Especially Xaydin, and she didn’t know why.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Even now, she saw the way he’d moved in to protect her. No one had ever done that for her before.
While she didn’t need it, it was refreshing to have someone care.
He doesn’t care, you idiot.
She swore that was her mother’s voice in her head. The same voice that had told her, her entire life that she wasn’t good enough. Smart enough. That she didn’t deserve love.
Or even kindness.
Xaydin wasn’t like that. He had a soul inside him. One that was warm, and it drew her in despite her fears and reservations.
And now we’re chasing after a ball…
Truth be told, she felt a little ridiculous. Would this even work?
“How does it know where to go?”
Masakage looked at her over his shoulder. “No idea.”
“Then why are we trusting it?”
Xaydin smiled at her. “Candara’s potions are flawless. They never fail.”
Until they did. There was always a first time.
“I heard that,” Masakage said to her.
Heat suffused her cheeks at Masakage’s playful retort. “Sorry. I was born negative.”
“With your mother, I can’t blame you.” He slowed down a bit so that he could ride beside her. “So who’s your father?”
She quickly forced her mind to go blank. That was the one secret she’d never let out. Mostly because she had no idea how they’d react to it.
How anyone would react. The one thing her mother had impressed upon her most was that she was never to breathe one single word about her father. The only reason she knew was because her mother had slipped up and told her during one of Meara’s more stellar tantrums.
Even now, she could see the shock on her mother’s face as it’d slipped out.
Eyes wide, Meara had stormed at her with so much rage that she’d been sure she was going to die.
Her mother had grabbed her by the neck and slapped her hand over Gisela’s mouth. The pressure had been so intense that she’d feared her mother would suffocate her. “Tell no one! You ever repeat that name and the gods as my witness, I’ll cut out your tongue, nail it to your forehead and have you skinned alive. Do you understand?”
Gisela had nodded while the name spun through her head with shock and alarm.
In that moment, she’d known what her mother had. No one ever needed to know who had sired her. No good could ever come from it.
So she glanced over to Masakage. “Does it matter?”
“You’re hiding a lot of pain from me.”
Interesting bit he just confessed. “Does that mean I can block you from my thoughts?”
“Of course. X blocks me constantly. And I’ve never been able to read Candara.”
Good to know. She didn’t like the thought of someone digging through her mind.
“Kage!” Xaydin snapped. “It’s turning blue.”
