Glamour of the God-Touched Read Free

I meant. I didn’t mean to
actually break the mug at all. I really just wanted to put a hole
in it so the ale would flow into his lap.”
    Arianna laughed—he liked it when she
laughed.
    “That was brilliant, then,” she said.
“Perhaps you cost me a husband, though.”
    “He would not have been good for you.”
    “And you—the man who has stood at my counter
and boasted of being a lone wolf in the forest, and who has said he
could never tie himself to anything—you would be good for
me?” Arianna replied.
    He swallowed anxiety.
    Garrick had never been in love before. He
had never yearned to know another person, had never known it was
even possible to feel this way. It was hard, after all. It hurt in
such a strangely good way. The thought of exposing this desire
brought a weird mix of excitement and nakedness that he just didn’t
understand.
    Did she think of him the same
way?
    “Perhaps your charms have changed me,” he
finally said.
    “Gods!”
    “I don’t believe in them, and neither do
you.”
    She cast him a sideways glance as she
stepped over a root. “Perhaps they are what have changed
you?”
    “Now you’re just laughing at me.”
    She gave a perfectly wicked smile. “Perhaps
a little.”
    He turned to her.
    “Let’s be serious, Arianna. You know I don’t
want to be a mason, or a member of the city league. And I don’t
want to be tied to the orders because I’ll not serve another if I
can avoid it.”
    “No self-respecting Torean would.” Arianna
gave an understanding nod.
    “You’re different, though. I can’t stop
thinking about you—about our last walk. About…I’ve never thought
about what might come later…I’ve never…”
    He looked for words of poetry here,
something befitting the moment, but his tongue was stuck to his
mouth. Finally he blurted.
    “Would you be with a mage?”
    Arianna’s lips curved into a half-smile.
    “Come now, Garrick. You are only an
apprentice.”
    “But you know I will be a mage.”
    She gave a playful shrug. “And you would
have us live out in the woods somewhere distant? My mother would
kill me for moving that far away.”
    “I come to town often enough. You could,
too.”
    “Not often enough for my mother’s view.”
    They came to a halt and he put a hand on her
shoulder.
    “It can be a good life, Arianna. I’ve seen
it. Alistair lives free.” A sly grin crossed his lips. “And I
wouldn’t have you pay for any mug you broke.”
    She hit him on the shoulder. Hard.
    “Ow!”
    “I’ll be having none of that from my
husband.”
    “It was a jest , Arianna.”
    She looked at him, her eyes softening. “Was
it, now?”
    “Yes,” he said. “It was.”
    He leaned down to kiss her.
    She turned her face to receive him, but
before they touched she pulled away, giving an un-girly snort of
laughter at his expression.
    “You’ll have to catch me if you want a
kiss.”
    She collected the hem of her dress and ran
down the path.
    She liked him.
    He realized it with a rush.
    Arianna, daughter of Helene, liked him.
    He gave chase, pretending to clutch for her
shawl as it trailed behind her, letting her lead him for a bit. He
stumbled as she dodged. He was going to catch her, of course. He
was going to catch her, and turn her around, and he was going
to—
    As he reached a hand out to her shoulder,
Arianna gave a yelp, then a sudden lurch.
    At first he thought it was one of the games
she was so fond of, but she fell heavily, rolling down the creek
bed and over the stones, leaves, and exposed roots that lined it
before landing with a thud below.
    “Arianna!” he called as he hurried down the
slope.
    She did not respond.
    Blood welled from a cut at her hairline, and
panic gripped him. He pressed his hand to her head, and crimson
poured through his fingers. He stripped off his shirt to bandage
the wound, but it wasn’t enough.
    “Help!” he yelled.
    Every bit of Alistair’s teaching flooded
into his mind: fire, lightning, telekinesis—but his