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Whether I admitted it to myself or not, there never really had been another answer, another choice. I barely uttered my response, but I knew he would hear me – "you".

Chapter 14 – And Then We Were Falling

Instantly, I was in motion.

The floor dropped away at incredible speed. No, wait, the floor wasn't falling – we were flying! Myrnin had wrapped my body around him; in the same position as our kiss before, I thought, with a blush. This time however, my body's response was vastly different. Instead of shockingly strong desire, my arms and legs were locked around his lithe frame, holding on for dear life.

Somewhere in midair, he commanded me, "Head down!" Instantly, I tucked my head into his chest. Myrnin's arms formed a loose circle, above my head, as he broke through the glass ceiling, trying to shield my body from the chaotic shards flying everywhere.

At the same time, an even bigger explosion, than the one that had sent me flying before, went off beneath us; sending smoke and debris roaring violently into the night sky. Even though we were forty feet – and climbing – in the air, the percussion of the blast rocked through my body, almost causing me to lose my grip on him. I felt Myrnin wrap his arms around me like bands of steel, now that we cleared the glass.

And then we were falling.

I felt my stomach lurch into my throat at the sudden reversal of direction. I bit down on my lip to suffocate the scream that wanted to tear its way out of my lungs. And then I knew with horrified certainty – I was going to die.

There was no way, at the speed we were going, that my body could absorb the shock of the collision with the unforgiving earth. In the back of my mind, I wondered what speed we would be doing when we hit the ground. It reminded me of my high school word problems: if a dump truck traveled down a 30 degree incline at 50mph, how fast would it be going when it hit a wall, five hundred feet away? I never thought about it before, but as my body plummeted to the ground, I wondered why the hell a word problem used an example like that. It didn't really matter how fast the truck was travelling; only that anyone inside of it would be dead, when careering at some unknown speed, into a brick wall.

And then it was over.

I only felt a small jolt to confirm his feet had touched down, before my momentum shifted horizontally rather than vertically. The force of the direction change was more startling to my system than when we made contact with the earth, because I was suddenly thrown even tighter against his chest, as he ran at break-neck speed.

It became eerily quiet almost instantly. I knew we had to be moving at incredible velocity, for the noise of the now distant disaster, to fade so quickly.

He had been right. Whoever our anonymous aggressors were, they hadn't planned for an air escape. My eyes had been shut tightly, but I never heard another gunshot after that terrible last explosion. I desperately hoped our attackers assumed we had perished in the church, so that they wouldn't still pursue us.

About fifteen minutes later, Myrnin began to slow down. I knew he was speaking to me because I heard a sort of unintelligible hum, but couldn't quite make out the words. My mind was definitely in shock.

"Claire. Claire? Cariad!" His voice rose and a ripple of tension went through his chest, at my non-response.

My body started to cooperate with my brain. "Yes?" I tried to say, but was confused when no sound came out of my mouth. Why couldn't I speak? I panicked. Oh wait – that's because my lungs were burning! A small whimper of pain released from my throat.

I felt Myrnin quickly reach into his backpack as he pulled out a bottle of water. With immense relief, I yanked open the top and began to guzzle it down like I was doing a keg stand.

"Go slower," he gently instructed, tilting the bottle down to a different angle other than 180 degrees.

I took a short breath half-way through and then finished the bottle completely, feeling immense relief in my chest.

"Do you want to stand?" he asked softly

"I don't know if I can," I admitted.

He stopped and disentangled me from his body. I slid all of the way down to the ground and laid on my back, trying to sort through the terror still itching at my skin, trying to make its way back into my mind.

Myrnin sat and gathered me against his chest. He was silent while he waited for my shaking to stop; rocking me gently. Soon, the shock wore off and my adrenaline slowed and I looked up at him with wide eyes, "Michael; Shane?"

"I don't know," he murmured, "I tried to call but we have already lost signal. From what I saw when we went over the building, he should have gotten away cleanly, just as we did. I went over the directions with Michael before we left, in case we were separated, but it will not be as easy since he must follow terrain marks."

"You expected this?" I breathed in shock. I thought the mortal danger he mentioned before, was only due to Gwion being potentially dangerous.

"No, not exactly; I didn't anticipate an ambush this far from his compound," Myrnin replied with his eyes tight.

"Who were they? Myrnin, their bullets…" I murmured.

His jaw clenched as he nodded and confirmed, "Wood."

"Where are we?" I looked around for the first time. The terrain looked identical to what we had already been through. I wondered briefly if he had taken us back toward the car.

"We are actually quite close now," he stopped and looked carefully at me.

"What?" I whispered.

"Come on, we've made up quite a bit of time. Let's get you cleaned up." He stood and pulled me to my feet.

"Cleaned up?" I stared at him in confusion.

Rather than answer, he just lifted me against his chest, wrapped my legs around him and headed quickly – not quite at the stunning speed he ran before – toward somewhere.

As I held tightly to him yet again, I was beginning to feel a lot like a koala bear. Or maybe that was the shock coming back. I shook my head slightly to try to clear my chaotic thoughts.

In less than a minute, I heard water. He stopped and released me to my feet. I turned and inhaled sharply. I was standing at the edge of a large pool of water. Mist rose from the surface, refracting the light from the stars. A magnificent waterfall stood as the pool's crowning glory, while the moonlight bathed the lush landscape in soft grey hues.

"Wow," I breathed, my eyes trying – and failing – to capture all of the beauty around me. The water pulled at my attention. I was eager to get in and quickly withdrew my feet out of my running shoes. I frowned. "I hate to get all of this smoke and debris off of me and then have to put on the same clothes. Oh well, I guess it can't be helped," I muttered.

