Magic's Daughter by David Williams

Author:David Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: coming of age, adventure, fantasy, magic, family, medieval, sword sorcery, magic school, epic fanatasy, wizardess
Publisher: One Million Words LLC via Indie Author Project

Chapter 33

Lucas drew in a deep breath, causing his naked chest to swell until he let the air out again in a long, loud sigh.

It might have been a sigh of contentment, a post-coital echo of the physical release that had occurred mere moments ago. But to Selena, who had known Lucas intimately for months now, this sigh was a strange new thing.

She shivered, drawing the horse blanket up to her neck. She wanted to look over at him but dared not. Selena lay perfectly still, keeping her breaths as shallow and silent as possible. Her will was not strong enough to quiet her pounding heart, however.

“We canno’ keep doin’ this,” Lucas in a monotone.

She had seen the sentiment written across his face from time to time, but he had never spoken it aloud. Something her grandmother had told her years ago came unbidden to her mind. “Once you know something, you may never unknow it.”

Swallowing the horrible taste in her mouth, she said, “If this is about what I said earlier…my joke about running away together…”

She fixed her gaze on the planks that comprised the stable’s roof, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lucas turn toward her. Her eyes began to sting. She implored herself not to cry.

“It’s not that, Selena,” he said. “What we’re doin’ is wrong. If someone was to happen ’pon us like this…well, I might keep my life, but I’d lose somethin’ just as precious.”

Her skin burned with a pulsating heat, and she became aware of each and every piece of straw poking her through the blanket. The itchiness was almost too much to bear. But she was not about to jump up from their makeshift bed, completely nude, to frantically scratch at her back like a madwoman.

Yet some reprieve was required. She turned on her side to face him, using one arm for support and the other to maintain an awkward hold on the blanket. Whatever bandit always managed to steal her self-consciousness when she was alone with Lucas had apparently fled. She would be damned to Abaddon if she were going to let the young man see anything below her shoulders!

She affected a scornful laugh, trying her best to hide the tremor in her voice. “So much for choosing the right path for morality’s sake,” she said. “You are just worried about your own skin…or at least a small portion of it.”

She felt perverse pleasure at seeing him flinch. A pang of guilt tried to surge up from somewhere in her brain, but she pushed it back down from where it had come. Later, she might hate herself for her words, but for now, she wanted to hurt him as much as he was hurting her.

“’Course I’m worried for my safety,” he said, “an’ I’m worried about yours. Your reputation—”

“Godsdamn my reputation!”

“Well, what if you got pregnant?”

“Do not insult my intelligence. We take precautions. Or are you worried I want a baby, that I might try to get pregnant…?”

She stopped when she saw a wry smile tip one side of Lucas’s mouth.

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