I stiffened, sucking in a deep breath through my clenched teeth.
“Please, Aileana,” Xander whispered. Goosebumps appeared on the back of my neck as he came toward me. “Let me explain.”
I don’t know if it was the tone of his voice or the absolute exhaustion pounding through my body, but I sighed. “Okay,” I said without turning around. “I’ll talk to you.”
Daegal nodded, stepping around us. “That’s my cue to leave.”
I heard him clap Xander on the back before whispering something that sounded suspiciously like “good luck.” I waited until the sound of the elf’s footsteps retreated into the woods before asking, “What did you want to talk about?”
Xander cleared his throat. “I want to talk about what happened between us.”
I tightened my grip on the sword, glad I still had something to hold. “Oh?” I hardened my voice. I refused to let him know he had hurt me.
A large pine tree stood roughly twenty feet in front of me. I glared at the thin green needles, trying to avoid thinking about the large male at my back. “Whatever could you want to talk about? I thought you made your revulsion extraordinarily clear after you kissed me. I don’t need you to tell me again that you regret it.”
He sighed, the sound long-suffering as it escaped him. “Aileana, I don’t regret kissing you. At all.”
“No?” I turned to scowl at him. “You sure have an odd way of showing you don’t regret something. Why have you been avoiding me?”
“It’s a long story…”
I narrowed my eyes, waving a hand in the air. “I’ve got nowhere to be. Enlighten me.”
He crossed his arms defensively, widening his stance. “Will you even listen to me?”
“I’m listening right now,” I snapped.
Xander shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I mean, really listen to me.Please,Aileana. Listen to me.”
There it was. That word again. Xander seemed to know exactly how to wield it to the best of his advantage. Did he know no one had ever asked me to do anything before? That the word please had been foreign to me? Or perhaps he was just being kind?
I sighed, running my free hand through my hair. “Fine. I promise I’ll listen.”
His gaze dropped to my other hand, which was still clutching my sword. “Could you maybe put that away?”
“I don’t know.” I glared at him. “Am I going to need it?”
He shook his head, his voice betraying his tiredness. “No. I’m not here to fight with you.”
Something about his tone made me look at him. Really look. Bags were under Xander’s eyes that hadn’t been there before, and his face was long. Drawn. His shoulders were slumped, his fists clenched at his sides. He looked broken. Desolate. Sad.
Did I do that to him? Was it possible he felt as upset about the way we had left things as I did?
“Okay.” I nodded. Walking over to a nearby tree, I placed my sword on the ground before I slid down and rested my back against the trunk.
As had become the norm, the tree hummed behind me.Hello, Protectress.
Absentmindedly, I patted the bark of the tree, making a mental note to talk to Morwen about my… abilities before we left. I needed to find out what exactly was happening to me.
Xander dropped to the ground in front of me, extending his hands behind him as he stretched out his legs. We didn’t touch, but the air between us was thick like mud. The inches that separated my feet from his hips felt like miles as we stared at each other. We sat like that for a long moment, our legs outstretched but neither of us touching the other.
I knew that if I touched him, the same fire from before would erupt beneath my skin. And if he touched me… I might burst into flames.
It would be hard to stay mad at Xander if that happened.
And I was mad. Furious. His audacity enraged me. How dare he kiss me, tell me he missed me, and then walk away? How dare he make me feel this way and then tell me he couldn’t dothis? What did that even mean?
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.