“I admit to asking questions. My curiosity got the better of me… I’m sorry for prying into your past without you there. But…” I squeeze her shoulder and meet Aurora’s dark eyes. “I would like to hear your story from you, whenever, if ever, you’re willing to share with me. I am sure what you have to say is muchmore the truth of the matter than anything Evander would tell me.”
“I will tell you whatever you desire to know.” Even though she says that, her weighted tone and adverted eyes say otherwise.
“When you’re ready,” I reiterate. Aurora shrugs, as if that is a small matter. It is not, and I would have her know it. “You have endured too much and have had too much forced upon you. I will not be another person making demands for things that you’re not ready to share, or do not wish to give.”
She simply stares out across the strait. There’s a numbness to her gaze, an unfocused quality of her eyes. Aurora steps away and takes another bite of her fish, saying nothing. I worry I’ve upset her. But even if I have…I’ve said nothing I don’t believe to be true.
“Aurora.”
She finally brings her attention back to me.
“I mean it,” I say, as gently as possible. “All of it. Even what I told you back at the cottage.”I will do everything I can to free you.I don’t dare say those words aloud, instead keeping them in my heart. Hoping she can read them from my expression. Hoping that, somehow, she can feel them if nothing else.
The air between us is heavy and still. The night’s chill is leaving thanks to whatever fire spirit they have called upon for the bonfire and the rising sun scaring away the cool dew. She opens her mouth to speak, but is interrupted by Bardulf emerging from his tent.
“And just what are you two doing? Scheming?” His voice is thick with sleep, still, and lacks its usual bite. But that doesn’t mean the warning isn’t there.
“Breakfast.” Aurora finishes her fish with one large bite and tosses the wooden skewer into the bonfire. I follow her lead.
“And what about us?” Bardulf crosses with purpose. “Where are our fish?”
“In the sea?”
He grabs her elbow. “Well go get them for us.”
“Let her go.” I close the gap and grab his forearm, glaring up at the man.
“You. Let me. Go. Before my patience and kindness wears thin.” He bares his teeth at me.
“I have no idea where this ‘kindness’ of which you speak has been.” I narrow my eyes and don’t move.
“You’re breathing, aren’t you?”
“Careful, the bar is so low you might trip.”
Bardulf snaps at me, teeth slamming together so hard my own are stinging.
“All of you, let each other go.” Evander is up. He throws his pack into the sand in front of him and begins to pull down his tent. “It’s too early for this.”
I keep my attention on Bardulf. “You first.”
“You,” he quips back.
Aurora rips her arm from Bardulf’s grasp, which must’ve slackened while he was distracted. I release the lykin as soon as he no longer has his hand on her. I keep near Aurora as Bardulf goes to dismantle and roll up his own tent. Evander is already working on Aurora’s. His tent has been condensed into a canvas bag identical to what he’s stuffing Aurora’s into.
“Are you all right?” I whisper to Aurora, hoping the flapping of canvas and Bardulf’s unnecessary grunting with every movement distracts him and Evander from our conversation.
“I’ve endured worse.” She gives me a tired smile. It doesn’t offer me any comfort.
“Right, then.” Evander slings the two canvas tent bags over his shoulders. “Faelyn, you’ll be with me.”
“For what, exactly?”
Rather than answering me, Evander shifts into his wolf form with a small hop. The tent bags and his personal pack vanish into the form along with his trousers. Bardulf follows his lead.
“We ride them,” Aurora explains.
“I’m…sorry?” I look between her and the wolves.
