He nodded, the corner of his lips twitching. “That’s what I said.”
“How rude,” I exclaimed. Part of me knew he was purposefully trying to get a rise out of me, but I couldn’t help but take the bait. He was just so… easy to fight with. “You are one to talk. You look worse than me.”
It was a lie.
Despite being soaked to the bone, I couldn’t help but notice the way the rain accentuated Xander’s muscles. His shoulder had healed far faster than I had thought possible, and he had shed the bandages earlier that day.
With every stroke of his hand down the horse’s backside, Xander’s muscles tensed. He moved with the ease of someone who knew they were big and was confident in their size. It was incredible.
He was incredible.
For a long moment, I just… watched him. I was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Ever since Xander had shown up in my life, he had thrown everything I had known out of the window. I knew I shouldn’t have been watching him, that he would likely be upset by my attention, but I just couldn’t help it.
For years, watching other people had been my only source of interaction with the outside world. I had stood at my window in the tower as everyone else went about their lives.
I had known everyone’s schedule by heart. The young boy who brought milk from a nearby farm every morning after the sun rose. The farmer who made the day’s journey from Thyr three times a week with enough supplies for me and the two dozen guards and servants who resided in the nearby keep.
I had watched on the first Sunday of every month as the king had made his monthly procession to my tower to check on me. To check on his pet.
I had spent the past twenty-three years watching.
But I had gotten out. I was free. I was living. Learning.Being.
My thoughts were so consuming that I didn’t notice when Xander stepped away from the horses. I didn’t hear his feet walking over the forest floor and it wasn’t until he was standing right in front of me I even realized he was talking to me.
“… sleep for the night,” he finished. He stared down at me expectantly, as though waiting for a response.
Dammit. Why did I have to choose this moment to dive into my thoughts?
I stared at him, blinking. I had two choices here. The first was to admit that I had been distracted and hadn’t been paying attention. The second was to pretend I had heard him and agree to… whatever it was he had said.
In an effort to save whatever face I had left, I went with the latter.
“I’d be happy to,” I said firmly, nodding as though I knew exactly what I was agreeing to.
Xander tilted his head, studying me for a moment longer, before shrugging. “Okay, I’ll get the soap.”
Soap.
That meant… I swallowed. Suddenly, I wished I knew exactly what I had agreed to. My breath quickened in my chest as I surreptitiously raised my arm and sniffed.
Instantly, I recoiled.
I would definitely be adding how difficult it was to maintain hygienic practices while traveling to my list of new things I’d learned.
The desire for cleanliness pushed aside everything else I was feeling. I followed Xander through the trees, picking my way over fallen logs and around low-hanging branches.
By now, I was used to the constant brush of branches against my dress. The nearly constant need to pluck small thorns and other pieces of wood from my skirts felt normal.
I’d grown used to the constant whisper of the wind. The way the trees brushed up against me, calling for me. Every time I heard a quiet call in the back of my mind, I pushed it away.
I had no idea what was happening to me.
Not for the first time since we had realized I was an Earth Elf, I wished someone could tell me if what I was experiencing was normal. Was the call of the wind and the thrum of magic in my veins what every Earth Elf had experienced before High King Edgar had ordered them killed?
Or was I different?
Was that why he hadn’t killed me too?