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40
The warrior’s brows shot up. “The untamable Master of the Hunt, captured at last by a woman?” Mathin studied him. “You have no desire for children?”
Keilor rubbed his thumb over the rim of his cup. “I accept that I won’t have them.” He could have explained he planned on adopting a child, but the sudden tightness in his throat prevented it. A forceful swallow of mead cleared it enough for him to ask, “What of you? I had always assumed you liked children. Why would you court a human?”
A humorless
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The Charmer 41
“Please,” she answered, mentally swearing at herself as his large, warm hands closed over her shoulders, making her nerves jump with awareness. She closed her eyes, shutting herself in solitary darkness as the blessing was said.It’s just a side affect of last night, she assured herself. The more she thought, the angrier became. So I feel a little thrill when a handsome man touches me. I’m young, and healthy, and it’s not as if... She broke into a cold sweat. Even in her mind, her heart wouldn’t let her complete the sentence. Panicked, she thought with desperation, I don’t belong to him! He doesn’t have any claim on me! Her eyes opened. She saw Keilor looking straight at her,
The Charmer 42
A blazing wall of fire flared up directly in front of the gates, and eleven riders charged out, up the ramp, and through the flames. Jasmine glowered at them. She was determined not to be impressed no matter what antics they pulled.That idea lasted all of three minutes.When the first stag beast sailed over Keilor, he raked its belly with the tip of his sword, just cutting through its rider’s girth. Jasmine thought she would have heart failure. When the rider managed to shed his saddle in mid-air, and regain his seat on his stag, she knew this was
The Charmer 43
Keilor and Mathin didn’t waste time. At the signal, they unsheathed their swords with lightning fast moves and attacked.The individual moves were a confusing blur. Both men fought as if they’d just came fresh from their beds, not spent the morning fighting off hoards of opponents. The men were nearly equal in size, strength and endurance. What would tip the scales of the fight?***Mathin on a normal day was difficult to defeat. Mathin with charmer scented
The Charmer 44
“No! You know I’d never let that happen. They’d have to get through me first,” she vowed. “I know you’d do the same for me, too.”Jasmine smiled and looked down. “All right.” She took a deep breath. “I will try not to be so jumpy around the Haunt, but I can’t promise overnight results, ok?” She slanted a teasing look at her friend. “You could have warned me sooner, though.” She cupped her hands around her mouth and said, sotto voce, “Hey, Jasmine, watch out for these guys, because when the moons are full they turn into Wookies!”
The Charmer 45
This wasn’t at all what she’d expected.The hedge enclosed gardens smelled heavenly. Beautiful, exotic white birds with red, blue and green crests chattered in the trees, filling the air with their music. Every once and a while they would pass an exceptionally nice smelling flower or herb along the stone paths, and Keilor would stop and tell her its name and perhaps a little about it. Once he’d even picked a small spray of blossoms and tucked them in her hair.Jasmine couldn’t figure out what he was up to. She’d never seen h
The Charmer 46
He took it away from her and slid his thumb against the guard. Instantly a blade of blue energy appeared, eclipsing the razor edged steel. She didn’t try to take it back, just looked it over carefully, catching his eye and nodding when she was done. The blue hummed back into the blade, and he gave it back to her.“The energy source is inside the haft. I release the beam when I slide the catch.”She looked it over a little longer and gave it back to him to be sheathed.
The Charmer 47
“What are you doing?”Jasmine and Rihlia stopped practicing the self-defense move they’d been working on and looked at Keilor. He was back in uniform today and his bandaged biceps, and a few fading nicks and bruises, showed clearly. Jayems was right beside him in the empty courtyard. He looked grave.“Practicing getting out of grabs,” Jasmine answered and wiped her forehead. It was difficult to look him in the eye after last night.
The Charmer 48
Jasmine creaked into her room that night and shut the door stiffly behind her. She eyed the bed and bath, debating whether or not she could stay awake long enough to soak away some soreness, or if it would be better to flop down on the bed, sweat and all, and pray for oblivion. Reluctantly, she decided on the bath.He was trying to kill her, she thought as she hobbled over. She sat down on the marble bath steps and put her head into her hands. All right, he probably wasn’t, but she strongly suspected he was trying to drive her so hard that she’d give up on learning self-defense all together. Only sheer mulishness had kept her at it for the last half hour, and when her legs had finally given out and dumped her on her b
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