Or at least tried to.
Masakage used his powers to put the saddles and their saddlebags on for them.
“Show off,” Xaydin chided.
He just smiled. “You’d do it if you weren’t so used to hiding your powers.”
Xaydin would have argued had it not been true. But he accepted the fact that when it came to those powers, he just didn’t think to use them.
Candara shook her head at the two of them as she mounted and took her reins. Then she glanced over to Gisela. “You poor thing to be forced to travel alone with them.”
Gisela swung herself up into the saddle, then situated herself. “They weren’t so bad.”
“Still, my apologies that they weren’t fully home trained. We did try. Sadly, it didn’t take.”
“Should we be offended?” Masakage asked Xaydin.
“Probably.” He swung himself onto the back of his horse. “You more so than me.”
“How do you figure?”
“I enjoy being a ruffian. You like prancing around a lot more.”
Masakage rolled his eyes. “Be glad you’re wounded.”
“Trust me, I am. I’ll happily be wounded so long as someone kisses my boo boos.” And with that, he kicked his horse forward.
Shocked, Gisela felt her jaw go slack. And by Masakage’s expression, she could tell he was equally as surprised.
Heat flooded her cheeks before she averted her gaze and followed after Xaydin. She rode up to his side and passed him an irritated glare.
“I can’t believe you just said that.”
His smile was unrepentant. “If it makes you feel better, neither can they.”
She intensified her glare. Not that it did any good. They both knew she was more mortified than angry. On the one hand, she should be thrilled that he was willing to make their relationship known. It meant that she was more to him than a simple one-time thing.
But on the other hand, she wasn’t used to being part of a couple. Part of a team. The attention made her extremely uncomfortable.
She told herself that she didn’t care what they thought of her. She’d never cared about that in her life. But they were Xaydin’s family. It made them very different.
What if they hate me?
She’d been ordered to kill Xaydin. Why would they like her?
Candara rode up beside her and reached out to touch her arm. “Don’t fret, Gisela. We’re glad to see Xaydin happy. How something begins is nowhere near as important as how it ends.”
She knew his sister meant to comfort her with those words, but they had the opposite effect.
Nothing ever ended well. That was the stuff of nightmares.
And how this would end, she had no idea. She wasn’t stupid enough to think for one moment that they could be together. He was a tracker who hunted and killedaþaswere. She was an assassin for a queen who wanted him and all his friends dead.
No, there was no future here.
But the thought of returning home and resuming her old life was abhorrent to her.
Do I have the courage to walk away?
