She wanted to throttle him.
“Can’t you hang back a bit?”
“Can’t you? I’ve already spent enough time trying to do the right thing, it’s your turn. You can hang back and wait if you like, but I’m not stopping.”
“No,” she said, trying to keep the anger from her voice and failing miserably. It didn’t help that his lips were twitching ina smile. She didn’t know what was worse, that he found her irritation amusing, or that even half a smile took his face from undeniably good-looking, to excruciatingly handsome. Aelia spun back around before she could blush again. She didn’t need to explain herself to him anyway.
So, they walked in silence, him hovering a few paces back.
The wind rustled the leaves overhead, the noise comfortingly familiar. The rain finally stopped, and the sun climbed high enough to break through the trees, dappling the path in speckled light. Life chattered and scurried all around them, busy preparing for the change of the season.
And all of it was lost on Aelia, her thoughts fixed unwaveringly on the infuriating presence at her heels. No matter how hard she tried to calm herself, to push aside her anger, he’d make some sound or another, and she’d be back to gritting her teeth, resenting every breath he took.
As the morning gave way to afternoon, he sped up a little to draw parallel to her.
“You pointed out yesterday that you don’t know my name. It’s Keeran.”
She ignored him, not interested in small talk with the man who’d held her back whilst her guardian was murdered, irrespective of his name.
“So where are you going in such a hurry?” he tried again.
Aelia slid her eyes over to him, a biting retort on the very tip of her tongue, when she caught sight of his face. There was no sign of the cruelty she’d been so wary of when she’d first seen him with the flames. The hard angles of his face seemed to have softened, his expression the most open she’d seen it as he held out a conversational olive branch to her.
Weak, pathetic little sucker that she was, she caved.
“I’m trying to catch up to the Astraea,” she admitted, only aware of how ridiculous she sounded after the words had lefther mouth. She could hardly walk, had nothing but a dagger she had no real clue how to use, and had been pinned against a tree before she’d even left the logging perimeter of her village.
To his credit, he didn’t point any of this out.
“Do you mind if I ask why?”
Aelia sighed through her nose, scrunching her lips as she thought about how best to answer.
“You’re going to try and get your friend.” It wasn’t even a question. When she risked a glance his way, she was surprised to see no trace of laughter on his face. So she nodded.
He was silent for so long she thought the conversation was over and was ashamed and confused by the relief she felt when he finally spoke.
“I want to find them too,” he admitted.
“Mind if I ask why?” she threw back at him.
“Because monsters like that shouldn’t go unpunished.” His irises turned black again, not just their normal dark, but black. She suppressed a shiver.
“And you can do that?” Sure, he looked like one giant walking weapon, but there were a lot of Astraeans with Beserkir.
“I’d like to try.”
It was just her luck that she found herself stuck on the road with a man who either had an ego so inflated that he was delusional enough to think he could take on a whole party of the most lethal predators in Demuto, or who actually could. She wasn’t sure which was worse.
“Why didn’t you when they attacked then?” she asked, leaning more towards the ego theory.
“There were too many, and they had the element of surprise. I need to shuffle the deck a bit if I want a winning hand.”
She was scrutinising his face, trying to get a read on him, when his gaze lifted to hers. If anything had her dropping the egotheory, it was that look in his eyes. It made her feel like there was something else, somethingother, looking back out at her.
Disconcerted, she glanced quickly away, hoping he’d let the conversation dissolve into silence. No such luck.
“Do you have a plan to free your friend?”
