Eclipse: Time Thief (Romantasy)

45. Steady

That night Nash used the excuse of foraging to leave camp, and twenty minutes later, I left for the river, hoping it wasn't too obvious to Piercey.

I didn't know exactly what Nash meant when he asked for a night with me, but I was certain I needed to bathe. That much was no mystery.

The river washed away days of dirt and sweat. Cold water prickled my arms and flowed over me in a soft current. I changed into fresh clothes we'd brought from the Sacred School. It wasn't what I would choose for a night with Nash, but it beat the nasty clothes I'd left in a pile on the rocks by the river.

A few minutes after I'd finished, I heard footsteps and I straightened my wet hair over my shoulders. I'd told him to find me at the river. Good thing I'd gotten ready in time.

Nash had washed up too. He looked handsome in the dim light of the setting sun with his curls full.

"Hi," I said.

He stepped closer. "Hi."

We'd been through so much together but suddenly it felt like my first time meeting him. I'd taken down all the barriers I'd always held between us. There was nothing left to protect my heart from him, nor his from mine. What would I do now? Kiss him? Talk to him? Throw off the clothes I'd just changed into? I had no idea what I'd actually agreed to.

Nash erased the worry from my mind when he reached a hand out for me and nodded at the river bank. "Walk with me?"

I swallowed down everything I felt and took his hand. His arm came around my shoulders as we sauntered along the water's edge. The sun nestled into a bed of pink, cut short by the Mountain of the Gods in the distance.

"After the eclipse, I want a proper day with you." Nash looked down at me.

"What does a proper day look like?"

He chuckled. "Whatever we want. We can even fight if you'd like. I've never taken a woman training before but I wouldn't mind an afternoon sparring with you."

I looked down as I smiled.

"Maybe we could go on the river. Or find a village that's having a festival."

Warmth filled my stomach. "I would love that. Any of it."

"Tell me things, not about the gods or power. Things about you."

"It feels like that's all there is to tell about me."

"There's much more."

His nearness and attention had me so flustered I couldn't think of anything clever or endearing to say. I told him about the normal days in my village that I wanted back, how Leif had seen the potential in me and trained me, that I'd spent years never sleeping alone and I couldn't wait to make it back home. And he told me about long summer days with Elsie, how she never stopped running when she was a toddler unless she slammed into something and fell over, and that he'd hated every moment he served the Prophet.

"I want to live away from the villages and fighting and politics." Nash laced his fingers with mine as we walked. "It needs to be at least half a day's ride away from any town."

"Half a day? That's pretty far out there."

"I would only have to see the people who I really want to see and who want to see me badly enough to make the trip. That would be just fine with me."

"I haven't thought about where I'd like to end up, but I do like being with my people." I wouldn't mention the eclipse. Not when we were having such a nice walk. "What you said doesn't sound too bad though. I can see wanting that once you get used to it."