Dark Tarot (Dark Carpathians)

At the same time, Siv shifted her braid from her left shoulder to her right and placed a frog there. “I thought to give her a gift as well.”

Adalasia remained very still. “Afanasiv Belan. Did you just put a frog on me like a ten-year-old schoolboy would do? You’re supposed to be two thousand years old. I would have thought you’d outgrown this juvenile behavior. After I put these poor little creatures back where they belong, I’m going to kick your ass. Nicu, take this one right now and put him back in his home. You know better.”

Very carefully she extended her hand toward the Carpathian. She used her best teacher voice. It was difficult to keep from laughing. They were acting like schoolchildren, but she liked them teasing her.

Nicu took the little frog with the round golden eyes and put it carefully back on the tree. “At least you didn’t jump like a gir— baby.”

She nearly forgot the little frog on her shoulder, whirling around to confront him. At the last moment, she put her hand up to keep the little guy from falling, although his sticky feet would have kept him clinging to her. “Nicu Dalca, you were about to say ‘girl.’ Jump like a girl. Not all girls jump around frogs. And some males do jump around them, just in case you aren’t aware of that fact.”

She heard a snicker and glared over her shoulder at Sandu, who was looking all too innocent, and she didn’t believe that look for a minute. Very gently, she rescued the little frog from her shoulder and placed it on the tree among the vines that were wrapped around and climbing up the trunk.

Sandu held up his hands in surrender. “I’m giving you all the time in the world, Sivamet. These four are eager to get to our destination because they want you to read their fate in the cards as you’ve promised them.”

Adalasia narrowed her eyes at him. “I believe you promised them a reading. I hedged. I was very clear about hedging.”

“Hedging?” Benedek repeated. “As in evading? Does that more modern word mean you were intending to get out of reading the cards for us?” His very black eyes gave him a feral look. Or he was just plain feral.

“Not exactly. I was concerned, that’s all.” Adalasia believed in honesty, especially with these men. They were extraordinary and would never be less than honest with her. “The cards can be brutally honest. Removing hope is something I don’t want to do, not when all of you mean so much to me. I have no other family. Sandu has explained what happens to the Carpathian male when he has no lifemate and no hope of one.”

“It is best to know, sisarke,” Benedek said. “I would prefer to know while I am still strong enough to make the decision to meet the dawn.”

Adalasia knew he meant to suicide. She looked around her at the beauty of her surroundings and detested that they would have to talk of such things. The worst of it was, she knew to these men, it was simply a fact of life, a possibility they had lived with all those centuries, and they accepted it.

Adalasia wanted to shout to the heavens against the unfairness of it. These were good men. They were the best, and she didn’t want to be an instrument that in any way contributed to bringing them down.

“Adalasia,” Sandu said gently, his hand sliding up to shape his palm around the nape of her neck.

He had to have felt the sadness in her mind. They all did, as much as she tried to hide it from them. She wasn’t that adept at keeping her emotions from them, especially when her feelings were intense.

She moved into Sandu without conscious thought. More and more, she was understanding the closeness of lifemates. She knew she would need that to always be in step with him and learn to think with him so that they were as close as possible whenever they confronted Nera’s army.

Sandu swept his arm around her and then swept her up, cradling her close. At least she was spared the indignity of being put over his shoulder upside down. The sound of a waterfall was growing louder. She had to admit, she loved waterfalls. The water splashed into a pool below. She could hear it hitting the surface of the water as well as the rocks. It was becoming increasingly easier to identify sounds and smells.

I would not do that to you. There was a hint of laughter in his voice.

She knew he was doing his best to tease her out of her sadness.

“Are you certain you got rid of all the leeches in this cave and the pools inside, Siv?” Petru asked in a low voice. “Last time we used this series of caves, you said you cleared out the leeches, but you did not. It isn’t a pleasant memory, waking with all those wiggling, bloated creatures trying to attach themselves to suck the life out of me.”