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Leaf runs a finger between my brows, relaxing the muscles there.

“Stop trying to charm me,” I say, because apparently words still exist.

“I’m not trying—well, maybe I am,” Leaf admits, grinning. “But it’s hard to stop when you’re so… grumpy.”

“I’m not grumpy.”

Heru huffs in disagreement.

By mid-afternoon, the sun is angling low, painting the clouds pink and gold. My arms ache almost as badly from gripping Heru’s neck feathers as my numb legs from squeezing her massive form. At this point, I think Heru is flying recklessly fast just to dismount her riders. The wind is cold, a constant whoosh that drowns out nearly everything else. Except for Leaf, ever present at my back.

“You okay?” he asks again, voice low. Close.

“I’m alive,” I say. “Barely.”

Leaf laughs, a warm, full laugh that makes my chest tighten more than it should. “I like that answer.”

Heru snorts again, sending a wave of wind over me.

What is her deal?

By sunset, we’re skimming the edges of the Forest Tribe territory. Leaf suggests we land at the treeline, and Heru obliges, folding her wings with a sound like thunder only seconds after lightening. We touch down on soft moss, the forest around us buzzing with insects in the fading light.

I shake my head, brushing twigs and leaves from my coat. “How did you know where to land?” I’ve never been anywhere near the Elven territories. As an ally in the New World Peace Treaty, technically humans are allowed to visit. But it’s not like you can just walk into a foreign territory without cause.

Leaf shrugs innocently, but his smug smile betrays him. “I thought I’d leave it to our noble guide,” he says, casting Heru a playful glance.

Heru glares, beak snapping. Humans and Elves are both hopeless without me.

I cross my arms.

Leaf snickers, leaning back against a tree trunk the size of Heru. The weight of the Source is heavy in the air, as if the connection to magic itself is stronger here.

Night falls fast in the forest. We set up a tiny single-person tent, a challenge that somehow feels even more absurd when you’ve spent the day riding a giant flying predator. Leaf collapses inside, warm and sprawling, leaving me to wedge in front of him.

“Comfortable?” Leaf asks innocently, and I don’t have to look to know a dangerous grin is stretched across his face.

“It’s not… horrible,” I mutter, though the heat from his body against mine disagrees. My hands are awkwardly positioned; my legs overlap slightly. His arm snakes around my shoulders almost naturally.

Leaf chuckles softly. “Good to know. I’ll take that as a yes.”

Outside, Heru huffs in mild annoyance.

“I don’t think she enjoys me,” Leaf whispers, his breath warm on my neck.

“She likes you better than me.”

“True.”

“Hey! You weren’t supposed to admit that out loud.” I nudge into him and instantly freeze at the hard—and alarmingly large—length pressing into my back. Ramona from years ago would have been repulsed, kicked Leaf right in the balls. Told him to fuck off, and moved on.

But I’m not her.

And that’s the scariest fucking part, because I didn’t hate the feeling of him pressed against me. In fact, more times than I care to admit, I picture the weight of his arm wrapped around me. What it would feel like for his fingers to slide along my stomach as I lie here, pressed into him. Would I be able to feel the way his callouses scrape against the smoothest parts of me? What would it feel like to have his lithe fingers, always so quick to nock an arrow at his enemies, focused fully on me?

My core pulses traitorously as the minutes drone on.

Leaf must be wholly unaffected based on the way his steady breathing contrasts mine so brazenly, like nothing happened.