How could it be unique?
It made no sense to me, but I’d learned to never take things for granted, that nothing was ever quite as it seemed.
I eyed the spot that Ingram had been, unsure about it, as though something from him would get on me.
“Don’t be like that,” Ingram said from across the room, amusement coloring the words.“Ain’t like you haven’t had my cum on you before.”
He wasn’t wrong, so I refused to give him the satisfaction of getting a rise out of me.Ingram enjoyed that far too much.Instead, I took a seat, the position placing me close enough to Yun for guiding to take place without contact.
Her gaze shifted between Ingram and myself, the back and forth like she watched a match and followed the ball from player to player.Curiosity rested in those dark eyes of hers, questions that she desperately wanted to know but didn’t dare ask.
And I had to say, I didn’t mind her curiosity.I normally loathed when people wanted to dig into my privacy, when they wanted a glimpse beyond the placid façade I’d built, but Yun?
She somehow proved immune to that reaction.
However, I wasn’t sure how to explain my relationship with Ingram, so I ignored the unasked questions and focused on her.
Her irises were dimmer than before, a darkening shadow in the soft valley beneath each eye.Even without my powers, the exhaustion that hung on her was easy to see.
“She’s done,” I said, hiding my disappointment beneath a blanket of indifference.
“We said she’d guide each of you,” Carter argued.
“Look at her.She is exhausted and needs rest.I can do without.”
“I’m fine,” she said, voice soft and unsure.
I refused to break eye contact, instead staring right into the darkness, bridging that gap with her.
I spoke—not aloud, but inside her head.
“You’ve done enough.”
“I can do it.Stop doubting me.”
“I’m not doubting you—I am saying you don’t have to push yourself.I can manage.”
And I could.The truth was that for me—for most of us—corruption was so constant a companion that it hardly bore the worth of noticing.It was like owning a tiger that snarled and lunged at the cage and occasionally managed to swipe when you ventured too close.Live with it long enough and most stop noticing it, stop thinking about it, stop worrying about the bit of blood it draws.
“If you don’t get guiding, you sit this dungeon out,” Carter said, a stern voice full of no humor.
The worst part was that I knew him well enough to identify his little plans.I couldn’t always see what he was after, where he was headed, but I always knew when he moved us around like game pieces.
He didn’t care about my guiding—he knew I could handle this.Instead, he cared about the connection with her, that we forge some bond, and had likely planned for me to go last on purpose.
Her guard would be down after guiding the others, making it easier for me to slip into her mind and take her unaware.
The bastard.
It wasn’t that I disagreed with his plan, but I never cared for feeling manipulated, not even by Carter.
“It’s really okay,” Yun pressed, her voice stronger.That was likely all stubbornness, but I had to respect the backbone all the same.
“Fine.Only guide as much as you feel able to, though.You do not need to do a full session.”I added weight to my words, wanting her to understand the meaning.
This was not a battlefield issue, where guiding me could be the difference between losing myself and not.She didn’t need to bring me down from that edge so I could save lives, so I could keep her and others safe.
She nodded, but the set of her lips suggested that she would do as she pleased—and I begrudgingly had to respect that.
