Snippet Saturday: So long! Farewell!

Today’s snippet saturday theme is departures!  This is not so much a snippet as a very healthy excerpt, but hey!  I figured why not shake things up a little! This excerpt is from Savage Need, story #2 in our Temple of Luna series. 

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Sanctuary.

To the east, Jarek could see the Temple of Luna, set up on its hill as if the priestesses who lived there needed to be just a bit closer to the Goddess they served.

As a healer, he’d always found the duality fitting. The House of Sanctuary and the Savage Temple, built on the same earth and serving the same purpose. But only the strong made the trip up the mountain to heal their souls.

The broken stayed with their feet firmly on the ground.

Having the Temple looming over him was its own brand of torture. Jarek tried. He went through his daily routine, met with the therapist who picked at his emotional scabs until they bled.

He even allowed himself to be manipulated. The healers attempted to draw him into complicated cases, prodding him to consult on patients who required little personal interaction. As deft as the attempts were, Jarek was no fool. They were rebuilding his confidence, one brick at a time.

Or so they thought. They had little way of knowing they were building on a foundation of sand. Something inside him had snapped, had shattered so completely he doubted anyone could find enough of the pieces to put him back together.

But he tried. He tried because every few days he’d glance up at the Temple, and the reminder was enough. Zahra’s duties as a priestess and the traditions of Sanctuary kept her away, but she’d made it clear during their last brief conversation that if he needed her, she’d come to him.

He needed her. He needed her with a intensity that terrified him, especially when he knew he had nothing to give in return. No brilliant career, no warrior strength…

And no money. No position. His status in their world had come from the sharpness of his mind and the skill of his hands, from the healing magic inside him that he could no longer bring himself to use. Without it he was nothing more than a lone wolf, the poor son of a farmer who had never been strong enough to fight with tooth and claw.

Jarek had promised himself he wouldn’t call for her. But they were sending him home in the morning, back to the quiet of his family’s territory, where no one needed his skills for anything more serious than accident or illness. A place to heal his soul.

A place where he’d never be good enough for her.

He was leaving, and he was too weak to go without seeing her one last time.

Her shoes made no sound on the stone path, but he heard the whisper of her robes even before he caught her scent on the breeze. “Good afternoon, Jarek.”

“Zahra.” He loved the way her name sounded. Hated that he might not get to speak it again after today. He turned and found himself smiling as he caught sight of her. “Thank you for coming.”

“You’re welcome.” She stopped in front of him, her hands on his arms in lieu of an embrace. Her smile was friendly, but something warmer burned in her eyes. “How have you been?”

“Better. Better every day.” He lifted a hand to cup her cheek because he couldn’t stop himself, and he didn’t care what rules he broke. It wouldn’t matter tomorrow. “But they don’t think my mind can heal here. They want me to go home for a while, and I didn’t want to leave without seeing you.”

Her smile didn’t waver, but her eyes darkened. “That should be very relaxing. I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself.”

“It’s a farm, Zahra.” And the fact that she thought it would be relaxing emphasized the stark differences in their upbringing. “I imagine I’ll work very hard and be tired at the end of the day, but no one will need me to save them.”

“I suppose I don’t know much about farm life.” A bit of rueful self-consciousness crept into her smile, but she tensed as she spoke again. “Can I keep in touch? Write or call?”

He needed to tell her no. He needed to cut all ties, because the leading healer in their world might have had the slimmest of chances, but a poor farmer too scared to use his gifts had none. In a few short days she’d be as out of reach as Luna herself.

And his beast didn’t care. His beast had claimed, so he groaned and did the same. The fingers brushing her cheek dropped, slid around the back of her neck until he could fist his hand in her silky hair. He dropped his mouth to hers and kissed her, plying her lips with his tongue until she slid her arms around his neck and opened her mouth with a moan.

Zahra clung to him, kissing him desperately, her body pressed close to his. Finally, she dragged her lips to his ear with a soft cry. “One word,” she whispered. “Say it, and there will never be anyone else for me, no matter what happens.”

A bride of silence. Fully half the men in their world went to war until they were forty. Those fortunate–or unfortunate–enough to fall in love before their twentieth year had two choices: take a mate he’d spend the next twenty years separated from, or break all ties and let her find happiness with someone who could be there.

Ten years ago, he’d left Zahra behind. He’d let her go without saying a word, without planting false hopes that might prompt her to wait for a man who might never come home. She’d had men. He’d had women. They’d moved forward.

He knew in his heart neither of them had moved on.

Jarek drew in a deep breath and curled his arms more tightly around her. “Six months,” he whispered, already hating himself for his selfishness. “I can’t handle forevers, but…I need six months. Six months where I know you’re still mine.” Six months to become a man who dares ask a King for his cousin.

“Yes.” She didn’t argue or offer him more, though she trembled in his arms and he knew she wanted to. “Six months.”

“Trust me.” It was foolish to ask when he barely trusted himself.

Her lips feathered over his cheek. “I do.”

“And call me?”

“Every day.”

“Zahra.” He turned his head and caught her mouth again, kissing her hard enough to fall into her, to brand her taste in his memory.

She molded to him, her feminine softness the perfect counterpoint to the hard planes of his own body. He smelled the salt of the tears tracking down her face before he tasted them, and he groaned and pulled back. “Don’t cry.”

She nodded and bit her lip. “I have to go.”

And he had to let her. He smoothed the tears from her cheeks with his thumb and smiled. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

“As soon as you’re settled.” She caught his hand and kissed his palm. “Goodbye, Jarek.”

If he didn’t let her go now, he’d forget how. So he lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles in return, then released her. “Be safe, Zahra.”

She nodded and turned away. “You too.” Her shoes whispered over the path as she hurried off, leaving him wrapped in her scent and aching for her.

Six months. If he wanted to be worthy of a King’s cousin in that time, he had work to do.

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Read more departures here: Vivian Arend, Ashley Ladd, Jody Wallace , Kelly Maher, Eliza Gayle, Lauren Dane, Taige Crenshaw, Shelley Munro, Savannah Foley, Moira Rogers