Why am I so set against him, when all I want is for him to want me back?
“He has been an asshole,” Olm mutters. “That’s why.”
“True. On occasion.”
“You’re talking to your fucking book again,” Roane grumbles. “Should I give you some privacy? We were only discussing matters of life and death here.”
“I was talking to Olm,” I correct him.
“Right. The one who saved you when it should have been me. When I failed you yet again. I’ll leave you to talk to him, then.”
“Wait…” I blink. “Are you jealous? Of Olm?”
Roane shakes his head and walks over to the horse who is nibbling at the few grasses growing in the rocks. Dismissing me. I watch him pat the horse’s neck. He’s standing with his head bowed, his mane a tangled mess on his back, those dark lines of a mark gracing his long neck.
Is he really jealous, or feeling guilty for not being there when I was in danger? That’s sweet.
“Nothing sweet about it,” Olm grouses. “He’s right,Iwas there for you and he wasn’t.”
“And that was sweet of you, too,” I say, though all I can think of is Roane, roaring my name, racing to reach me when thecentaurs attacked me. He rushed to protect me, like every other time.
“He said you were a liability,” Olm reminds me.
“Which is true. I know nothing about this world or about fighting monsters, and he’s had to save my life time and again.” I stroke Ardruna’s neck, the golden fur, feeling her warmth returning. She had said that, too.
“You shouldn’t be seen as a burden.”
“He never said I was a burden,” I whisper.
“You are past love-struck,” Olm groans. “Alas! This is beyond belief.”
I sigh. “You’re full of melodrama, aren’t you? Just…”
But Ardruna blinks slowly, letting out a low growl, and I shout with joy.
“Ardruna!” I lay my head on her side. “Welcome back to the world of the living.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
NO HARM DONE
ADELINE
“How are you feeling?” I ask her sometime later, straightening, satisfied that her heartbeat is strong and steady.
Ardruna lifts her white head, her ruby tongue flicking over her chops. “What did I miss?”
“I don’t know, nothing much… your own death?”
She lets out a bark of laughter. “Good one. Now pull the other leg.”
“I’m serious. The centaurs killed you. You died.” I show her my bloodied hands. It’s her blood on them. Fresh tears track down my cheeks, unheeded. “You were dead and then… then your body knit itself back together.”
“No way.” She stares at me. “Then I hope you avenged me.”
“I did.”
She gives a slow blink. “Is this then… the otherworld? Am I wandering the passages between the worlds before I’m reborn?”
