Capture of a Heart Read Online Free Page A

Shoraya’s taste buds were not the only sense stimulated.
    His scent was like that of a forest blossoming with fruit and flowers, rich earth and crisp, rain-plump leaves. Nothing could be done for her exhaustion; in fact, her desire to move had vanished entirely, but then so had her pain. It could have been the result of his potion, but then it could have been because she was lost in fascination. Up close, Gavenas was all the more stunning. His hair was indeed a mix of gold, brown, and green, but his eyes were actually dark green, his skin a flawlessly healthy shade of peach, and his lips—broad and shapely as they were—had a deep vermillion hue that any berry would envy.
    Shoraya felt a greater warmth than that provided by the hearth and chose to look away from Gavenas’s face to the intricate fabric of his robes. The topmost layer looked to be made of connected leaves and feathers with a second layer of some soft scale. Pulling at the straw again, she took a greater amount of the liquid. “My name is Shoraya. And I thank you.”
    “No need. Shoraya,” he replied. “May I ask how you came to be injured?”
    Shoraya struggled to comprehend his question while the faeyanin’s potion coursed through her. With every sip, she became lighter, her lids heavier.
    He pulled the straw away.
    She blinked, breathed deeply of his fragrance, and concentrated in order to compose her answer. “I fled from capture. I shouldn’t have. I should have taken lesson from the storm, stayed and practiced. I did not want a test, and more importantly I did not want to be made to teach.”
    “And here I assumed that you wished to protect that precious metal you possess,” he said with a shrug. “Dragonspine steel is not an easy ore to come by. But I suppose it would be for you, being a child of the Deipma.”
    Shoraya smiled warily, her heart swelling at the mention of her home. “You know about my people?”
    He nodded reverently. “I do, with their skin like obsidian, purportedly honed by the breath of dragons. They are those who took the mountain’s depths as their home, larder, and playgrounds. Such gems and ores as surface walkers would kill for, raise kingdoms to attain—your kind play about as if they are game tokens. I know. What I don’t fathom is why one would have wandered so far alone.”
    “The mountains can give much, but they can only teach me little.”
    He looked down for a long moment, as if contemplating her words. “About the blades, yes?”
    “Yes,” she exclaimed, pleased that he could understand what her parents and friends could not. Ah, but then a faeyanin would know, she thought as she imagined them traipsing about and communicating with nature in ways she could only dream of. “They sing so differently outside of the mountain, my swords. They move differently in the air, even. They aren’t so intimidated by the sternest of the mother mountain.”
    Gavenas offered the straw to her once more. “I imagine not.”
    With another drink from the bottle, Shoraya felt herself truly fading, yet within the presence of the faeyanin, she felt no worries. That he understood her soul’s passion was a calming relief to carry to the dream world, and that his beauty might haunt her in ways she could keep locked away from the physical was not a bad outcome to have.

Chapter Four
    Watching Shoraya drift back to sleep for the fourth time, Gavenas could sense the change in her mood. The beaming, proud warrioress had become sullen and brooding. There was gratitude in her eyes when she was awake, but it was darkened by a sadness that Gavenas could only guess was self-pity. He had spoon-fed her broth with leeks and carrots, a simple but fragrant mix that her belly held down successfully. When she attempted to take both bowl and utensil into her shaky grasp, however, her grip was not so sure.
    Both fell from her fingers and would have spilled upon her lap had Gavenas not used a sudden spell of levitation.
    The bowl hovered in