He let his eyes fall shut as he exhaled a steady breath to calm the tremors, but his aching body tensed as he sensed someone step into the barn.
Their near-silent footsteps stopped abruptly.
Godsdammit.Only one person could move like that.
‘You could at least say hello,’ Will drawled. He fixed his gaze on the mountains. ‘Have some manners.’
‘And distract from all that energy it requires you to think?’ Aya asked lightly. ‘That’d be cruel.’
He couldn’t help the laugh that huffed out of him. He heard Tyr leave her, the small wolf coming to nudge Akeeta with his snout before walking into a stall.
‘What are you doing here?’ Aya asked.
‘Seeking peace and quiet.’ His eyes flicked to her. She’d changed into her fighting leathers, the black fabric hugging every inch of her as she stood there, her proud face stern.
She sketched a mocking bow. ‘By all means.’
She was almost to the door before he spoke again. ‘I want an update on the supplier by this evening.’
She pivoted back to him, her lips pressed into a thin line. ‘Give me another order,’ she dared in that lethal, quiet tone.
Apparently, she was itching for a fight.
Will let his eyes flutter shut again, another long breath escaping through his nose. He was too raw, too overstimulated, to deal with this.
‘It’s not an order, Aya, merely a request. But by all means, take it however you please. Gods know you will regardless.’
He heard her take a step toward him, and he opened his mouth to bite out something that would make her leave, but pain pierced his shoulder, the sting as sharp as a knife. Will jerked as he whipped his gaze to her.
‘What?’ Aya demanded.
He scanned her from head to toe. Her arm hung awkwardly at her side. He hadn’t seen the injury; hadn’t been able to brace himself. ‘What happened to your shoulder?’
Aya opened her mouth, the words dying before they ever left her lips as her frown deepened. Her jaw locked, as if she were steeling herself, and then she moved faster than hecould object. He hissed at the pain that stabbed him as she swung her dislocated arm.
‘Stop,’ he said through gritted teeth.
‘But I don’t feel your affinity. You’re not trying to sense me.’
‘I can still feel it,’ he snapped. Will’s eyes found the rafters, his teeth grinding as he leashed his temper. He’d always taken care to avoid anything that could give this weakness away, especially as it worsened. Normally he could keep it contained, but lately, after long interrogations …
Worse. It was so much worse.
And now Aya had more ammunition to use against him.
She took a step toward him. ‘What do you mean you can feel it?’
The barn blurred as his affinity thrashed inside of him, as if under assault. Too much. He’d felt too much during the interrogation last night.
Screams and pain and half-truths and lies and—
Was he still in the barn?
‘Will.’ Aya’s voice cut through his daze like a blade, brutal and precise. He blinked once, taking in her leather-clad body, her sweat-stained face, her eyes that were staring at him with a healthy amount of skepticism.
‘I can feel it,’ he said coolly. ‘Every ounce of fear, every stab of pain. When the sensation is acute enough, my shield can’t stop it. And lately, the echoes of the sensation last. It makes my affinity more sensitive. Hence this,’ he explained with a wave of his hand toward her.
Her blue eyes flared as she connected the pieces; as she realized it wasn’t justherpain he was feeling now, but the sensations he inflicted in every interrogation he led. ‘But … surely there’s something you could do with your shield.’
