All the while, he made sure Azelon noticed. And oh, Azelon noticed.
With each touch, each suggestive comment, the Tideborn's markings pulsed more intensely. His tail coiled tightly around his leg.
It was glorious.
When Jamie seemed absorbed in a particularly interesting bookshelf, Corin felt strong fingers close around his upper arm. Azelon pulled him into an alcove, out of Jamie's line of sight.
"What exactly do you think you're doing?" Azelon demanded, voice low and dangerous.
Corin affected an innocent expression. "Making our new guest feel welcome. Problem?"
"You're projecting emotions all over the building. It's destabilizing the magical currents."
"Am I?" Corin glanced up at the light fixture above them, which was indeed flickering with his excitement. "I hadn't noticed."
Azelon's grip tightened. "This isn't a game, Corin."
"No?" Corin stepped closer, invading Azelon's space. "Then why are you so bothered by how I interact with Jamie? It's just friendly conversation."
"You're not being friendly. You're being flirtatious."
"So? You don't get to be jealous." The words burst out before Corin could stop them, raw and honest in a way he hadn't intended. "I've been throwing myself at you for literal months, and you've turned me down a hundred times. You don't get to suddenly care who I flirt with."
Around them, books vibrated on their shelves, responding to his projected emotions. One volume shot across the room, narrowly missing Azelon's head.
The Tideborn didn't flinch. "This has nothing to do with jealousy. It's about your reckless behavior. We know nothing about this human or why his store has transformed. Your emotional instability?—"
"My emotional instability?" Corin laughed, the sound brittle even to his own ears. "Maybe I'm just tired of being kept at arm's length by someone who saved my life but can't admit he cares."
Azelon's expression shuttered, his markings dimming to a dull glow. "That's irrelevant to our current situation."
"Everything's irrelevant to you, isn't it?" Corin pressed. "Except your precious morals. Except whatever mysterious reason keeps you from admitting what's between us."
"There is nothing between us."
It was a lie. Corin knew it was a lie. He'd caught the way Azelon looked at him sometimes. The way he wasalways therewhen the nightmares came.
If he didn't care about Corin, he would have abandoned him in one of the towns they'd passed through.
And yet, when he said things like that…
Corin stepped back, trying to mask the hurt with a too-bright smile.
"Keep telling yourself that," he said. "Meanwhile, I'll spend my time with someone who doesn't treat me like a burden he wishes he'd left to drown."
He stalked away before Azelon could respond, his chaos magic leaving a trail of disturbed objects in his wake. A row of books toppled from their shelf. A lamp flickered wildly. The building itself seemed to groan under the pressure of his projected feelings.
Corin didn't care to rein himself in.
Not until he found Jamie in the main area anyway.
"Everything okay?" the human asked.
"Peachy," Corin said, forcing brightness into his voice. "Just a little disagreement about proper bookstore etiquette."
Jamie's eyes flickered past him to where Azelon had emerged from the alcove, then back to Corin's face. He didn't comment on the obvious tension, just nodded toward the stairs leading up to the second floor apartment.
"Found something interesting. Want to see?"
