He must have been caught off guard.
Or Keuric had upset him.
When Zayn was saddened, unlike with his rage, it could weaken him.
“He messed with something belonging to me!” Keuric yelled fiercely, gesturing around me to Zayn, who I could hear panting from the ice water dripping off him.
I sent a rush of my Wraith shadows behind me, twisting my hand so they swirled around him in a gentle funnel that would serve to dry him off and wick the water away. It should be enough for him to then invoke his flame and heat himself. Right now, that was clearly proving impossible for him to do.
“Messed with what?”
“I scented it! He tasted her!” He screwed up his face. “And she tasted him!”
Her.Hissomething belongingto him was a person.
That was highly disturbing.
Especially when I knew it could only be one being.
Evira.
Zayn had been with Evira.
Well, that was… unprecedented.
I shot a look over my shoulder at Zayn and he flinched.
Of course, he hid his true reaction quickly and threw out a load of bravado instead as he yelled over at Keuric, “And I’d do it again and again and fucking again, motherfucker!”
Keuric snarled and bolted forward.
But he stopped short of actually colliding with me, gritting his teeth as he made sure he stilled a foot out.
That was about right.
“Evira isn’t yours,” I spoke calmly to Keuric.
Said calm wasn’t without effort, though, truth be told.
“She’s meant to be. And she will be. But him getting in between us is complicating all that and slowing down my progress in getting her back.”
“You need to cease this pursuit of her.” My eyes flamed with my amber fire, almost unbidden.Oops.
“The hell I will.”
“You’re a real creepy motherfucker,” Zayn growled. “I can’t even overstate it, that’s how fucked in the head you are. She’s a person, not property, you damned maniac!”
Jeez.
“Zayn,” I spoke over my shoulder. “Calm.”
I waited with bated breath, because I absolutely needed him to settle down with what I was about to say. If he remained at this level of anger, after he heard my words I had for Keuric, that would escalate to unrestrained and highly destructive rage.
Our gazes clashed briefly and he actually gave a nod. No biting back at me, or telling me he had this handled, to let this fight continue on. No posturing.
None of that.
Reason actually won out.
