Capture of a Heart Read Online Free

rose up to reveal a man. Among locks that could have been either burnished gold or green, a fair face with flashing silver eyes like a night cat’s turned toward her. The man smiled, and it was as if the sun were inside of the den shining with an aura that could have only belonged to one of the faeyanin!
    Earth, wind, water, and fire; there were said to be magical guardians of each, and Shoraya was sure that she was looking at one of them.
    “You’re awake,” he said, pushing the thick cloak from his broad shoulders.
    Shoraya nodded and immediately regretted it. Her skull pulsed angrily, stimulating pain centers behind her eyes. Her entire body trembled angrily in warning as she held still until the wave of aches dulled.
    The faeyanin, tall and lithe as the legends decreed that he should be, stood up from the table. Sympathy was etched in his handsome features. “Yes. You will want to take it easy. You have survived the worst, but there is still much healing to do.”
    That much she understood as she tried her voice. “Who… W-where? Where are my… What happened?” she questioned weakly.
    He lifted his discarded cloak and settled it on the chair back before going to the fire pit. There he took up a stick to stoke the fire beneath the kettle. “You are safe. Don’t worry. There was no sign of who may have been chasing you, but the probability of them making it this far into my forest is highly unlikely.”
    Shoraya thought of the warriors who had been chasing her and the reason. A stark worry rose within her as she realized the scope of danger she had been in…was still in. Faeyanins were supposed to be kind-hearted, benevolent beings, but nothing was certain for her in life. Save for one thing. “Where are my blades?”
    “Beneath the pallet you are lying upon, along with the rest of your things.”
    Shoraya was thankful but wary as her gaze moved over the circumference of the room. There was only one bed in the space of the den, and it had to be his. He didn’t seem to be put out. The dwelling was warm, and the pallet comfortable, but Shoraya was never one to impose. Trying her arm and hip, she attempted to shift to the edge of the bed. It wasn’t high off the floor, and if she could just get her fingers upon the steel…
    “I should get them. I should be off. I…” She groaned as the exertion woke the angry dragons of pain stirring to life within her veins. Challenging the vertigo and the pain, Shoraya felt that if she could just see the threshold of her agony, she could push past it. She tried to lift a trembling shoulder, but her body simply stole the reins of control from her, and she collapsed.
    The faeyanin added another log to the fire before standing. He walked around the hearth to a wall, which held bottles suspended in the latticework of branches, a living larder. Removing a long, slender glass bottle, he started toward her bed. “You are suffering the effects of a very debilitating poison used too haphazardly. If there is anything you need to do, it should be to drink your medicine,” he said as he crouched down before her.
    He withdrew a leaf from among the folds of his robe and single-handedly rolled it tight before fitting it into the neck of the bottle. He then moved the tip of the leaf toward her lips.
    Shoraya eyed the contraption warily. “What is that? Who are you?”
    “My name is Gavenas,” the faeyanin spoke. “And if I wanted you dead, you would be, so don’t worry. This is no more than enchanted salts and water with a bit of long mint, whisper lotus, and pink berry for taste. It will help you to fight the toxins still coursing through your veins.”
    Shoraya touched her lips to the makeshift straw and drew in a short swallow of the elixir. The taste was refreshing, and the flavor of berries upon her tongue was invigorating. She sampled more as the pain within her seemed to quiet under some liquid spell that was only enhanced by Gavenas’s proximity. So close to the man,