experience.
As they flew, the sun lowered toward the horizon, turning the waves a burnished orange. Miles passed below, and the beach disappeared, replaced by rocks until the shoreline grew steeper, and cliffs rose above the churning water. Up ahead, the mouth of Crazy Canyon came into view, the river pouring out into the sea.
Sardelle looked over her shoulder, a sly smile curving her lips upward.
Ridge narrowed his eyes. "Did someone blab about my plans?"
Plans for what? she asked innocently into his mind. Also, hang on tight again.
Bhrava Saruth swooped down like an osprey angling for a fish, and Ridge's breath caught as the vast blue ocean spread below them and the wind riffled his hair. He did, indeed, hold Sardelle tightly, whether to keep her safe or to keep from falling off himself, he didn't know.
The dragon pulled up at the last moment, his talons clipping the waves, and then they were off in a new direction, arrowing into the mouth of the canyon. As Ridge had done many times with his flier, they swept along the river, up between trees growing alongside it, past looming boulders, and around ancient rock formations. The first arch came into view, the pillars thrusting out of the tops of the cliff walls and rising up until they joined together, forming a curving bridge over the canyon. Bhrava Saruth flew loops around one of the pillars, turning them upside down as he streaked around and around. Gravity should have hurled Ridge and Sardelle into the water below, but magic kept them astride the dragon.
Even though he preferred piloting to riding, Ridge found himself grinning as Bhrava Saruth flew on to the next arch up the canyon, whipping through a maze of rock pillars along the way. Not being the one in control added an unpredictable element, and not being entirely positive that magic would keep him from falling kept his heart pounding in his chest. He wasn't sure if Sardelle was enjoying the experience quite as much, judging by the tense set of her shoulders and the way her nails occasionally dug into his jacket sleeve, but she must not have said anything to Bhrava Saruth, because the dragon raced through the entire canyon twice before flying toward the top of one of the wider arches.
He alighted on it, talons wrapping over the edge. Interestingly, a blanket weighted down by rocks and two picnic baskets stretched across the mostly flat top of the six-foot-wide arch. Two more blankets were folded neatly at one corner. Was that his picnic basket next to the red and yellow one he hadn't seen before?
Naturally, Jaxi spoke into his mind. Even though you teased me, I'm mature and magnanimous enough not to want to ruin your moment with Sardelle.
I teased you? Didn't you gag at me?
Yes, but you deserved it.
"This is our stop." Sardelle's braid had come apart, and she tucked strands of hair behind her ears as she peeked back at him. Her face was a tad pale, but she smiled for him.
"That was amazing." Ridge grinned--he had never stopped grinning. "Almost as exhilarating as when I fly."
Bhrava Saruth, who had been perched patiently, waiting for them to get off, swiveled his head around to regard Ridge with his luminous green eyes.
"All right," Ridge amended, "it was as exhilarating as when I fly."
Sardelle squeezed his thigh, and they slid off the dragon's back. He landed first, catching her about the waist and eyeing the drop. The arch rose a good two hundred feet above the canyon floor. If that blanket was up here for the reasons he hoped, they could have an exhilarating time, much as he had imagined.
Jaxi, have you been poking through my thoughts and telling Sardelle about what I planned?
Not me. You probably shouldn't let that dragon spend so much time lounging in your duck blind.
"Ridge?" Sardelle had stepped onto the blanket, and she looked back at him, holding out a hand. "Join me?"
Bhrava Saruth leaped into the air, flew down into the canyon, coasted along the river, then disappeared into trees to one side.
"It appears I have no choice." Ridge wiggled his eyebrows at her. "You seem to have kidnapped me."
"Only because I was afraid you'd never get around to kidnapping me."
He stepped onto the blanket and took her hand, nerves starting to cavort in his stomach. Whether Jaxi or Bhrava Saruth had told her of his thoughts regarding proposals, she clearly knew what he had been planning.
"I just wanted to make everything perfect."
"Perfect or memorable?" Sardelle glanced in either direction, the miles of the canyon cutting below them to either side, the setting sun painting the cliff walls red.
"Both."
He nibbled on his lip, trying to remember the words he had rehearsed that morning, while he had supposedly been paying attention to a report from the Tiger and Wolf Squadron commanders.
Sardelle unbuckled her sword belt, laying Jaxi's scabbard next to one of the picnic baskets.
"Oh," he said, eyeing her waist and wondering if she meant to remove other things as well. "Are we going to forget words and skip right to, uhm."
"I have a few words first." She bent and lifted the lid of the red and yellow basket.
Because he was a gentleman, he didn't use the moment to ogle her backside. Much. "Will Jaxi be watching? Er, listening?"
"She's only here in case we fall asleep, forget where we are, and roll off the rock." Sardelle waved to the drop-off.
"I wasn't imagining that sleeping would be the reason might lose track of our surroundings and tumble over the edge." Ridge wasn't sure whether to be pleased or disturbed that Jaxi would be watching over them.
I promise to close my eyes, Jaxi said.
And withhold comments?
Don't I always when you're having tender moments?
Not... always.
During them, I do. Commentary afterward is fair game. Sardelle and I have agreed upon this in the past.
Ah.
"You're going to be that engrossing tonight?" Sardelle turned toward him, something clasped in her hands.