"About that," Myrnin smirked, "I tend to be prepared for all options, so I borrowed a couple of your things." He tapped the side of his large backpack.

My eyebrows rose in shock, but the only question I could seem to manage was, "Does it match?"

He grinned at my response and teased, "Does it matter?"

I thought about it – clothing that was horribly dirty and smelly verses a mismatched outfit. The outfit it was. I held out my hand, while he rummaged around and handed me a pair of shorts that looked more like a skirt because of the wavy pleats. They were a gentle blue with a soft floral pattern.

So far, so good. I waited, expectantly.

He then extracted a light blue pullover top – that matched.

He grinned in satisfaction as he took in my surprise, and then settled back, resting on his elbow, on a large boulder, to wait for me.

"Aren't you getting in?" I asked him, butterflies suddenly curling my belly.

"No, Cariad, if I do that, we both know what will happen." He shook his head with a small smile; his tone wistful, "If I held your naked body in my arms, I am not at all sure I would have the willpower to force myself to let you go anytime soon."

My belly clenched tightly at his words. I knew I could change his mind. If I made a move now, he wouldn't turn me down.

From the look on his face, he knew it as well, and waited to see what I would do. He murmured as I continued to struggle with my desire, "If it helps, we do not know where Michael and Shane are. It wouldn't be unfathomable that they might show up here. Michael would be able to smell the water."

I nodded tightly. That sure as hell wasn't the way I wanted to tell Shane. "It helps," I acknowledged softly, reigning in my wayward hormones. This definitely wasn't the time. I began to undo the buttons on my shirt, still lost in my thoughts.

Myrnin groaned and laid back on the large rock, closing his eyes. "You're killing me – there is no way I can watch you do that."

I giggled; warmth washing over me, to know I affected him so strongly.

"Myrnin?"

"Hmmm?" he replied, his eyes still closed.

"Do you understand why I have to wait to tell him until we get back?" I murmured softly, afraid of causing his prior anger to surface.

"Cariad, I don't know the specifics, but I know your heart and I am certain it has to do with causing the least amount of pain and distress," he sighed in resignation.

"Thank you," I whispered as I finished removing my pants and stepped into the water. Although, it might be a moot point now, I thought anxiously. When I chose Myrnin back at the church, I wondered if Shane would already suspect something. The call of the water was literally screaming at me as I waded deeper.

"Please tell me you are sufficiently covered now," Myrnin begged.

"Yes," I called to Myrnin as I eagerly dove under. It was much warmer than I expected. We must be over a fault line, I realized. My head broke the surface. I spun around to find Myrnin. He was staring at me intently, acute restraint written over his features. I smiled to myself again, but knew I should hurry it along. We still had a long night ahead of us and I wasn't sure how long his self-control would last. I ran my hands over my arms and legs to rub off the dirt and dipped my hair back, trailing my fingers through it to coax it clean. "Okay," I murmured as I walked toward the bank slowly, giving him time to prepare for me to get out.

He nodded and waited until the last second before my breasts emerged from the water, before he laid back and closed his eyes again reluctantly.

I pulled the water out of my hair with my fingers and turned my old shirt inside out to dab as much liquid as I could off of my body. I shimmied into the outfit Myrnin had prepared and sighed, "Okay."

His looked at me; his eyes traveling up and down my body. His gaze was intense as he murmured throatily, "You look beautiful, Cariad."

I blushed with pleasure.

He shifted and spoke with a nervous tension, "Could I ask you something?"

Confusion at his tone and odd question, swept through me. "Of course," I answered slowly.

"What did he mean by plans and promises?" Myrnin asked, not bothering to clarify who 'he' was.

My heart beat faster. Not because I didn't want him to know; only that I knew he would be less than thrilled with the answer. I spoke carefully, "Shane asked me to run away with him – tomorrow morning."

Myrnin growled angrily.

I cut him off, "No! I wouldn't have done that…that was actually the reason I stumbled across you in the bar last night." I blushed at the memory. "I was tired of fighting him about it, so just told him I would think about it, to get him to stop. And then I felt like I was suffocating and had to get out of there and clear my head….and I found you." I stopped, realizing how radically changed my life was now, because of that one moment.

From his eyes, Myrnin did as well. He slid down from the boulder and wrapped his arms around me. He didn't say anything for a moment and finally pulled away reluctantly and whispered, "Let's go."

I glanced down and noticed he was wearing different clothes. "When did you change?" I asked bewildered.

He smirked and replied, "While you were busy bathing." He changed the subject and motioned me forward into our running position, "Come on; climb up."

"Oh, the koala thing again," I said under my breath.

He tilted his head to the side, looking at me curiously.

"It's nothing," I murmured as I settled into his arms.

He ran for about fifteen minutes before he placed me on my feet again. "It is just over this hill," he murmured softly, tension evident in his features.

Anxiety filled my chest as I watched him. A recurring question popped out of my mouth. "Myrnin, if Gwion is so dangerous, why did you bring me with you?" I asked, trying to understand.

"Because the same things that drew me to you; will draw him," he said simply.

"You brought me here as bait?!" my voice rose.

"No…of course not!" he hissed, "I thought you could charm him enough that he would say yes. Hell, you charmed the shit out of me. I don't think you understand exactly what power you could hold over people – if you chose to use it."

"What if he likes me too much?" I whispered, a new thought occurring to me.

"I won't let it get that far," he growled, his expression shifting into terrifying.

We crested the hill and stopped. A very large compound spread out ahead of us – and it definitely wasn't abandoned.

We headed toward the security gate.

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