Caitlin stood there, thinking. On the one hand, the thought of leaving Caleb broke her heart.
The thought of him coming home and not finding her saddened her beyond belief, as did the thought of her giving up what could be the perfect life.
On the other hand, she felt something deep inside her stirring. It was her warrior instinct. She felt a primal urge to train. To become whatever it was she was meant to be.
As Caitlin stood there, staring back at Aiden, she felt as if this were one of the peak crossroads of her life. She felt how monumental the choice was before her, and felt how it would irrevocably change her life forever.
And strangely enough, she, in a flash, felt certain of her decision.
She knew, deep down, what she had to do.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Sam walked the grounds of Versail es alone, trying to col ect his thoughts. He walked down an ambling path, twisting and turning its way through perfectly trimmed hedges. Ever since he’d met Kendra, he had been able to think of little else. There was something about her: she was so young, and her skin was so smooth and flawless, and her aqua eyes completely hypnotized him. When she looked at him, with the ful power of those eyes on him, he had been able to think of nothing else.
And even now, after an entire day had passed since he’d seen her, he stil could think of little else. He was intoxicated by her.
He had been shown his room, and was stil waiting for Aiden to summon him, and in the meantime, he didn’t know what else to do, other than wait. So he had shown himself the grounds.
He had stopped and watched for a while, with interest, as his fel ow vampires sparred. He admired their techniques.
But even as he watched them, he felt his own strength surging within him, and he knew that he was stronger than them al .
Then why hadn’t Aiden summoned him? Why had he been kept waiting here, on the sideline?
Sam walked, trying to remember his sense of direction.
Caitlin. He had come back to find her, to help her. Then that Pol y girl had appeared, and had led him to this place. Sam sensed somehow that Pol y and Aiden might be connected to Caitlin. He felt intuitively that he was here for a reason, and exactly where he should be.
Yet stil , he was antsy. He wanted to find her. To help her, if need be, especial y on her mission.
He wanted to find his Dad. He had a feeling that Aiden might know where she was, and he was anxious for him to summon him. Without that, he didn’t know where else to even begin to look for her.
In the meantime, while waiting, his thoughts of Kendra had overtaken him so much, he was having a hard time trying to stay focused on finding Caitlin. He found himself, instead, dreaming of Kendra, of wanting to be with her, wanting to see her again. He even found himself daydreaming of staying here with her. Of not even searching for Caitlin or his father anymore.
He chastised himself for even having the thought. How could a girl have such an impact on him so quickly? How could she affect him so much to make him feel loyal to her, over his own family?
Whatever it was, he could not understand it. He felt that when he was around her, he was in the grip of something more powerful than himself, something even he didn’t understand. He felt that it was dangerous.
At that moment, Sam resolved not to seek her out again, and not to spend any more time with her. If she looked his way, he would look away, and if she tried to talk to him, he would ignore her.
That was the only thing to do with someone like this.
At just that moment, as if the universe were playing tricks on him, Sam looked up to see Kendra standing there. He stopped in his tracks, shocked. There she was, standing on the outskirts of the crowd, out of sight from everyone, on the edge of the woods. She was sitting proudly on a horse, looking down at him, and loosely holding the reins of a second horse beside her. She looked down at Sam, expressionless. She wasn’t smiling.
But then again, she was looking at him.
Despite himself, he found himself approaching her.
“What are you doing here?” he asked her.
“I’m going for a ride,” she said. “Women are not al owed to ride around here. At least not the way I would like to ride.
So I take my horse of sight from the others.”
Sam looked over and saw the vacant horse beside her, and saw her stil staring at him. He couldn’t figure out her expression; she was just too hard to read. Was she inviting him to join her?
Or was she waiting for him to walk away, to leave her alone? And if so, who was the second horse for?
“I hope I’m not intruding,” Sam said, trying to figure it out. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I’m never startled,” Kendra said. She stared at him, then looked away, as if watching something on the horizon.
“I’m going for my afternoon ride,” she announced, then suddenly turned her back, and began walking away on her horse. She dropped the reins of the other horse. “You can join me—that is, if you’re unafraid,” she added, her back to him as she rode off into the woods.
Sam looked at the vacant horse, and he could not believe it. Had she just invited him to join her?
Was it a date? She sure had a funny way of asking. Maybe she was just too proud, too embarrassed to real y ask him.
Whatever it was, he didn’t want to miss his chance. Despite his new resolve, when he was actual y in her presence, al his resolve went out the window. He had to be with her. It was a physical thing, something he could not stop if he chose.
He hurried up to the horse, jumped on, and kicked it, so that it was trotting after her. Within seconds, he caught up.
She broke into a trot, and moments later, the two of them were trotting through a broad, winding forest trail.
*
It felt like they had been riding for hours when Kendra final y stopped. It had been a chal enge for Sam to keep up with her, as she was so unpredictable: at some points, she had broken into a gal op, across open fields, without notice. At other moments, they had trotted together beside streaming brooks, in and out of the forest, clearings, meadows.
Final y, she had turned and taken a narrow path up a gently sloping hil , covered in fields of flowers. She’d found a spot under an ancient tree, and had dismounted and tied her horse to a branch. Sam did the same, and as he saw the wel -worn marks in the branch, he guessed she had been to this spot many times before.
Ignoring him, she turned her back and walked to a bubbling stream nearby. She knelt and splashed cold water on her face. She ran it through her hair and as she did, she pul ed her hair out of its bun and let it fal around her shoulders.