"I'll strive to be. It's also possible that our lovemaking will be so vigorous that the rock will crack and break." He tapped the blanket with the toe of his boot.
I can make commentary beforehand, too, Jaxi said.
Such as gagging?
When it's appropriate.
"Then it's a good thing Jaxi is here." Sardelle stepped forward, but she looked down at her hands instead of up at him. "I know it's not traditional in today's Iskandia for men to wear signs that they're married, but among the Referatu, there is--was--a tradition."
"A tradition?" he asked, watching her hands.
"Yes. This is nothing fancy, or pretty, really," Sardelle said. "I made it myself, and I lack your mother's talent, but it does have a little magic to it, a protection. I'm a healer, and I have the assistance of a dragon, for good or ill--" She smiled briefly, even if she still wasn't meeting his eyes. Was she nervous? She never seemed nervous. "It will basically help protect you from viruses and it will promote good health. And this is my ziasta--I'm not sure if there's a word for it in Iskandian, but it's like a mix between an old clan mark and a sigil." She finally revealed what she had been fiddling with, a leather cuff with a cluster of runes etched on the top. She lifted her gaze and met his eyes. "I would be honored if you wore it."
Ridge stood still, staring at Sardelle as the realization slowly came over him that she was proposing to him.
He had once told her that it could go either way these days, with the man or woman taking charge, but for some reason, he had assumed she would wait for him to do it. All this--the ride out here, the arch, and the picnic--had been the very plan he had envisioned, albeit with him piloting his flier instead of Bhrava Saruth flying them. But he'd hesitated to enact it, since everyone had told him that women preferred sedate dinners for proposals. Someone had shared his fantasies with her, and she had done all this to give him the proposal he'd dreamed about.
"I..." Touched by her thoughtfulness--and her willingness to endure that crazy ride to get here--he groped for something articulate to say.
"I s
hould warn you that it's more than just a gift. It's kind of like... I'm claiming you. Marking you with my sigil. It lets others know that we're bonded and that they'll have to deal with me if they try to hurt you or harass you in any way." She shrugged. "At least that's what it once meant. There aren't many people left alive who would recognize the significance." That familiar wistful sadness flashed through her eyes, as it often did when she spoke of the people she had lost. "It's the tradition, that's all. A way to protect the one you love."
Love. Ridge swallowed. They had both shared the word with each other before, but neither of them flung it around frequently, and he still felt a charge of warmth when she confessed that she loved him.
As Sardelle gazed up at him, her freckled face as serene as always--though the way she fiddled with the cuff hinted at that nervousness--he realized she must be waiting for an answer. And that he might be making her uncomfortable by not giving her a prompt one.
"I'm dumbfounded, not hesitant," he rushed to say.
"I know."
"You do?"
"Before we left, Jaxi told me to use my mental powers to invade your privacy and investigate your bulge."
"The one in my shirt, right?"
The corners of her mouth quirked upward. "Yes."
"So you know that I'd very much like to marry you, even if it means letting you mark me like the alpha wolf in the pack."
"Wolves scent mark, don't they? I assure you, I only used leather-working tools on that."
"That's a relief." He grinned and reached for it. "May I see it?"
"You may wear it, if you wish. Though you're mine after that."
"Promise?"
"Yes."
"Then put it on me promptly, please." Ridge offered his wrist.
She pushed up his sleeve and slid the cuff over his hand. He tried to decide if he could feel a tingle of magic, then teased her by giving it a sniff. She shoved him.
"Careful," he said, "you might knock me over the side, and Jaxi would have to get to work early."
"We wouldn't want that." She stepped closer, leaning her chest against his, her curves delightfully appealing, even through their clothes. "Do you have something for me now?" She looked down at his shirt pocket. Bless her, she seemed eager to see what it was--even if she had already seen it, in a manner of speaking.
"I do."
Realizing she hadn't precisely said the words he meant to say yet, he delved into the pocket, a flutter of nerves teasing his stomach anew. It was silly. She had already marked him. What did he have to be nervous about now?
"Sardelle?" His voice came out a touch squeaky, and he cleared his throat while he opened the box. He pulled back the lid and tilted the gold chain and the diamond and sapphire sword pendant toward her so she could see it. "Will you marry me?"
"I thought you'd never ask," she said, sliding her hands up to his shoulders. "Truly. I thought you'd never ask."
"Oh, sorry. I wanted it to be..." Ridge looked toward the fiery red sun, only the top quarter of it remaining above the horizon, painting the entire sea crimson. A hawk cried in the distance, probably wondering what humans were doing on its perch. He grinned, both at the amazing view of the canyon and the ocean and at the woman standing in his arms. "Perfect," he finished softly.
"I appreciate that, but I just want to be with you."
He tried to swallow a lump that refused to be swallowed. Since he couldn't find his voice right away, he used the moment to remove the necklace, return the box to his pocket, and secure it around her neck. "You're a rare and amazing woman, Sardelle," he said softly.
I'm gagging again, Jaxi announced.
Sardelle smirked.
"Does she say those things to you too?" Ridge asked.
"About the gagging? Many times a day. If she were human, she would have developed a throat condition by now."
Fortunately, I am a sublime and magical being. And I have no throat. You're supposed to kiss her now, genius.
"I guess that last comment was for me," Ridge said, lifting a hand to Sardelle's