The Centaur Queen (The Dark Queens #7)(23)

Releasing a breath that sounded half like a chuckle, he said, “It is not you I’m angry at, ómorfo álogo.”

I shook, because he knew. He knew I called him goat, and he’d never said anything to me about it. He could speak the old tongue, and I’d taken it for granted that he wouldn’t have known. So very few knew the old tongue that it was mostly a dead language now. He’d just called me “beautiful horse.” He thought I was beautiful. I fought a grin and lost.

He smiled back, revealing his slightly-crooked front tooth, and my heart felt as though it suddenly had wings. My face felt flushed. I didn’t want to stop looking at him. What’d once been off-putting to me, the horns and ears and his legs, now weren’t.

I loved his legs. In fact, I’d been studying them the entire climb up. Even in his trousers, I could see how strong they were. How easily and gracefully he moved. No, he was no centaur, but he moved with a polish all his own. And there were some centaurs up in the northern climes who did have shaggier coats. The Galacian herd was rather prideful of their curly hairs.

I’d been the weak one this evening, and he’d not once held it against me. He’d not punished me for it. He’d simply pretended to be tired, like I had for him earlier.

When had this ugly male become beautiful to me? The epiphany was so startling that I could physically feel my pulse on the back of my tongue. My heart beat so hard in my chest I was surprised he couldn’t hear it.

“It’s been some time since I’ve sullied a nymph, Ty. Many months now, in fact.” He said the words so softly I had to lean forward to hear them. His gaze was nervous, flickering toward my face then back down to his feet over and over again, like he expected me to judge him for the confession.

Outwardly, I projected a calm that inwardly I didn’t feel. My thoughts were in chaos, my head a jumble of questions and emotions I’d never experienced before, a seesaw of feelings I didn’t know how to handle. But I didn’t want him thinking there was something wrong with me, so I pretended it away.

“Why would you choose that? To be something other than what you are? A satyr lives for the chase and his nymphs. To be parted from them must be excruciating for you.”

He was silent for long moments, and I knew he was formulating a response that would make it impossible for me to argue with him.

“Is that how you see life, álogo?”

My insides fluttered again at the rolling way in which he called me horse. Truly, there could not be a more uninspiring pet name, and yet I’d done the same. It was oddly compelling in its blandness.

“How do you mean?”

“That we either are or we aren’t.” He gestured with both hands. “I am a satyr, therefore I live only to pleasure nymphs. You are a centaur, so you live only to learn.”

I nodded, because it obviously made sense to me. And for once, I was stumped as to where he was going with this.

His lips thinned. “But what if we’re meant to be more, Tymanon? What if I can be all that a satyr should be and still be more? Still want more?”

I frowned. “Why would you want more? What greater pleasure can there be for you in life than to thrust into the willing body of a beautiful woman?”

His eyes sparkled and glimmered with heat as he raked his gaze down my form, causing me to shiver. When he looked at me like that, I felt as though he saw me as one of those beautiful women.

I’d never been vain about my looks, though I knew I was considered handsome by my species. But what was beautiful to one wasn’t necessarily so to another, and it’d never bothered me before now.

I bit the corner of my lip. His eyes dropped to the movement before a slow curling grin stole the corner of his mouth. “Aye, you are right, of course. There are few pleasures greater than slipping into the wet and welcoming body of a comely lass.”

My nostrils flared, and I grit my teeth as I imagined said comely lass.

“But...” His grin brightened. “Lately I’ve discovered that the mind can be just as rousing as the body. In fact, maybe even more so.”

My mouth felt suddenly dry, and I had to swallow twice. “How... how so?”

“Lust is simply lust, Ty. It quickly burns and quickly fades. But feelings go far deeper, beyond the body and into the soul.” He gently placed a fist against his heart. “It is a heady experience.”

Brows twitching, the words resting on the tip of my tongue, I desperately wanted to ask him what he meant by that. Was it me? Was he thinking of me when he’d said it? But then I thought of his Myra and realized it couldn’t possibly be me.

He had known love before, with his twin.

“Anyway.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “We should sleep. Tomorrow we arrive at Gnósi.”

Nodding as I pulled a vial of healing salve out of my pouch, I rubbed it on my tender and aching feet. By tomorrow, they’d be like new again. I felt his eyes on me and knew he watched.

I couldn’t help but wonder whether I reminded him of one of his nymphs in this form. A twinge of disappointment settled on my lips. I suspected the feelings I was having lately might be something akin to infatuation, which meant I would need to be careful. I’d been trapped in a game with him for a month. We continued to travel together. It was only natural that, after so much time spent in one another’s company, I’d begin to develop... an attachment. But this couldn’t last. It wouldn’t.