Heart of the Guardians: Adoring Destiny by Adrianna Adore (best books to read for self improvement txt) 📕

7

Meeting

When they finally woke up around noon, the kindly lady at the bed and breakfast packed them a lunch, loaned them a basket and pointed out a trail that led to a lovely spot near the lake where they could spread out a blanket and enjoy a leisurely meal. During the hour long drive last night, and after they finished the second bottle of champagne, Claire had hugged her best friend tight and forgave her trickery. They didn’t know how they would be able to arrange a meeting with James but Claire was willing to try. Even if it was just to say goodbye and to wish him well, she realized she really, really wanted to see him one last time. She should return the pendant, it didn’t belong with her if it was an ancient family heirloom. Dana tried to talk her out of that line of reasoning but Claire was having none of it.

“He didn’t know his uncle was going to be murdered,” she insisted. “He didn’t know he would be called away to do his duties. He never would have given it to me otherwise.”

“Fine.” Dana said, as she speared an olive and wrapped a bit of cheese around it. “But if we can get an audience with his majesty, I’m not offering to give back the money from his BMW. It’s almost gone, anyway.”

They both jumped at a huge splash behind them and turned to stare as the calm waters of the lake erupted in a frothing fury.

“Oh my God.” Dana exclaimed “Do they have a Loch Ness monster here?”

After a few minutes, the surface of the lake calmed and the small waves turned to small ripples as they lapped at the shore.

“Must have been a giant fish.” Claire said, a slice of apple halfway to her mouth.

“No shit.” Dana said. “Note to self: Don’t go swimming in Galador unless it’s an indoor pool.”

“Okay, I have an idea,” Dana said when they turned back to their food, “people recognize the necklace and they think you’re some relation. I say we barge right into the palace like we own the place and demand to see him. Maybe by the time they figure it out, someone will have already paged him or sent a courier or whatever it is they do in a castle.”

Claire shrieked just as the placid lake erupted again and Dana turned in time to see a bear dive in and disappear under the roiling surface.

“He was chasing a wolf!” she exclaimed. “He was trying to catch a wolf!”

“No way,” Dana said, “bears don’t eat wolves. Do they?”

“We need to get out of here,” Claire said as she started throwing everything back into the basket. “This is crazy. That lady should have warned us.”

“Why aren’t they coming back up?” Dana asked as the girls stood, ready to run, the basket and blanket clutched in their arms. “Did they drown?”

“I think they’re fighting.” Claire said as they watched the surface explode, shattering the calm, as it boiled up and settled down. The placid blue green turned brown with churned up mud, occasionally they would see a hairy paw or an arm break the surface.

“There’s a person down there!” Dana exclaimed and they watched, wide eyed in shock as a sword, a snarling muzzle or a roaring bear emerged then dove back down. After long moments the lake calmed, a circle of dark red colored the waters and a man came up gasping for air.

The girls stood on the edge of flight at the trailhead as it entered the woods, hidden in shadows, and watched with open mouths as three men emerged from the water.

“It’s James.” Claire whispered, her eyes wide in disbelief.

“It’s the driver.” Dana said, equally shocked to see the man they’d last seen hurrying James away in the limo at her apartment.

“Why are they naked?” she added and raised an eyebrow at the third man with the long, dark hair, long arms and legs and a long package between his legs. She didn’t avert her eyes.

Claire dropped the basket and hurried forward. James was bleeding, the crimson ran down his tattooed chest and his arm was torn. He must have been fighting the bear and the wolf with the other men. She didn’t understand. None of what she’d just witnessed made sense. But James was hurt. He was bleeding. He needed her.

Dana watched as James and the driver hugged each other and wondered why the guy was dressed in medieval clothes and carried a sword. Galador was weird. And maybe a little gay. Grown men didn’t run around the woods naked unless there was something strange going on.

They noticed the girls hurrying towards them as Dana and Claire broke out of the shadows and the driver quickly took off his templar tunic to give to James. He threw it on, covered most of his nakedness and the bloody wounds and then realized who was rushing towards them.

“Claire?” he asked, transfixed for a moment before he ran to her.

They crashed together and he swept her off her feet, swung her around and buried his face into her hair.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about you,” he breathed. “I’ve been so empty without you.”

“How could you leave like that?” she asked, tears streaming down her face. “How could you leave me?”

They were in their own private world, ignoring everyone and everything else as Dana stepped around them and up to the driver and the naked man. Frank was offering Dimitri his chain mail over shirt but the man waved it away and grinned a wide pearly grin at the American girl. She wasn’t shocked by his nudity and he wasn’t shy.

“Sorry to interrupt if you two were having a thing,” she said to the grinning man and his grin fell.

“No. There is no thing. It’s not like that,” he said, suddenly realizing how it must look, two grown men caught naked at the lake.

“It’s okay.” Dana said. “You be you. I