Page 91
“I didn’t mean—” He rubbed the back of his neck. “She’s grown attached to you.”
“I’ve grown attached to her too. I’ll visit.”
He hated the word visit. Visits had beginnings and endings. They meant Ria would arrive through a portal carrying that ridiculous satchel, spend a few days filling the house with her presence, and then disappear back to a world where he didn’t belong.
He looked around the workshop instead. “Do you need help packing?”
She stared at him. “No.”
“Aye, well, there’s quite a lot—”
“I can handle it.”
His brow furrowed. “I was only offering.”
“And I’m telling you I don’t need help.”
He folded his arms. “You’re angry with me.”
“Very observant.”
“What do you want me to say?”
The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Ria put down the jar she was holding and faced him.
“Are you serious?”
“I don’t know what you want from me.”
“I already told you.”
He knew. That was the worst of it. She wanted him to ask her to stay. She wanted him to tell her that whatever had grown between them wasn’t something he was willing to lose simply because Korinnae was healed and Ria’s reason for being in Alindale was gone.
She stepped closer. “I gave you every opportunity to tell me that you wanted me here. I practically handed you the words, Asterion.”
“I told you I want you here.”
“For what? To heal Korinnae? To sit with you after she goes to bed? To fuck when it’s convenient? What exactly am I staying for?”
His arms dropped. “You know it wasn’t just that.”
“Then say what it was.”
He wanted to. Gods, he wanted to. But what came after stay? Did he ask her to desert the patients who needed her? Did he follow her to the Upperworld and leave Korinnae behind? Did they spend their lives crossing between worlds, never fully belonging to either?
He had spent most of his life knowing where he belonged and what was expected of him. Ria had entered it and made him question things he’d never thought to question before. He moved toward her.
“Ria—”
She raised her hand. “No. I’m not doing this again.”
She turned back to her packing. “I have a life in the Upperworld. I have work. People come to me because they need a healer, and I can’t abandon all of that for a minotaur who can’t even tell me whether he wants a relationship with me.”
“I would never ask you to abandon your work.”
She spun around. “You’re still missing the point.”
“Then what do you expect me to do? Ask you to give up your life and stay here for me?”
