She shook her head.He just didn’t understand.
“I could have done more. I shouldn’t have stayed here. I should have kept trying to get him out. I knew he was in trouble.”
Aevrin was quiet a moment, unmoving. She breathed him in, the rough fabric of his jerkin against her face. At last his hands shifted as his arms loosened slightly, still holding her but not so hard as before.
“You told me once you two didn’t talk. That you didn’t know what he was up to. But he's the one who got into trouble, isn't he. The one who nearly got you killed.”
She stepped back, entirely out of his embrace, and wiped her eyes.
“If I stay, those same men might come looking for me.” She needed him to understand. Needed him to have the choice to shove her out the door, if he wanted.
The shake of his head was minute, his face disbelieving. This was it. He was going to tell her he’d been wrong all along about her. That she was too much, too difficult for him and his family to continue to house.
“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m letting you walk off into the night,” Aevrin said instead, his voice quiet and low, the look in his eyes burning like dragonfire. “I told you, Cassia. I have no plans to change my mind about you. No matterwhatI'm thinking right now abouthim.”
For a moment they stared at each other in the dark room.
“I don’t understand you,” she admitted softly.
“Get some food together for your brother, Cassia. I’ll go see what I’ve got in my closet. But this ranch? It’s your home now, too. And we protect our own.” He reached across the distance she’d put between them and cupped her face for a moment, then turned and walked away.
Aevrin
Lareowasalongdrive by night, even with a pair of bulls and a dragon for protection. His father and Rylan left as soon as Rylan finished eating. Aevrin had listened to Cassia protest, begging to accompany them. It was Rylan who refused to let her.
So Rylan left, after a long, tearful hug from his sister. The rest of them settled silently back at the table, dinner cold and still unfinished. Cassia sat for a moment, her face colorless and fragile. Aevrin turned as she whispered “excuse me,” jerked upright, and hurried upstairs. She’d left her plate on the table and her chair pulled out, uncharacteristic of her.
“I’ll check on her,” he said. Mavek didn’t even make a joke. Sorven looked panicked; Gramma Prisca looked exhausted. Aevrin took his plate and Cassia’s into the kitchen, scraped them quickly clean, and stacked them in the washbin.
Then he climbed up the stairs with his heart in his stomach.
Cassia was coming out of the necessary. Her eyes were dry but puffy and red, like she’d just been crying and had wipedthem hard. She bowed her head down and turned away at the sight of him, trying to hide her pain. A hand clenched painfully around his heart.
“Cassia,” he whispered, and stroked his hand carefully down her arm. “Let me hold you?”
“I’m a ruin.”
“All the more reason,” he whispered.
He watched her struggle internally before at last nodding her head. He hurt bad, looking at her. Aevrin wished he could wipe the pain away for her. But if all he could do was hold it with her, well, it was better than nothing.
He led her into his room and shut the door; drew her into his arms. The room was dim, lit only by a soft glowstone.
“You wanna talk?” He asked. She looked up at him a moment, her eyes puffy and rimmed with red.
“Not really,” Cassia admitted, tucking her chin down. “Elsewise I’ll just scare you off.” Her voice was flat and teary. He hoped it was an attempt at a joke. She pulled out of his arms and went to sit on the bed.
With a frown Aevrin sat beside her on the blue bedspread. They’d been through this before; maybe she didn’t believe him yet. Maybe she wasn’t going to for a while.
Well, he knew what he wanted. He could be stubborn and wait if he needed to.
“If you’re hoping to chase me off, you’d better think up another strategy to get rid of me, Miss Cassia,” he whispered back, raising his eyebrows. “I don’t scare too easy.”
She laughed, once, a hollow sound, and then blinked up at the ceiling with a small shake of her head.
“Why are you doing all this, Aevrin? Taking care of me, talking to me…”
“I like talking to you.”
