Incognito

36

The stable lad had his horse ready when Zac arrived at the entrance of the stall door. Zac tossed him an extra coin and climbed aboard. If the mia was still in Leeland, there was one place Zac was sure to fin her. He hurried out of the courtyard and onto the streets of Leeland. With every townsperson celebrating inside the castle, Zac had the liberty to gallop down the streets. Zac knew he would not face complications in town. The real trouble would be navigating the woods. The mia knew how to hide, from Richard's men, from travelers on the King's road, from patrolling guardsmen the King sent every busy season. She could be in any tree, behind any bramble or bush, shrouded by vines and weeds. Zac was completely unfamiliar with her home ground. 

He could not locate her hut from the road any more than he could identify a squirrel by name. Luckily Zac was not in search of the mia's hut. Angelica was smart. Even if she needed to stop before nightfall, she would not fo to that lean-to. Just as the gang of thieves would not conjugate at their camp, the mia would avoid her known site. She was ready and prepared to play cat and mouse and even though she was the cat, she had to stay hidden or else the mice would sense her and flee.

So Zac, instead, listened. He heard hungry wild animals crunching icy leaves underfoot and birds calling out hoping to make good impressions before mating season. He heard the wind whistling and watched as it tickled sleeping branches before flying away. Mostly he heard the hit of horse's hooves crush the hard, packed dirt as it marched onward. Still, he did not hear the sound he sought.

Then he heard it, deep in the forest, the crash of water over and over upon itself. Zac may not have ever been trained as a tracker but anyone could find a waterfall.

He turns his horse off the hard-worn trail and steers it toward the ever roaring sound.

Zac is beginning to wonder if he followed the river in the wrong direction. He had been following the river for a time and the cry of plummeting water never rose or fell. It was as constant as the heart that beat inside his chest. He refused to give up the belief that she was lost to him with no goodbye and unresolved misunderstandings. He continued onward even when his horse began to balk and even when the chill bit his nose. He was about to turn around and head downstream when he parted some brambles and there is was, currents racing by and waterfall feeding the running river.

And there she was, attempting to net a fish in-between to large rocks. He leaped down from his horse and dropped his boots, weapons, and layers of cloak and tunics on the forest floor. He waded into the frigid waters in only trousers and gasp in relief when he hit the first patch of warm water.

At the sound, the mia looked up. She lost her balance and fell into the water, lone fish and all. Dripping wet she begins to haul herself and her wet underskirts towards the waterfall that Zan knows Prosper waits behind. He calls for her to wait, long legs lounging quickly through the water. He catches her easily as water swirls around him, reaching for the mia's waist with icy fingers. He snags her and trips on the rocky bed and they both tumble to the low waters beside the waterfall. She is pinned beneath him with warm fingers on his cold bare chest. She mouths, "Zac?" before she glares at him with stern, tired, exhausted eyes and he feels like the sunbeams on him. Then she proceeds to let out a string of curses and pushes him under the falling water. While he sputters, she swims out to deeper, warmer water. Zac cannot stop thinking about those rosy pink lips he kissed, shaking water out of his ear, he pursues her.

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The mia is angry. While she wants to be angry with Zac, the only person she could be upset with is herself. She made herself too easy to track. She was too predictable. She should not have stopped to catch fish to trade and eat on the trip. She should not have gone to someplace Zac knew. Bu a small part of her wanted to be followed. The same part that noticed the contours of Zac's chest or how his heart leaped when she put her hand on it. Or how those dancing green eyes were immediately drawn to her mouth. She was constantly having to remind that small part of her that her heart that she wanted no part in this. Her heart was not as easily convinced as her head. She knew what she was walking away from and she did it anyway. Because while Zac wasn't perfect, he was perfect for her. And his lips were magic. And her heart leaped when he saw him without a shirt on. But staying in a town that was haunted with memories because some man enthralled her was not her way.

Her arms pull her back into the deep, warm waters of the hot springs that she never wants to leave. The icy waters melt away as she wades closer to the waterfall. She can feel him behind her. "Leave me alone, Zac."

It hurt to say good-bye once, but she thought she hurt him badly enough that he wouldn't come back.

"It is nice to know you still have a voice." Oh, how did the rumble of his voice ripple through the waters? The mia closed her eyes and cursed. He chuckled.

"You change when you are in the woods. You act like you do not care like the world can never hurt you. You are invincible and tough. You could try letting someone in."

She had to hurt him again, it was the only way. "I did. I let in Darcy. Now he is dead. So unless you wish to be as well, I would like for you to leave."

He lays a hand on her shoulder and every womanly part of her goes on edge. Her head keeps up the mantra, "we are trying to push him away". 

"Please," she cries.

He spins her around. "I am going to let you go and I want you to find the gang members and deliver justice. That is the only way you are going to find peace. But I want you to promise that you will one day return to Leeland to visit. You will come back." He stared at her face like he was memorizing the lines. Because he knew as well as her that she would lie through her teeth to him.

She nods.

"I am going to track down my mother," he reveals. The mia is taken back a little. While she imagined him doing just that, she thought he would stay for a few years. "I will find her." Determination rang through his voice. "Someone else can be an earl. It was never meant for me." Zac took the mia's hand and places it on her heart. "You are amazing. Go prove it."

Zac walks away. He leaves her in the water and returns to the bank where his horse waits. 

"Zac!" She calls.

He turns. She sludges through the water and runs to hug him. 

"Good-bye, Mr. Holden."

"Good-bye, love," he whispers back. He kisses her wet hair and they both begin to shiver. She lets him go and walks back into the warm water. She turns back in time to see him drop his wet breeches on the forest floor. She quickly averts her eyes and he lets out a strong laugh.

"You act as if  you have never seen me naked before, miss healer." He calls jovially.

Mia swims closer to the waterfall and calls back. "Just because I saw it covered in blood and dirt once does not at all mean I want to see it again."

The mia returns behind the waterfall and throws on a dry tunic. She sets her treasure upon her hip and when she peeks out, she catches a glance of a dry, fully-clothed man leaving on horseback.

"Good-by, Zacary Holden," the mia whispers. "Never will I forget you." Then she sets down her treasure, picks up her bow, and slips into the dusk.