“All your intestines still internal?” she asked.
What are you talking about, Valenna?she thought, wincing.
Evander stared at her, speechless, it seemed.
She was making him uncomfortable. Good. His eyes brushed over her body, and she remembered her torn trousers and tangled hair, and her confidence flagged.
Evander cleared his throat. “It seems so.”
“A shame,” she said with a pout.
His eyes darted to her lips, and something in them sparked. But the look was gone in an instant.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I could ask you the same question,” she said, turning and starting down the grassy slope toward the trees.
“Val, wait!” Evander called. He caught up to her and fell into step, his right hand in his pants pocket, the fingers of his left hand hooked in the collar of his coat, which he had tossed over his shoulder. “How did you find me?”
Without bothering to look at him, Valenna let out a shrill laugh. “I wasn’t looking for you, Vander. I’m here on business.”
He glanced down. “Ah, I see,”
Valenna’s magic pricked in her fingertips, and she stumbled over a thorny vine. Had he expected her to go looking for him? Why would she do that? He was the one who left.
“What kind of business?” he continued. His voice was low and so soft, she had to lean toward him to make out what he was saying. It was an intoxicating habit of his, like he was drawing her in by magnetic force. Infuriating.
Valenna fixed her eyes straight ahead. “I am here to appoint the new dragon master.”
Evander ran his tongue over his lips, and his grave green eyes fastened on her with desperate intensity.
Valenna’s cheeks warmed. “Of course, you won’t be applying.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“You’re not supposed to even be riding.”
“I still ride. Every day. As you saw.”
She let out a frustrated huff and shook her head. “I don’t think you’re an acceptable candidate.”
“The master dracologist in Largotia accepted my application, all things considered.”
She looked dubious. “All things considered?”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Well, most things. I hope you can be objective.”
Valenna gave him a sugar-sweet smile as they passed into the shade of the trees. “Of course. I’ll be taking everything into consideration. Everything.”
Evander stopped, and Valenna walked three steps before she noticed. She turned.
He was gazing at her with a pained expression. She’d hoped he’d be defensive and they could finally have the fight she’d beenreciting to herself in the bath, and as she walked to lunch, and while she fed the crag-backed grayscales. Instead, he said, “I’m sorry I left the way I did.”
“You don’t have to be sorry,” Valenna replied, sniffing and looking away. The magic behind her ribs flared, smelling like burnt grass.
“I wish I could have explained. I wish I could have stayed.”
“So do I,” she said, suddenly wanting to run down the hill and disappear into the trees. “But you didn’t, and honestly, I’d forgotten all about you before I saw you today.”
