He let out a huff but didn’t protest as he laid another card down on one of the piles.
“Alright, I’ll go first.” Shockingly enough, she had so many questions she still wanted to ask. “Why do you stay out here in the caves when you could’ve gotten a room at one of the inns in town? You have plenty of money.”
He drew a card, taking his time in answering. “I suppose these mountains remind me of Iona. And the idea of staying in an inn where I have to see people every day?” He shot her a look. “You know how much I love people.”
She snorted and played a card. “Your turn to ask something.”
“Who exactly is this Hamil to you?”
She rolled her eyes. She’d seen that one coming.
He held his hands up in a defensive motion. “I do not wish to argue, I’m only asking out of curiosity. He was far too protective to simply be afriend.”
“And you weren’t, with your whole ‘she is staying here’ bit?” She mocked his low, commanding voice.
The corner of his mouth ticked up as he played another card. “Ah, so we are friends?”
The way he said “friends” made her avert her eyes and ignore the question. “Hamil has been one of my brother’s best friends since we were kids. We’ve gotten close over the years, and he’s like family.”
Rynn hummed. “I do not think he feels very familial toward you.”
Isla laughed and threw the empty card box at him. “Alright, fine, he may have wanted to pursue something more. But I never did, so we’re just friends. Is that enough of an answer, you nosy elemental?”
This time she got a genuine smile. “Good enough, thank you.”
She shook her head and drew a card, thinking of what to ask. “Who’s your favorite of the other elementals?”
“What kind of a question isthat?”
“It popped in my head. It’s Jade, isn’t it?” She winked.
“You are incorrigible. Next question.”
“What happened between the two of you, anyway?”
He studied his cards. “We are simply two different people. Once Jade makes her mind up about someone, it is difficult to sway her opinion. She decided very early on that she wanted nothing to do with me.”
“I see,” Isla responded. “And how do you feel about her?”
Rynn sighed. “I never took you for a gossip, Isla.”
“Fair enough.” Isla shrugged and leaned back. “You just always act so hostile toward each other.”
He turned his head to the left, staring into the distance beyond the cave entrance. “Earth and air are both constant. Indomitable. There is no point in the natural world where you can exist in one and not the other.” He faced Isla again. “I suppose the reality that Jade and I are too similar, that we see our own flaws reflected in the other, creates animosity that we cannot escape.”
That was much more honest of an answer than she had ever hoped to receive. Before she could formulate a response, Rynn swiftly changed the topic with a new question.
“Has there ever been something you would want to do in your life besides your family’s hunting trade?”
Isla blinked as she recovered from the sudden shift. “Well, I—I’ve never thought about it before.” Her, do something besides the family business? Live anywhere other than Lockhurt? “I love what I do, and I love my town. So no, not really. Not right now, anyway.”
He hummed quietly and continued staring at his cards, but didn’t respond. Why did she feel like she’d given an incorrect answer? Shuffling in her seat, she decided to turn the question back around on him.
“Okay then, if you could be anything in the world, have any job you wanted, what would you do?”
A pause. “Nobody has ever asked me that.” He thought about it as he played a card, and she felt saddened by his words. Had no one tried to get to know him as a realperson, not just an immortal elemental? “Perhaps a historian. I enjoy books and history. Compiling and recording stories from the kingdoms sounds appealing.”
Isla nodded at his answer. It made perfect sense. She could picture him now, bent over books in a library, pausing to pensively stare out a window while he gathered his thoughts. Maybe she was there with him, and when nobody else was around, he would take her to a secluded aisle of books and push her against the shelves…
