The Turncoat King (The Rising Wave #1) - Michelle Diener Page 0,3

and looked out in the direction of Grimwalt.

“She has some hold on your mind. Your happiness.” Massi kicked out at a small pebble in her path and it skittered off into the long grass.

“She does,” he agreed.

She made a sound of surprise. “You admit it?”

“It's true. I'm worried about her, worried something has happened to keep her away so long, and given what she was planning to do . . .” He shrugged. “Not a day goes by I don't struggle not to get on my horse and ride off to find her.”

Massi was silent, so he turned to look at her, and found her staring at him in horror.

“You would leave the Rising Wave?”

“I'm still here, aren't I?” He lifted his hand to shield his eyes again. “But it's not without regrets and doubts.”

“You knew her for all of three days.” Massi's words were soft, as if she was unable to speak properly.

“And yet, I miss her.” This time, he put a fist over his heart, and Massi's silence was beyond shocked.

She knew what that meant. Everyone from the Chosen camps knew.

“Does she feel the same?” Massi whispered.

Luc didn't know the answer to that. Ava had asked him if her coming to join him would be acceptable to him, after she was done trying to wreak her revenge on the Queen's Herald. That sounded like she at least cared.

“I hope so.”

“You hope—” Massi swore. “I'm worried about you, Luc. We finally have the fruits of our labor all around us. The Funabi are finally here, and settled in. Most of our own people from the plains have come, and those who aren't here yet will join us soon. The Venyatux are on their way. And while Grimwalt won't stand with us, it at least has chosen to close its borders and give Kassia no aide or even trade. We're in a position of strength, headed for Fernwell with no army ranged against us yet, and instead of making plans, you are sneaking out of camp to search the horizon for a woman who you met for a few days nearly two months ago.”

“When you put it like that . . .” Luc shrugged. “Perhaps I should step down as the commander.”

“What?” She took a step back. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what you meant,” he said, turning to look her straight in the eye for the first time, “is that I should shake my feelings for Ava off and pretend I never met her.”

Massi was quiet. “That is what I meant, and it was wrong of me, and I’m sorry.” She sighed. “I don't know your Ava, but she must be quite something for you to . . . think so highly of her.” She put out a hand and rubbed Luc's arm. “I’m inclined to think highly of her myself for her part in saving you, but I also don't like that we don't know a lot about her. The way the thought of her distracts you makes me worry we'll be less prepared against the Kassian, and that is ungenerous of me. You've given everything to the Rising Wave. If anyone deserves something good, it's you.”

Luc pulled her close, slinging an arm over her shoulder. “You deserve it, too, Massi. We all do.”

They had been rounded up as teenagers, impressed into Kassia's service, and had had to make their own families, their own joy. He thought they'd been successful.

But Ava had lit something in him that he hadn't experienced before.

“Are you spelled?”

Luc stilled at the question, dropped his arm as he stepped back with a neutral face. “Now why would you ask me a question like that?”

Massi shook her head. “It's one of the rumors going around the camp. That you move faster than a man has any right to. That when you train you never miss what you aim for, never allow a blow to land.” She tipped her head back to look at him. “You were stronger than anyone I’ve ever known before you were captured, but since you've been back, you're . . . more. Better at everything. You’ve managed to fend off three assassination attempts single-handedly. And that first one, when that Funabi assassin tried to kill you the night of your return?” She shrugged. “I didn't even clearly see you move you were so fast.”

If Massi had been a bit more generous in her thoughts of Ava, maybe he'd have shared his worries that perhaps he had been spelled, but he refused