Page 75 of In Darkness Forged
His arms grew weak, but he did not want to let her go, so he simply fell back onto the grass and pulled her with him, allowing a strange, placid warmth to settle over him as he did so.
Warmth, peace, contentment… Such feelings could only arise from magic, but Aislin had none, and he could sense no enemies or disturbances in the nearby forest.
Tal decided he did not care. Cuan would warn him if there was danger, and he was too busy feeling relieved to bother with fear. Relieved, and possibly even… happy? It was a strange thought, but with Aislin beside him, her head on his shoulder and her arm wrapped around his chest, he could not think of another word that fit.
“Tal?” Her voice was small and hesitant.
“Hmm?”
“I didn’t mean to leave you for dead.” She paused for a moment. “I thought youweredead.”
“As did I,” he admitted slowly. “I was bitten… too many times to count.”
Aislin released him, rose to one elbow, and looked down at him, her expression adorably fierce. “You should not have thrown your life away trying to save mine. There is nothing about me worth that kind of sacrifice.”
Tal felt a hint of anger brush across the surface of his contentment. “Why would you say such a thing?”
“You said it yourself,” she pointed out, a little wryly. “I’m soft and helpless—a witless human sheep.”
Tal winced. Hehadsaid that, hadn’t he?
“I have no power, no influence, no special abilities, and no magic,” Aislin continued. “Why would you eventhinkabout dying to save someone like me?”
“No magic?” A rusty laugh erupted from his throat, causing Aislin’s eyes to widen in response. “You have far greater magic than I could ever dream of possessing.”
With torn and bloodstained fingers, he swept her hair away from her face and tucked it gently behind her ear. “Whether you know it or not, your courage and determination are a form of magic all their own. Without them, I would still be languishing in Vanadar’s dungeon, bitter and alone. Without your stubborn refusal to quit, we would both have died in that cave. Do not undervalue yourself simply because your magic is not easily seen. Your life,” he told Aislin fiercely, “is worth every possible sacrifice.”
He’d stunned her past words. Her wide blue eyes turned luminous in the moonlight, while her lips parted softly in surprise. An errant breeze stirred her dark hair, framing her face with its wild tendrils, and somehow the picture became a blade of longing that pierced through his armor, between his ribs, and all the way to his heart.
He wanted this. Wantedher. For now, for always. She was the joy to his melancholy, the light to his shadow, the star to his grim night sky. He’d walled her out, but she’d simply found another way in, past all his defenses, to the part of him that was desperately alone. Aislinsawhim—every broken and grieving part of him—and refused to run away.
But even if she was everything to him, she had a world of her own to return to. A family and a home. The humans did not welcome night elves among them, so what place could he possibly have in her life?
Especially now that they’d failed in their quest. She had no way to pay Vanadar’s price, and therefore no chance of fulfilling the demands of her human lord.
“And do not worry for the future,” he said softly. “We will find a way to gain what you need.”
Her face changed suddenly, and she pulled away. “About that…” Her eyes fell, and she clenched her fingers around her knees before getting to her feet and retrieving his pack from where it lay on the ground nearby.
Sitting cross-legged a few feet away, she reached into the pack and withdrew… the vial. The glass vial Vanadar had given them.
Which now contained a single drop of glowing golden liquid.
The whole world seemed to shudder to a halt as Tal stared at what she held. She’d gotten the venom. While he lay near death, she’d gone on and finished the quest.
Buthow?
And… why? The number of ways she could have died was staggering. Between darkness and danger and the threat of everything from falling to starvation, her survival was no less than a miracle.
“You…” Torn between rage and relief, he could not find the words to go on. He’d given everything he had to save her, and she’d gone deeper into the cave rather than leaving.
“You were dying,” Aislin said quietly, a ragged edge to her voice. “I saw where they’d bitten you, and I knew you would not survive. I also knew that you wanted me to leave, but… I couldn’t.” Her eyes finally lifted from her hands, piercing his as if trying to tell him something important. “Tal, I need you to understand—Icouldn’t. Not because of my errand, and not for Vanadar, but because I couldn’t let you die. Not after you’d saved me so many times. So even if it makes me a fool, even if you’re angry, I don’t care because that was not a part of myself I was willing to give up.”
He wanted to be furious. Echoes of terror for what she must have endured still shook him. But he could not be angry with a warrior for her courage. Could not deny her the right to decide her own path. As much as his heart cried out that she must be safe, the very spirit and determination that he admired was too much a part of her, and to take those away would be to break her. To make her less than who she was, and he could never do that, because he loved her.
Loved her.
The words echoed in the sudden, shocked emptiness of Tal’s mind.