Sons of the Countryside by Jenni Michaels

Author:Jenni Michaels [Michaels, Jenni]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2015-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

Eight

“CARDS,” KNOX said, motioning at the bookcase. “Dice? Nothing at all?”

Cailean shook his head, his face as impassive as ever as he watched Knox ping around the house like a caged cat. Knox yanked his sleeves down over his hands, sick with nerves. Two hours. His father had been gone two hours. If he left now, right now, and ran as fast as he could, or if he could summon a horse from somewhere…. Perhaps there were some wild mares in the valley, and if Knox headed that way before the sun set and the cold set in, if he could find a suitable horse within the hour, he could move much faster than Uilleam, and….

“Knox,” Cailean said sharply. “You look like you’re going to have a fit. Calm down.”

“Calm down?” Knox said. Even to his own ears, his voice was strangely hysterical. “Calm down? It’ll be a bloody miracle if I see my father alive again, and you’re telling me to calm down?”

“Your optimism is overwhelming.”

“Optimism? We’re about to march on a fortress surrounded by the greatest Magi in the kingdom and—”

“Not the greatest,” Cailean said.

Knox blew out a frustrated breath. “I’m one man, Cailean.”

“And you’ve a powerful magic, Knox.”

The chair creaked under Knox’s weight as he folded himself down into it. He propped his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands. “I shouldn’t have let him go without me.”

“Rhys will look after him,” Cailean said. His voice was soft and close. Knox lifted his head and found Cailean kneeling down in front of him, head tilted to one side. “She will. On her life, she’ll take care of him.”

Knox’s heart lurched selfishly. It was unfair how comforting that was to hear, when Rhys was all the family Cailean could claim for himself, just as Uilleam was it for Knox.

“She’s your sister.”

“He’s your father.”

This close, Cailean’s eyes looked like exploding stars—a thousand points of tiny blue light that Knox found he couldn’t look away from. Without really intending to—without even realizing he was doing it until it was already happening—Knox lifted his hand and touched the sharp edge of Cailean’s cheekbone.

Beneath his hand, a muscle twitched. Cailean’s jaw clenched as Knox flattened his palm, still staring into Cailean’s eyes. Then Cailean’s eyes slid shut and Knox slid his hand lower, fingertips dragging over the stubbled skin of Cailean’s cheek. His skin frizzled, his magic like sparks off a flint as it curled tightly in on itself in his belly, seemingly ready to flare out toward the warmth of Cailean’s body.

Cailean’s breath grew labored as Knox’s hand wandered farther down, over the curve of Cailean’s mouth, the dip just beneath it. His chin was a sharp point that led down to the long, soft column of—

Knox jerked as Cailean’s hand shot out, his eyes flying open, his fingers wrapping tightly around Knox’s wrist.

“I—” Knox began, cheeks heating as he tried to fumble out an apology, but Cailean just shook his head.

“Not—not there.” The room was silent as Cailean lifted Knox’s hand and then moved it down slowly.

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