Page 33 of Hearts on Fire
He set the goblet on the trunk by the bed, then hugged me with both arms from behind.
“I haven’t been sleeping well since… well, ever since we got to Dakath. And yes, I was worried.” He kissed my temple, drawing my back into his chest.
“Thank you for…” I looked around the room. “Where exactly are we?”
“It’s my room in the Bozyr Peak castle.”
“You live here?” It was the biggest bedroom I’d ever seen, hands down. It had not one, but two huge windows. One was shuttered, the other one wide open. “How am I here?”
“I brought you here last night. You weren’t doing well. Mother of the Sanctuary told me you’d felt cold, but you were so hot to the touch… And you were unconscious.” With his arms crossed over my chest from behind, he rubbed my upper arms with his hands. “It wasn’t good, Amber. No one could tell me what was happening or what to do.”
“So, whatdidyou do?”
“You told me humans can’t regulate their temperature very well on their own. I remembered you said if you ever felt hot, you’d need to cool off. So I took you flying.”
“You did?” I turned over my shoulder to see his face. “I think I remember some of that. Or was it just a dream?”
“Depends.” A corner of his mouth lifted in a teasing smile. “Did we have sex in your memories?”
“Um…”
“If we did, then it was most definitely a dream. There was no sex yesterday.” His smile dimmed. “Just a lot of me begging and praying to all the gods of Nerifir. You scared me, Amber.”
I stroked his hand on my shoulder. “Were you scared? For me?”
“I still am. Are you sure you’re feeling better? Did I do it right last night? What can I do to stop it from happening again?”
“It’s all good, Elex. You don’t have to worry. I’m not a doctor, but I should be fine now. Once the fever drops and stays down, it usually takes a turn for the better. Just need to take it easy for a few days. Don’t gargoyles ever get sick?”
“We do. If we get wounded or cursed. Or if we eat something we shouldn’t, without wearing something with wards for protection.” He tapped a ring on his left pointer finger. It was a large ruby in an elaborate dark-gold setting.
“Is that the replacement for the one you gave me?” I freed my hand with the lizard ring from under the covers.
“Yes. King Edkhar is generous to those he finds useful. I got the new ring shortly after I came to the Bozyr Peak.”
“Do you want this one back, maybe? I don’t have to worry about selling it now. And it was your great-grandmother’s.”
He touched the carved ruby on my finger. “It was. But I want you to have it. It fits you better than me, anyway.”
I was ready to give the ring back if he took it. But I was glad that he didn’t. I never had anything so beautiful in my life. And now that I didn’t have to break it into pieces, I really enjoyed wearing it.
“You know, where I come from, a man giving a ring to a woman has a meaning.” Why did I say that? There was absolutely no point in him knowing that.
“I know.” He smiled.
“You do? How?”
“It happened in Ghata’s menagerie quite a few times while I was there.”
“Someone proposed at the menagerie?”
Talk about an unusual place for that. But then again, people liked and even actively searched for unusual places to propose.
He nodded. “I got a very good view of it a couple of times. In your world, a man gets down on one knee, opens the box with the ring, and asks the woman, ‘Will you marry me?’ Then she screams ‘Yes!’” he squealed in a high-pitched voice, making me laugh. “Then, he puts a ring on her finger and they snap those flashing things, what do you call them? The ones that preserve images of the moment, kind of like our picture books or crystal balls?”
“Cameras? Cell phones?”
“Something like that.” He nodded. “Then the woman calls someone on thatcell phone,cries, and yells, ‘Guess what? We’re getting married!’”