Darkly Forsaken (Darkly Devoted Series, Book 4)

Chapter 6 - Forbidden Love

Chapter 6

AFTER RAFE undid the ties that bound Zaspyr to the bed, he told me we should go back to Delion. The last thing Zaspyr needed was for guards lurking about looking for two fugitive slaves. Zaspyr would need to regain some strength before he could travel. Rafe said there was water and food here and that Zaspyr could recover here in peace until we were ready to smuggle him out of the palace. I was reluctant to leave my friend behind, but Rafe was right. Our presence here would only bring Zaspyr unwanted attention.

"Why are you helping us?" I asked Rafe as we made our way back through the hedge maze. The sun was starting to set, and purple rays of twilight turned the garden into an enchanted wonderland. It would have been easier to appreciate the beauty of the sunset if it didn't remind me of the pools of blood of the arena. "Aren't you from Manna City? Don't you guys see us as animals?"

"I have a secret," Rafe said and grabbed my hand to hurry me down the pathway toward the hedge maze. His hands were cold and clammy. Clearly, what had happened in that shed had shaken him to the core. His emotional reaction to what happened to Zaspyr had left his eyes puffy and tear-stained. "I am partially Nivarrin on my mother's side."

"Why did her family leave Nivarrin, to go to a city in Ignias of all places?"

"I don't know. I know she had the option of going back, but she chose to stay with my father." Rafe swatted away a stray vine of ivy that brushed against my shoulder. He beamed at me after doing so as though he was fulfilling some kind of gentlemanly obligation.

I didn't consider myself the intuitive type, but even I can see that he looked as though a tremendous weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Did he really care that much about helping Zaspyr or did he have another objective in mind?

"My dad didn't have much to offer, not compared to what she had in Nivarrin," Rafe said with a light-hearted chuckle.

"Tell me, who do you think is more handsome? Prince Orion or me?" Rafe asked suddenly with an amused smile. "Let's assume for the sake of argument he isn't a complete raving lunatic."

"Why don't we assume one of you is a panda? What kind of question is that?"

"What I mean is, do you think there could be a chance for redemption for a man like him?"

"No," I snapped back. "Not in a thousand years would I pick Orion Balan. You don't understand, how could you? If you saw what I saw, out there in the streets, you would hate him too."

"I guess you're right," Rafe said with a more subdued laugh. "Forget Prince Orion. Do you think we can be friends, you and me?"

Rafe approached and cornered me against one of the hedges. Although he was about a head taller than me and could probably snap me like a twig with his bare hands, I shoved his well-muscled chest away.

"Only if you agree to run away with Zaspyr and me. You're a criminal now, aren't you? You stole from the Prince. And doesn't it feel good helping the good guys for once?"

"That is true," Rafe said as his expression turned grave. "It was a great feeling to save that wounded man."

"I need to take him back to the mountains if he is going to live," I said. "There is a man with the Modryne, a priest, who they say has great healing powers. I only started the process; he can finish it."

Before I was able to continue, Rafe kissed me again. His mouth was rougher than his hands, more demanding. I've never been kissed that way before, like I was the water in the desert before a man who had seen only mirages before. He didn't need words to convey to me his hunger, his longing, and our sense of belonging together. The way he seemed to part my lips with his tongue and passionately, lovingly, shyly fill my mouth with the most intimate parts of himself — it was as though we were two pieces of the same puzzle that had fit together perfectly.