by Tami Lund
“I think we should build our permanent home at the top of the cliff.”
Sabine tore her gaze away from the sparkling blue water and followed James’s line of vision to the wall of the cliff situated behind them. They sat side by side on a massive rock jutting from the swirling lake beside which they had settled their coterie. It was the height of summer, and they had made great inroads in the sixteen months since fleeing from the shifters in Mesoamerica.
The land they had claimed along the great lake that seemed as large as the ocean was known as Michilimackinac. Before the Lightbearers took up residence, it had been utterly wild and uninhabited by humans. They had constructed a village at the base of the cliff, along the shore of the freshwater lake. They had moved here during the last dredges of winter and had now survived their first full snowy season, along with the rebirth of spring, the lazy heat of summer, and the utterly breathtaking beauty of fall.
The Lightbearers were thriving in their magically protected home. Fear that the shifters would find them was slowly waning. Sabine’s own fear that the glass ball containing an imprisoned demon would somehow be broken was also ebbing.
When she did not immediately respond to his comment, James continued. “The staircase built into the wall of the cliff is complete. The land up there is warded against shifters, just as it is down here. With your blessing, my queen, I shall command that construction begin at once.” He lifted her hand and kissed the back. The memory of another man who had once done the same thing swirled to the surface of her mind, and Sabine stubbornly pushed it away. She had made her choice, and she did not regret it. If she occasionally wondered what if, it was not because she was not happy with what she had, but rather a mild curiosity about what might have been.
“Why the hurry?” she asked, smiling at her mate.
James released her hand and cupped her burgeoning belly. “The future king will be born in less than three months’ time. I want you to birth him in your new home.”
“You believe you can build a new home at the top of the cliff in less than three months?”
“It shall be done,” he declared, as if she’d issued some sort of challenge. He leaped to his feet and pulled her to hers, kissing her thoroughly before helping her off the rock and onto the sandy beach. “Come. I will return you to the village square, and then I will round up a team of carpenters. Our new home shall be started before sundown.”
She pulled him close and kissed him again. “I love you, your grace.”
He laughed. He had been so insistent early on in their relationship that she not refer to him by his formal title, she had adopted it as a pet name.
“I love you, too, my beautiful warrior.”
She patted her rounded belly. “I am hardly capable of defending our people at the moment.”
“You will be again soon. I have no doubt.”
Sabine smiled and twined her fingers with his, walking by his side along the water’s edge. Movement caught her eye, and she turned her head toward the lake. A hawk flew past her line of vision, dipped and twisted round and flew past again. She lifted her hand in a brief wave. She had no idea if the hawk was a shifter, or even one specific shifter, but somehow, seeing it at that moment gave her peace.
The End
Thank you for reading the prequel to the Lightbearer series. Turn the page for a sample of the next book in the series, Into the Light.
Chapter 1