“Get down here,” I demanded, pointing at the ground and letting my bossiness shine through.
He tossed his legs over the side of the saddle and landed with a thud in the field of flowers. “Are you…mad?” he asked, a hint of fear in his voice.
“What? No. I am so relentlessly in love with you and I need you to kiss me right now or I think I may die.”
He didn’t so much as waver before ruining me with his lips and tongue. I came undone for him right then and there. Every fiber of my being—every thread of my soul—was his.
Only his.
Always.
We pushedpoor Honey to her limit, but we were able to catch up with the others.
A few miles later, we set up camp for the evening and I offered to take the first watch. My mind was too full to sleep—in a good way for once.
After ten minutes of bickering with Sebastian over it, he agreed to loosen the ropes he had tied to my safety. “Just screamif you hear so much as a twig break,” he demanded, then left me with swollen lips from his goodnight kiss.
The fire Pia and I had worked together to build crackled in front of me, the smell of smoke filling my nostrils. The sky had succumbed to the night's darkness, and the openness of the valley we sat in granted me a view of the sky like I’d never seen before.
“Imagine watching the Jewel-Light shower out here.” Sawyer's voice made me jump.
I clutched a hand to my chest. “If I make it out of this war alive, I’ll add that to my bucket list,” I answered breathily, letting my hand fall to my side.
He sat down beside me, planting his eyes on the burning flames. “I feel like you’ve been avoiding me,” he said, his voice nothing more than a breath.
“I’m not. Why would you think that?” Stupid question. I knew why.
“Either because you're mad about how I reacted to your self-sacrificial plans, or because of theother thing,” he implied.
I didn't want to talk abouteitherof those things, but pick your poison, I guess.
“I’m not mad about how you reacted to my plans.”
“I know I said some messed up things. It's no excuse, but when I’m scared, I tend to resort to anger, and I’m sorry.”
“Sawyer, we’re good. Truly. There's too much other stuff going on to dwell on your reaction to something I said that scared the shit out of you.” I dropped the hand of reassurance I had placed on his shoulder.
He nodded, staring into the crimson flames. “Then what's going on? Because the last time wereallytalked was right before you ran out of the arena.”
My attention fell to my hands as I began picking at my skin—a nervous habit I’d developed in the past few weeks. “Oh.”
“Maeve…I know we said things would go back to how they were, but things between us have been off, and I hate it.” Sawyer put his hand over mine, stopping me from ripping off a hangnail.
I sighed, giving him the eye contact I knew he desired. “I know. I don’t like it, either. I just don’t know how we go back when you are—” I stopped myself. He never actually told me the words, so technically I was still just assuming things.
“When I’m what?”
“You know…” I dropped my gaze again. This was uncomfortable to the maximum level.
“Remember back in the arena when we first got to Lumosia, and you compelled me to tell you a secret?”
My ears perked up at the change of subject, and somehow, this subject was worse. “Yes?”
“Do you remember what I told you?”
I hadn’t thought about this in weeks, and I planned to keep it that way. “Sawyer, we don’t need to talk about this. We shouldn’t talk about?—”
“No, Maeve, actually wedoneed to talk about it. Because it’s been eating away at me ever since, and I have so much I just need to get off my chest, but you won’t let me.” Sawyer raised his voice just enough to convey the urgency, but not enough so that anyone could overhear us if they were awake.
