It was the legend, she realized finally, feeling a coldness wash through her.
But he hadn’t turned stone! Surely, if there was any truth to it, he would have?
Or maybe he hadn’t because he actually had fought?
If that was true, though, why was he worried. She could see that he was.
“He is handsome,” Dionne said probingly.
Lexi glanced at her, smiling. “Mine or yours?”
Dionne laughed. “Both. Mine’s the prettiest of them all, of course, but I can see you’re taken with yours.”
Lexi sighed. “I know you’ll think I’m crazy, but I’m just crazy in love with the big hunk!”
Dionne shrugged. “I don’t know about crazy. Maybe I’m crazy, too. I think I fell for Ocie inside of five seconds.”
They studied each other for several moments and finally smiled. “Guess this means we’re both staying here, huh?”
Dionne chuckled and hugged her. “I’m so glad you want to—because I really want to stay with Ocie and I would miss you so much if you went back.”
Lexi’s smile fell. “I don’t know if he wants me to. He didn’t exactly ask.”
“Of course he does!” Dionne said dismissively. “I saw the way he looks at you. He’s just as crazy in love with you as you are with him.”
The comment sparked hope, but Lexi wasn’t as convinced as she would’ve liked to be.
* * * *
“You and your lady are welcome to stay in my kingdom as long as you like,” King Ivar told Cairn.
Cairn frowned, though he wasn’t at all displeased. “That is very gracious, your majesty. But I have disobeyed my king. I will be turned to stone once more.”
The king smiled at him wryly. “Nay. It is true that you are no longer fit to be the stone warrior, for you did disobey your king’s command, but all that this means is that another warrior will be chosen from the world beyond—just as you were. You will become mortal.
Now, you do not remember your past, but in time it will come to you –just as his memory has begun to return to Ocie.”
The feast had long since broken up and few other than Cairn and the King remained in the great hall. At the King’s comment, Cairn glanced around in surprise, but discovered that Ocie had long since departed—most likely with his lady Dionne.
“He disobeyed?”
The king’s smile was wry. “He refused to leave the castle when the lady Dionne disappeared. He was determined to await her return—not defiant, mind you. He simply could not be convinced that it would be better to go out and meet you. I could not see that it made a great deal of difference whether he met you in battle here, or elsewhere, and so I agreed that it was just as well.
Cairn grinned suddenly, feeling as if a huge weight had lifted from his shoulders.
Chuckling, the king clapped him on the back. “Go. I know you are impatient to find your lady.”
Bowing, Cairn hurried from the great hall. Lexi was reclining on the bed when he entered their chamber. Relief flooded him, and desire. Striding toward the bed, he climbed in beside her and dragged her close, kissing her deeply.
When he broke the kiss, he looked down at her seriously, stroking her hair. “Stay with me, Lexi. I don’t know what will happen now, but you are everything to me. I love you.”
Lexi felt the heat that his kiss had stirred in her mellow with a different sort of warmth and happiness. “Yes!” she said quickly. “I was afraid you’d never ask!”
The End
Romancing the Stone Page 7