She was fidgety, fingers drumming on her leg after she buckled herself in and arranged her sheathed sword beside her.
Still, I let the silence stretch as we left the pack lands, just enjoying being in her presence.
Elodie lasted nearly half an hour before she broke.
“So, you going to tell me who this Sandrine is and where we’re going, or…?”
“Sandrine is a gnome, talented in building all sorts of magical devices. As to where we’re going, that would be his home. Gnomish magic is tied to the hearthstone, which they believe to be the center of their power.”
“Interesting. I’ve never met a gnome before.” Her fingers stilled as she looked thoughtfully out the window.
“No? I’d imagine you’re fairly cloistered away in the enclave.”
She grunted. “You could definitely say that.”
“You start there young, right?”
“Fourteen for most of us.”
That was… unimaginable. I was still climbing trees at fourteen, exploring the forests and learning my wolf. To be snatched out of such a simple time in life and plopped into the middle of rigorous battle training… It made me look at her in a new light. Not badly, just a different insight into who she was.
“That must have been hard, leaving your family.”
Her eyes cut my way quickly, suspicion burning in their depths for some reason, before she resumed looking out the window.
“I’m an orphan.”
The truck swerved on the road in my surprise, and I quickly righted the wheel. “You’ve got no family?”
“Technically… technically, I was adopted. But in hindsight, they didn’t want me for me. They wanted me for what I could do for their daughter.”
My grip on the wheel tightened until my knuckles whitened and I heard somethingcrack, and I had to force myself to unwind my fingertips. “They sent you to the enclave in her place?”
“Got it in one,” she whispered, still avoiding looking at me.
“I’m so sorry.” And I meant it. I genuinely was sorry that she hadn’t had the life I had, the loving family to treat her the way she deserved.
At least it made sense why she would hesitate to let me get close. The people who were supposed to teach her about love and commitment hadn’t been there. And their stand-ins had sucked.
“Don’t be. The maidens are my family now. And they’re all I need.”
Something twisted low in my gut. Being with me would tear her out of the life tapestry she’d woven for herself.
“I see.”
“Do you? Do you see now why I can’t be with you, can’t entertain this thing between us?” She finally faced me fully, staring into me like she could see straight to my soul. Maybe she could, since she held the other half of it.
“I see that facing your destiny is going to change you in ways you never expected.”
She reeled back as if I’d slapped her. This was not going well, but I wouldn’t lie to her, not ever.
“That’s it? You’re just going to charge ahead anyway, knowing that you’d beruining my life?” Her anger was a palpable presence in the truck cab, and I considered my next words carefully.
“I don’t believe the Goddess’s gifts can ruin your life. They can only bring you something different from what you thought. And I firmly believe that a fated mate is the greatest gift of all, even as I’m sorry that it will cause you pain. I will never push you to something you don’t want, though, whatever it means for me.”
That seemed to take the wind out of her sails, her anger dropping into a morose kind of quiet.
She resumed staring out the window in silence.
