The Seer by Rowan McAllister (reading comprehension books .TXT) 📕

was better. My family had to drug me to keep me from trying… and then I never saw him again.”

“He died?”

“No. Well, yeah, I guess he had to have, but I never found out one way or the other.”

Ravi placed a gentle hand on his arm and squeezed. “I’m sorry.”

Daks laid his hand over Ravi’s and gave him the best smirk he could manage. “I’ve spent the last ten years of my life looking for a man I knew, deep down, I wouldn’t find, obsessed with keeping his mission alive while our support and funds from the Scholomagi dwindled and finally disappeared. No one cares about what I do anymore, but here I am, still trying to do it. Heh. You might say I’m just a tiny bit slow to get the hint.”

“I care,” Ravi said, pressing closer. “I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t—”

“Screwed everything up?”

“Given a damn,” Ravi corrected with a glare. “I meant what I said on the ferry. I’m sorry for putting all the blame on you, for not being more grateful for everything you tried to do for me. I can admit that now… and more, if I thought you wanted to hear it.”

Ravi bit his lower lip then, and his stern gaze softened into vulnerability. That feeling inside Daks, the one he’d experienced only once before and had been fighting to keep buried even deeper than his fears, struggled to break free. But now wasn’t the time.

He rolled them until he was on top of Ravi again. Ravi opened so sweetly for him when Daks pressed their lips together, and Daks tried to say all he could without words.

When he pulled back to allow them to catch their breaths, he whispered, “I do want to hear it, whatever you want to say to me, just not yet, not until Shura is safely home and I can put all that behind me for a while, okay?”

“Yeah?” Ravi asked uncertainly, his pupils blown wide, his lips swollen and pink.

“Yeah.”

Ravi swallowed and nodded. “Okay.”

They never got around to eating breakfast. By the time Daks clambered out of bed on somewhat shaky legs and pulled his trousers back on, the inn kitchens had already started preparing for supper. The best he could wheedle out of them was a tray of cold meats, cheese, dried fruits, and bread.

As they ate, Ravi seemed pensive, but not nearly as sad as earlier. Daks sure as hells hoped he’d done the right thing. Shura would laugh her ass off at him when he told her… or maybe she wouldn’t, given how she’d been acting with Fara.

After lunch, Ravi insisted on accompanying him down to the river to see about hiring a boat to the other side. It took a little while to find someone willing to take a promise of reimbursement from the High Council in lieu of ready coin. Daks had to save what coin he had for the trip back, in case they couldn’t rely on Fara’s coin for any reason he refused to contemplate.

Eventually they found a merchant who already had a trip planned to sell his wares at the market in Traget and was willing to take Daks along—if he helped row and unload on the other side. Daks reluctantly agreed.

Beggars can’t be choosers, after all.

“I’ll help too,” Ravi offered, and Daks jolted.

“Uh, no, you won’t.”

“Yes, I will.”

“Excuse us a moment.” Daks gave the merchant a tight smile before taking Ravi’s arm and walking them out of earshot.

“You’re not going,” Daks said flatly.

Ravi lifted his chin, his amber eyes flashing as he yanked his arm free from Daks’s grasp. “I am.”

“Have you lost your mind? We just spent the better part of two weeks in misery, running from the guard and the Brotherhood, to get you here, and you want to go back? In case you haven’t forgotten, you nearly drowned a few days ago crossing this very river.”

“I haven’t forgotten you nearly drowned too,” Ravi shot back.

“All the more reason for only one of us to risk it.”

“I know why you have to go, but you shouldn’t have to do it alone,” Ravi practically growled.

His gold eyes had drawn to narrow slits, his jaw clenched, and his pretty lips pressed in a stubborn line, and Daks was entirely unprepared for the little baby bird flutter behind his ribs. This was probably not the correct response, but he couldn’t seem to help it. His lips curved in a sappy little smile, and he rushed in to steal a kiss.

Caught off guard, Ravi sucked in a breath, and Daks chased it with his tongue. Despite his anger and frustration, Ravi didn’t shove him away. He melted into the kiss, trembling just a little, and Daks’s heart twisted some more. Even if the thought of crossing the river alone again terrified him. Even if he knew having Ravi next to him would help immensely, he’d never let it happen. Ravi was just as scared as he was and fighting hard not to show it.

Though it pained him, Daks ended their kiss and took a step back. Ignoring his first impulse to deflect from the emotions swirling inside him by poking the bear a little more, he blew out a breath and decided to be a grown-up… just this once.

“I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you’re willing to risk so much, but you’re not thinking clearly,” he murmured as kindly as he could. “You may not have had a Vision in days, but the risk is still there. We talked about this before, remember? With a rogue wizard or a rogue brother only a day’s ride away at this supposed barbarian encampment—or even in town if the new rumors are to be believed—the Brotherhood is guaranteed to have a Finder here, and we’ve no quick way back across. You saw the number of brothers and soldiers in the market.”

Ravi’s eyebrows drew together, and he worried his lip. He wanted to argue, Daks could see it in