Promising Light (36 page)

Dar took her hand. “Did you sleep
well?”

“Yes, I did,” Grace yawned. “I
could go back to sleep, but I’m too hungry.” She met Dar’s eyes.
“What are we going to do?”

“We’ve got to talk to Lisbeth.
Hopefully she’ll come here if she’s only a couple miles away.” He
let go of her hand and removed the covers. He didn’t have a shirt
on, and Grace let her eyes linger on his fit chest for a few
seconds as he sat up. “I wonder what Evan told Jeshro about the
ancient texts.”

“Did Adrian say where Jeshro was?”
Grace stood up slowly. Her leg muscles ached with stiffness, and
her ankles twinged in pain when she walked to the dress hanging on
the back of the door.

“No, I don’t think so,” Dar
said.

“So, should we find Lisbeth or
Jeshro? Or should we wait for Sierra?” The dress was modest, brown.
She looked around the room for a changing screen, but she couldn’t
find one.

“We should find Evan and Sierra.
If she left alone… the Protectors may have found her.”

Grace swallowed. “I hope not.” She
cleared her throat, and her face grew warm. “I’m going to
change.”

“Me, too.” Dar walked to the
bundle of clothes on his side of the room. “I’ll look this way, you
look that way?”

Grace nodded and held back an
amused smile. She changed into her new dress, fighting the
temptation to look over her shoulder and then losing the battle.
She snuck a look and caught a view of Dar’s bare backside as well
as Dar’s eyes on her exposed back. “Hey!” she said.

He laughed, looking away as he
pulled on his pants. She shook her head, smiling as she tied up the
new dress. They faced each other, and Dar shrugged. “What, we’re
supposed to be in love, right?”

Grace paused. “Are we? Or are we
just supposed to be impregnating me?”

Dar’s smile faded. Grace almost
felt bad for not playing along with the joke, but they couldn’t
ignore the real reason they were in this position: because his
family thought she was going to break the curse by having his
children.

“Right,” he said. “Well, we’ll
have to keep playing that angle.”

“I know.” Grace shifted her
weight, feeling uncomfortable.

They went into the kitchen, where
Kaiden had heaping plates of food for them on the table.

“It smells amazing,” Dar told her.
“It’s what woke us up.”

Kaiden smiled. She had a few teeth
missing. Grace was so tired last night, she didn’t remember
noticing.

“Sit down, eat,” Kaiden
said.

“Where’s Adrian?” Dar asked as
they took their seats.

Kaiden shrugged. “Somewhere around
here.”

Grace glanced around the small
cottage. How could she not know? They ate breakfast—it wasn’t the
stuff of her daydream yesterday, but nearly as good. She ate
quickly, probably not very politely for a lady of the court. She
didn’t really feel like a lady of the court, though, with her hair
down and unbrushed, wearing worn shoes, sleeping in the bed of a
man she wasn’t married to. Not that they were doing anything
inappropriate, as the Avialies thought they were.

Adrian came in halfway through the
meal and gave Kaiden a nod. She wiped her hands on her apron. “Dar,
can you help Adrian and I with the horses for a moment?”

“Sure,” Dar said, getting to his
feet.

“We’ll be a while,” Kaiden told
Grace. “Make yourself comfortable.”

The three of them left, and Grace
stood up to stretch. She was so full from breakfast, and she felt
as if she could go back to sleep. Grace went back to the second
bedroom to take advantage of the waiting time. She pulled off her
shoes and found the book of legends in her bag. After lying down on
the bed, she started to read the pages about the ancient texts
again. She got about halfway through the section when she closed
her eyes to rest and dozed off.

The creaking of the door woke her
up. She looked up, surprised she’d even fallen asleep. Dar was
closing the door behind him.

“You’re done?” she asked, sitting
up. “How long have you been out there? I fell asleep.”

“Not too long.” He sat down at the
edge of the bed, a few inches from her feet. She swung her legs
around so they were dangling off the bed.

