“I told you flattery will get you nowhere with me,” she said, but her voice was a pitch softer than it had been before.
“Then I suppose I shouldn’t tell you that I can’t wait to see how brilliant you are at swinging across those rails.” I took a few steps back and winked. Time to get out of here before I got myself into trouble. Because this was starting to feel a bit too much like trouble. Astrid and her flowing ginger hair decorated with bells, her big beautiful eyes, those curves—trouble.
“I told you I’m taking the bridge,” she called after me.
“Good night, Astrid.” With another wink, I turned and forced myself to walk away.
***
“Where have you been?” Altan asked from where he paced beside the campfire. He slowed to a stop and scowled at me. “I thought you’d gotten lost in the mines. I was about to ask the dwarves to ring their bloody alarm bell.”
I held up my hands. “I went to dinner.”
“Dinner?” Meral glanced up from the book propped open on her legs. “With who?”
Altan shot her a frank look. “Come on. I think we all know who.”
“Good point,” said Meral.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“You’ve been talking about the lass for three bloody days,” Meral said, shaking her head and returning her attention to her book. “Who else would it be? You’re practically pining over her.”
“I’m not pining over her. I don’t even like her!”
Meral snorted. “All right. If that’s what you need to tell yourself.”
“I don’t,” I said. But that was a lie. I’d realized that tonight. “Well, I suppose I do, but there’s no pining involved here. I just like her the same way I like you two. She’s a decent person and very good at what she does, whether she realizes it or not. Plus, she’s enjoyable to be around. There’s something about her laugh and her eyes and her presence that’s—what?”
Meral was outright grinning at me over the top of her book. “You like her the same way you like us, huh? I didn’t know you tended to wax poetic about my eyes.” She fluttered my lashes at me. “Do you want to dive into the deep blue waters of them or—”
I snatched the book out of her hands and held it over the flames. Meral squeaked.
“What was that?” I asked.
“You wouldn’t,” she said, her eyes widening.
“Oh, I would.”
Altan sauntered over and perched on the log beside Meral. He elbowed her, then pointed at me. “If he didn’t like her, he wouldn’t give a rat’s arse that we were bugging him about her.”
“You have a point,” said Meral, “but I would like to finish reading that book. I just got to the part where the warrior has ridden into battle against the enemy. I need to know if she wins.”
“She wins,” I said, waving the book over the fire. “They always win.”
She leapt to her feet. “Give me back my book!”
I grinned. “It’s so easy to get a rise out of you. You have to know I’d never burn one of these things.” Then I tossed it back over. She caught it with a single hand and immediately settled back onto the log with her nose between the pages.
As I turned toward my tent, Meral called out, “Nice job distracting us, Tormund. But we know you’ve got a soft spot for the girl now. Hope you don’t forget why you came here.”
I slowed, but I didn’t turn around.
“Stay focused on the task,” Altan added. “We’re here for Tahir. If we don’t get our hands on that gem, he’ll never go aboveground. And I know that girl wants it, too. You know you can’t get involved. It’ll only end in heartache.”
Altan was right, of course, and he was using my own words to make his point. I’d told him time and time again I didn’t want romance in my life. Astrid was a distraction. A very pretty distraction. And if I wasn’t careful, I might lose sight of my quest. I had to keep a reasonable distance from now on. No more dinners. No more late-night goodbyes on chasm bridges. She was a fellow competitor, which meant she could never be a friend.
13
