She tilted her head, her confusion fluttering through him. “Taken with him?”
“If you are not speaking to him, you are speakingofhim.”
Dyna bit the corner of her lip, frowning at the tone that he couldn’t seem to soften. “Oh, I didn’t notice. It’s been pleasant getting to know Lucien. Shall I introduce you? He’s kind and charming.”
“Is he now? He will make a perfect love-mate for you, then.” Cassiel clenched his teeth, wishing he could have swallowed his retort as soon as it left his mouth. The mage’s character was everything he wasn’t.
The carriage creaked in the void of silence between them, making the air thicken.
“I think you have misunderstood,” she said. “There is nothing of that sort between us. He is only interested in Azeran.”
A mixture of relief and confusion clouded his mind. “But Lucenna said…”
Dyna’s brow furrowed for a moment, then she chuckled. “Oh, you mean her note? There was no truth to that. I thought you knew she was jesting.”
Cassiel’s jaw worked as he glared at the carriage ceiling. Lucenna had caused him unnecessary aggravation, and he suspected it was intentional.
“You assumed Lucien was courting me?” Dyna muffled a giggle behind her hand.
He looked away to the window, ignoring the heat washing through his face. “What else could I assume with your nose pressed against the orb every day?”
A twinge trickled through the bond.
Why must he be such a lout? Dyna didn’t deserve his callow behavior. An apology lingered on his tongue, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud. He couldn’t trust himself to say the right words.
As she observed him now, her eyes said too much for his comfort. “I’m sorry.”
He cringed. “No, you have no reason to be. You can speak with the mage all you wish.”
An awkward silence filled the space between them. He knew she was studying him, trying to make sense of his annoyance. It made no sense to him.
A lock of hair fell in Dyna’s face, and he fought the urge to tuck it back. It was unnerving how much she affected him, but he missed her occasional touch that would give him a view of her soul.
It must be the bond. Nothing about it was normal or logical.
“When are you going to tell Lucenna about Tarn?” Cassiel asked to distract her, or perhaps himself.
“I will after we leave the Port of Azure.”
“I didn’t take you to be so deceitful.”
She balked at the accusation. “I’m not.”
“You are keeping information from her. That is deceit.”
Dyna’s mouth pinched. “Are we to compare our manner of dishonesty? If we are, then may I point out your long list of deceptions?”
He glowered. “List?”
“You know well and true what I speak of,” she said pointedly.
Cassiel shifted in his seat with the subject switched back on him. When the bond first established, he’d kept it a secret for reasons she didn’t need to know. But the changes it was going through now … How could he reveal that when he didn’t yet understand what it meant?
Dyna crossed her arms. “Bearing in mind the obvious, you also refuse to tell us why you seek Mount Ida.”
They stared at each other for a long minute. He narrowed his eyes. What was their obsession with his reason to go? It was none of their business.
“I do not wish to speak of it,” he finally said.
