After the meal, we played a card game Edmund had been teaching me. It had a lot of rules and was nothing like any of the ones I’d learned down below. It required keeping track of point values and discards. Tonight, we divided into teams, Momma Oaks and Fade, against Edmund and me. I was gratified when they won, which left Fade smiling, and Edmund slid me a wink as he pushed back from the table, making me think he’d tossed the match. I liked him better all the time.
“We’ll play chess when you get back from the outpost,” Edmund promised.
I smiled. “I’d like that.”
As the hour grew late, Momma Oaks cleared the table, and I helped her. We washed the dishes in companionable silence. It was only when I was drying the last dish that she turned to me, hands on hips.
“He’s important to you.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, ma’am.” Mrs. James would be proud of me, I thought, for remembering to differentiate by gender.
“Is he the reason you’re so set on fighting?”
“No,” I said slowly. “I think it’s the other way around.”
She laughed quietly. “I’m not surprised to hear that. We’ll be retiring now. Don’t spend so long sparking that you don’t get any sleep.”
That was the second time I’d heard that word, and I trusted Momma Oaks enough to expose my ignorance. “What does ‘sparking’ mean?”
Her face softened as if with pleasant memories. “It means your sap’s flowing, and you’re blooming, so you enjoy spending private time with your young man.”
Ah. Her explanation permitted me to make the connection to kissing. Come to think of it, “sparking” was a good word. When he touched me, I did feel like I had bits of light flickering all over my body. My cheeks heated at the idea that Momma Oaks knew about that kind of thing. But if she had chosen Edmund as her partner and borne his children, it was an inescapable conclusion. That gave me the oddest sensation, imagining them young and eager.
She went on, “I won’t caution you further. You’re a brave girl to have come as far as you have, and I know you have your priorities straight.”
I took that to mean she finally believed I wasn’t interested in unauthorized breeding. At this point, I liked kissing a lot, but anything more had to wait until my combat reflexes slowed; I couldn’t risk a brat breaking up my best fighting years. Once I got old and sluggish, say twenty-four or so, then I might consider settling down and breeding with Fade, but that was so far in the future, I could hardly picture it, and my present looked anything but certain.
“Thank you for everything,” I said.
Momma Oaks hurried over to me and gave me the tightest hug I’d ever had. She smelled of good things baking, and my eyes stung a little. Almost at once, she stepped back and muttered that she probably wouldn’t be up when I left, but that she’d keep me in her prayers. In Salvation, that was a good thing, as it meant talking to the divine being who ruled the world from heaven. I couldn’t imagine he even listened, but my foster mother took comfort from it, and that was enough for me.
I took a moment to compose myself after she left the kitchen, and then I went into the sitting room, where I found Edmund putting on his shoes and hat. “Where are you going?” I asked.
“I promised you new boots to march in tomorrow,” he said quietly.
“You don’t have to—”
“Don’t be silly.” That apparently ended the discussion because my foster father went out then, closing the door softly behind him.
Fade observed the exchange from the small sofa. He wasn’t leaning back, so I figured the salve had made his wounds tender. Instead, he propped his elbows on his knees and studied me as if I held all the answers to the mysteries of the universe. That look quickened my pulse.
“He cares for you a lot,” he said.
I nodded. “I thought for the first few weeks that I was a bother to them both, but it seems not.”
“I’m glad you ended up with folks who love you.”
I didn’t feel like discussing that when I was doing my best to worry those kind people. “Are you tired?” I asked, changing the subject.
He shook his head. “This is the last time I’ll be alone with you for a while.”
“Could be the whole summer before it happens again,” I agreed.
We’d be together, but there wouldn’t be many quiet moments like this one. It’d be impossible to think about sparking while establishing an outpost in the fields. Which made me wonder if I was crazy for volunteering; I could be safe within the walls, spending moments like this one with Fade. There could be moonlight walks and sparking in the swing, whispered secrets and infinite softness. I’d given all that up to live rough and to fight for my life.
But I couldn’t deny the Huntress in me.
“Then we should make the most of tonight.” Fade stood and offered his hand.
I studied him in the diffuse lamplight, seeing how it glazed his raven hair. It fell in shaggy waves around his lean, lovely face. At this point, I knew his features better than my own. A half-smile played at the corner of his mouth, giving him a playful air. But even at play, Fade still exuded that dangerous edge, as if he were a wild thing tamed only to my hand. I drew in a soft, shuddering breath, then went to him, and put my fingers in his. He drew me in slowly, whether because of his back, or so as to avoid spooking me, I couldn’t say.
So close, I could see the dark fringe of his eyelashes. His eyes were so dark, they held no other hues, but as I gazed up, I noticed his irises had a faint violet ring. I’d never seen such a look, full of melting tenderness and absolute adoration. I think I could have stayed like that all night, if he hadn’t kissed me.
His lips moved on mine, then toyed with my lower lip. His teeth grazed, then his tongue. Sparks crackled to life, lighting me from within. Fade pulled me close with his hand on my waist, but even lost in him, I remembered not to put my hands on his back. Instead I curled my fingers into the nape of his neck, alternately pressing and stroking. Fade slid his hands to my hips and drew me against him so our bodies were flush and hot. I felt as though his heartbeat echoed mine, pounding out a thunderous tune. He drank my gasps and sighs with hungry lips, and I responded with all of me. Eventually, his mouth moved away from mine; then he kissed my ear, my throat, and a little sound escaped me.