Whispers of a Legend, Part One-Shadows of the Past by Carrie James Haynes Page B

was leaving the castle.
    In the moonlight, his wings spread wide over
the cloudless sky. He circled over head. My eyes lay mesmerized
upon the Sordarin who within moments landed before me. He did not
say a word at first. He just stood there, too close, too tall, too
dark. He smiled at me.
    “Are you heading somewhere?” Cono smiled a
wide arrogant grin.
    “Should you not be back at the castle with
everyone?” I said. “My destination is not your concern. Now, please
go along with your flight. I have no intentions of detaining
you.”
    “You’re not,” he reached out and touched my
face. I recoiled. I have never been touched in that manner for any
reason. “I have waited for this opportunity to talk with you
without everyone’s ears.” He paused for a moment, glancing down at
my bare feet. “The slippers weren’t comfortable?”
    My eyes flamed. To be ridiculed! I stepped
around him. His arm halted my progression.
    "You walk unprotected in the dead of
night?”
    “You don’t know me well,” I answered blandly.
“I’m not afraid. Of what? There is no one here to do me harm. And
even if there were why would someone try to harm me?”
    “I can think of a few reasons,” his eyes
glanced over me in a way that made color rush to my cheeks. Happy
at least the night’s dim light hid my embarrassment.
    I faced him in the night. “I can well take
care of myself. I have been trained well.”
    “In that I don’t question,” His head tilted
to hold to my eyes I had tried to divert. He looked upward. “It is
a grand night for a flight. Do you not think?”
    “In that I wouldn’t know.”
    “Then it is time to find out.”
    Without another utterance, his arms rounded
me and upward he soared. My arms instinctually clutched his neck.
He laughed heartily. “It is better than blasting at me. Much
better.”
    At first I dug my head into his chest. I
closed my eyes and faced the wind. Oh, the taste of what freedom!
Slowly I opened my eyes. I drank in the feeling, the sight and the
remembrance of once before flying high in the sky with the one that
held me. I wanted it to go on forever for the Sordarin warrior who
held me to bring me out of Forbidden Forest. Instead he lit upon
the cliffs high above the Forest.
    His arms released me and I stood along the
edge. So tiny all beneath my gaze seemed. Oh, the beauty. I turned
to find his eyes dancing upon me. The anger igniting within me only
moments before dissipated.
    “Thank you,” I uttered. “This is so
beautiful.”
    “It is,” he agreed. He stepped closer to me,
so close I could feel his breath upon my neck.
    His arms rounded me, pressing my face to his.
My lips pulsed beneath his touch. My whole body did from his
proximity and gaze. I gritted my teeth. What was I doing acting
like a fool! His dark eyes considered me. They lured me. Their
color deepened. He smiled vaguely.
    He looked handsome with the moonlit
highlighting him in the darkness. I had no time to consider my
situation when he lowered his head. His lips touched mine
delicately and kissed me softly. His lips lingered a moment, rested
only an extra instant. He cupped the nape of my neck with his
strong hand and kissed me again. This time, I responded back.
    My body trembled with his touch. The kiss,
his closeness. His kiss provoked something inside of me that caused
me to forget for a moment all around me. When he broke from me, I
stared up at him in shock. I would have stepped back further but
his arms held me tightly.
    “I don’t want you to fall.”
    My eyes widened with fascination of the depth
of feeling he evoked within me. Finally, however, I realized he was
playing with me.
    “Let go,” I said. “You may do this often. But
I will not be treated such. I may look as though…”
    He shook his head. Then he kissed me again.
“I have never done this before, nor wanted to with anyone else. I
told you I wanted to talk with you. I want to understand all that
you have been through for the last four