“How long do you think we’ll have
to wait before Lisbeth gets here?” Grace asked.

“I don’t know.” He cleared his
throat. “Grace… I’m tired of pretending.”

Grace looked at him with her brow
furrowed. Did he want to tell the others that they weren’t trying
to get her pregnant? “What do you mean?”

Dar moved closer so their thighs
were touching, and he put his hand on her knee. She stared at his
fingers, her heart pounding.

“I’m talking about us,” he said.
“I miss you. I miss those times in the vineyard. I miss…” He
trailed off, and she met his eyes. “I miss everything about
you.”

Grace opened her mouth to say
something, but her voice died in her throat. Her face heated up,
and she tried to make sense of this. Of course she missed him, too,
but was this really the time? They needed to find Sierra and
Evan.

“After we got out of those tunnels
and I saw your face in the light, I didn’t want to be without you
anymore.”

“Dar, I—”

Dar put his fingers to her mouth.
“Shhh… please, Grace… with everything that’s happening, I wouldn’t
be able to live with myself if something happened to you before I
told you how I felt about you.”

Grace stared at him. She couldn’t
count the number of times he’d said something similar, but he’d
never mentioned her feelings for her before. Her mind raced, and
she thought of all he’d said in the tunnel. How he resented her
being with the prince, how he would have made her the only woman in
her life. She swallowed hard as she tried to think of what to
say.

He stroked the side of her jaw and
leaned in. Her eyes fluttered shut just as their lips met. He
kissed her softly, and she leaned toward him. He put his hands on
the side of her face, and she touched his arm. She’d missed this…
but something was off… she pushed it out of her mind, trying to
enjoy the kiss. He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her
torso.

After a few moments, he pulled away
and set his forehead on hers. “I love you,” he
whispered.

She pushed him
off of her and stared at him. “
What
?”

“Grace—”

“No, you can’t say something like
that to me.” Grace stood. She couldn’t believe him. “Not after
everything you’ve done!”

Dar got to his feet, his nostrils
flaring in anger. “Like what?”

“After you made that deal with the
Protectors! You’ve treated me like a child for wanting to help your
family! And you yelled at me in the hotel room!” She would have
accepted it in Belisha when she’d understood why he left, but too
much had happened since then.

Dar sputtered, and he ran a hand
through his hair. “I—I wasn’t myself.”

“No, you’re not yourself right
now!” Grace pushed past him and pacing around the bed angrily.
“You’re the one who is supposed to be level-headed. You’re supposed
to be helping me.” She spun on her heel at a sudden thought. “Are
you doing this to distract me? To ‘protect’ me?”

“No.” Dar moved across the room
and grabbed her arms. “I’m doing this because I want to be with
you. You were right. We have to help my family any way we
can.”

“What is wrong with you?” Grace
struggled to get away from him, but his grip held her. “Let me
go!”

“Grace,” Dar said, his voice soft.
He tried to kiss her again, and she turned her head away from him.
His grip became painful, and she fought back her fear.

Then it all made sense. This wasn’t
Dar. She kneed him between the legs as hard as she could. He cried
out, letting go of her, and she ran for the door. He was right
behind her, though; he grabbed her dress, and then his arm went
around her throat.

“Let me go!” Grace shrieked,
struggling as hard as she could.

The Dar impostor flung her toward
the bed.

She kicked at him as he shoved his
body onto her. “Stop it! Who are you?”

“I’m Dar, who else would I be?” he
spat. She pushed his chin up, away from her face, but his hands
still groped at her dress, pulling her skirt up. She kicked him in
one of the shins, and suddenly he hit her across the face with the
back of his hand. She gasped in pain, squeezing her eyes shut. Her
ears rang, and for a moment, she was stunned into silence while he
pulled her skirt up to her thighs.

“If Dar isn’t going to do it, I
will,” he said.

Grace hated hearing Dar’s voice so
rough and violent.

