.”

  “Yes, I’ll die with you,” he whispered.

  “Not die. But you have to trust me.”

  Some of the men had started toward them again.

  Rowan gripped Grantland’s hand and called out, “Jump.”

  He gave her his trust, and they went over the cliff together, plummeting toward the earth.

  Above them she heard men gasp.

  Below she saw the rocky ground rushing toward them as cold air streaked past.

  Clutching Grantland’s hand and fighting to draw on the strength they had forged together, she struggled with all her power to slow their descent. She knew she could never do it by herself, but she felt energy coming to her across their clasped hands.

  Still, it wasn’t enough, and they kept plummeting downward much too fast.

  “Help me,” she gasped.

  She felt him reach for the power they had created when they had made love. And with the power, she sensed a change.

  Time was slowing. Or they were.

  They were only yards from smashing on the rocks when she felt a cushion of air below their feet. Gently it lowered them the rest of the way, and they settled on the rugged rocks.

  “They’re watching.” She pulled Grantland down so that it looked as if they had fallen to the ground, their bodies broken on the rocks.

  As they lay unmoving, she strained her ears, listening for sounds from above.

  Voices drifted down, but she wasn’t sure what anyone was saying. After a long time, when she judged it was safe to move, she cautiously loo
ked up and saw no one.

  “Can they come down here?” Grantland asked.

  “I don’t think they would dare to jump. They will have to drop the barrier, climb down, and work their way over here.”

  “And we will not be waiting when they arrive,” Grantland said. But instead of rising to his feet, he reached for Rowan and pulled her into his arms, holding tight.

  She clasped him to her, tears of relief flooding her eyes.

  “You saved us,” he murmured.

  “Only with your help. Could you feel it?”

  “The power gathering between us?”

  “Yes.”

  “I felt it, but I didn’t know if it was enough.”

  “Nor did I.”

  They embraced for long moments, celebrating their escape until he stirred.

  “We must take ourselves far from this place.”

  She nodded uncertainly. “We have…nothing. No weapons. No food.”

  “I have a knife in my other boot,” he said, pulling it out.

  “Lucky for us.”

  “I never wander the countryside unarmed.”

  She nodded. He was a prince, but he was also a man who knew how to take care of himself in many different situations.

  They started off, still holding hands as they made their way across the rocks.

  It was hard going, and they were both out of breath when they reached the flatter ground on the other side.

  Grantland squeezed her hand. “We will be all right, now that we’re away from your village.”

  “Where will we go?”

  “I haven’t thought that far ahead.” He left her leaning against a rock and walked forward, scanning the ground. She saw him squat down and came over to find what he was looking at.

  He pointed to low growing foliage covered with yellow berries.

  “Are they all right to eat?”

  “Yes. I’ve had them when I was out on maneuvers.” He plucked off several and handed them to her.

  She tried one and found it tart. But they hadn’t eaten since the day before, and it tasted delicious.

  They both ate some of the berries and carried more in their hands, munching as they made haste to put distance between themselves and Valleyhold.