Auri stares down at the wolves with awe on her face, and it melts my frustration. “Hey, Kiddo. Want to meet them?”
“Yes.” Her voice is barely a whisper.
I pat the ground next to me. “Come on down.”
Rauk steps forward, and I expect him to lower her to the ground. He surprises me by sitting next to me and putting her on his lap. The entire side of his body is touching my entire side, and I don’t really know what to do about that. I ignore it; that seems like the best response. “Shade and Solace, these are myfriends, Rauk and Auri.” Shade doesn’t move a muscle. I’m not sure if he’s sleeping or simply ignoring us, but Solace turns her head towards us. Her intelligent eyes meet mine, and I give her what I hope she sees as a grateful smile.
“Can I pet her?” Auri asks in quiet awe.
I look to Solace, who gives a single bob of her head. “Go ahead.”
Auri leans forward and runs her hand through Solace’s fur. “It’s so soft.”
“A little softer than dragon scales, right?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
She continues to pet Solace and leans back against the barn wall again. I can feel Rauk’s eyes on me, but I ignore him. He stays quiet, and I don’t say anything either. I watch Auri with Solace. In this moment, I’m so thankful for Solace and Shade too. I don’t know why they came to me tonight; maybe this is just what they do. Maybe they sleep in this stall every night; I really don’t know. All I know is that I can have this moment with them with Auri.
“You don’t have to defend me to your friend.”
“I wasn’t defending you,” I tell him without looking at him.
“Sure sounded like it.”
“I wasn’t,” I return.
He chuckles, and it does a weird thing to my insides.It’s just because I’ve never heard him laugh,I tell myself. “Whatever you need to tell yourself, Harper.”
My name on his tongue in that raspy voice makes me feel...something. Something I don’t want to examine at all. Needingdesperately to change the subject, I reach for the first thing I think of. “Is Elowen okay?”
I feel the change in him. Whatever lighthearted moment we shared is gone completely. “She was knocked out, but she’s okay.” I can hear the anger in his quiet words, and it matches my own.
“Did you take care of whoever did it to her?” I ask in an equally quiet voice.
“Yes.”
I nod my approval. I don’t ask what he did; I don’t want to know. “Good.” We’re both quiet after that, but it’s much more tense than it was a few minutes ago. Still, I can’t bring myself to regret asking about Elowen. I've been worried about her. “I’m glad she’s okay,” I finally say. “You obviously came here. So are things at least stable?”
“I left things in Thorne’s hands. The threat is nowhere near over, but it was taken care of enough that I could come here.” He’s quiet a moment, and I think that’s all he’s going to say. “Thank you for getting Auri out.”
I turn to him in surprise and find his eyes on me. Him sitting this close to me, those intense eyes locked on me, is waaaay too much for me. I look back at Solace. “No problem. It’s not that big a deal.”
“It is,” he argues. “It’s a huge trip.” He lowers his voice. “And making it with somebody else is no easy task. But you got my sister out when I couldn’t. That’s more—”
I don’t know what he’s going to say, but I can’t do any more emotion of any kind tonight. So, I cut him off. “I’m glad I wasable to do it.”
He doesn’t say anything else about it, and I take a deep breath. I'm ready to head in for the night, so I stand up. “I brought a bag for you.”
Again, his words surprise me. “What?”
“I know you left with nothing, so I tried to grab a few clothing items for you and Auri. I probably did a terrible job, but you can look at it if you want. Then you don’t have to wear your friend’s clothes.”
“Her name is Farrah.” I don’t know why that seems to be the most important thing to say right now, but it just is.
“I brought clothes for you, so you don’t have to wearFarrah’sclothesanymore.”
Chapter 33