His hands touched her legs, and she
kicked out with force. Her foot connected with a leg. “Stop
struggling, and this will be easier,” he said, pressing the weight
of her body against his. He grabbed her wrists and tried to make
eye contact, but she didn’t want to see Dar’s face glaring down at
her with such anger. She didn’t want him to see the tears in her
eyes.

One hand went to her waist again
while the other struggled to keep her wrists from him. She looked
around frantically. She saw the book of legends on the pillow and
wrenched her hand out of his. She grabbed the book and heaved the
corner of it into the man’s forehead. He let out a yell, his torso
half-rolling off of her.

Grace kicked him again, freeing her
legs, and sprang to her feet. She was out of the door soon, and he
was just behind her, but she dropped the book and grabbed a pot off
the oven. She swung around, waving the pot in the air. The Dar
impostor wasn’t quick enough, and the pot hit him in the side of
the face. He stumbled, but Grace didn’t stay long enough to see his
reaction. She sprinted for the front door, yelling,
“Dar!”

She burst outside, holding the pot
in one hand. She ran for the area where they left the horses the
previous night, and she saw Dar tied up to a post with a black and
brown horse. He looked at her with shock and surprise; he was on
his knees, both hands chained to the pole behind him.

She ran to him, dropped to her
knees, then stopped before examining his chains. “Tell me something
only I would know,” she demanded.

Dar’s mouth was moving, but nothing
came out. His eyes were wide, his expression frantic.

Someone suddenly grabbed her by the
hair, pulling her back. When the person dropped her on her back,
she was about to stumble to her feet when Adrian pinned her to the
ground. He was in his true form—he had to have been the one who was
posing as Dar.

She swung with the pot again, but
he caught her arm and twisted her wrist. She let out a yell,
dropping the pot. He smiled; his mouth and teeth were bloody. He
spit a mixture of blood and saliva in her face, and her eyes stung
with pain as she squeezed them shut.

“I’ll take you right in front of
Dar,” Adrian said.

She began to struggle and kick, but
suddenly, Adrian let out an agonizing scream. He fell off of Grace.
She opened her eyes, blinking hard and wiping the blood out of
them, and she saw Adrian writhing in pain on the ground. Her mouth
open with shock, she crawled over to Dar. “What’s
happening?”

Kaiden walked into view, one of her
hands out, her fingers twisted in midair. Grace gasped as she
realized Kaiden was causing the pain. How? She remembered with a
jolt what Sierra had said about Thierans.

Kaiden lowered her hand, and Adrian
stopped screaming. “You stupid hag!” he yelled. “What are you
doing?”

“You didn’t say you were going to
harm her,” Kaiden said, glaring at him.

“I wasn’t!” Adrian said. “You
don’t understand! This is for the Avialies!”

“You’re not welcome here anymore.”
She raised he arm and pointed to the west. “Leave now.”

Adrian sputtered for a moment, then
got to his feet. “I’ll go straight to the Protectors and tell them
you’re helping us.”

Kaiden shook her head. “No, you
won’t. You’re loyal to your family.” She glanced at Grace, who was
crouched next to Dar, clutching his arm. “Perhaps too
loyal.”

“I’m not going—” Adrian cut off.
He screamed again and dropped to his knees. Kaiden’s hand fell to
her side, ending the pain. “Fine! I’m leaving!” He stood up and
glared at Grace and Dar. “I’m going to tell Jeshro and Lisbeth
everything.”

Grace said nothing, only glared at
him, clenching her teeth. She hoped she never saw him again. Dar
might have said something, but she now understood Kaiden had done
something to his voice.

Adrian took a horse and galloped
away. Grace let out a sigh of relief as he grew smaller and
smaller. Kaiden took a key out of her dress pocket and unlocked
Dar’s chains. “I’m sorry,” she said, touching his throat. She
turned to Grace. “He didn’t tell me he’d hurt you.”

“But you were okay with him tying
me up?” Dar asked, his voice low.

“I thought he was going to talk
her into something. I’m sorry.” Kaiden avoided their eyes and hung
her head.