Giles grabbed Lilith’s hand and willed not only his body but also hers to become no more dense than the air they breathed. Once shifted, he hurtled them above the canyon to the safety of the land above.
Gulping and gasping when she shifted back to her human form, Lilith called out, “As promised, dragon.”
Sonora lifted her hand and snatched the water stone from the air. “You ever return, and we will kill you!”
Giles stood on the edge of the bluff watching as the dragon sank back into the water, which receded the instant they’d interned themselves. The land below shifted, becoming nothing more than a dry bed of red sand again.
Collapsing back onto the dirt, Lilith covered her eyes with her forearm. “You tell me again how much Rumpel values your service.”
They were spent by the time they stumbled into the glen. The shelter waiting for them was a hole dug into a massive redwood tree trunk. Lilith opened the door and headed inside, never looking back at him.
They’d not talked much after the battle with the dragon—mainly because Giles was upset. True, her method had gotten them out of a bind, but there was no guarantee that it would work the next time. It’d been reckless folly, but even though he was angry, he was also puzzled. Because the sense of relief he’d felt when he’d latched on to her hand—the way just the feel of her soft palm sliding into his had broken his body out in a wash of goosebumps, how his first thought hadn’t been anger, but the knowledge that Lilith was safe—had overwhelmed him.
And he was still baffled by his emotions, so he said nothing until he was sure he wouldn’t be tempted to admit to either need.
The interior of the tree trunk was sparsely furnished. There were two dwarf-sized beds hewn from the wooden walls. Sitting on a small shelf were a basket of apples and several loaves of freshly baked bread.
Lilith picked one up and took it with her to her bed. She didn’t look at him as she lay back on the bed.
Realizing he couldn’t continue to ignore her indefinitely, he sought neutral ground.
“What is this place? Does it belong to someone?” he asked, realizing she might not give him more than a one-word answer, but unsure whether they should make themselves at home, as she was currently doing.
“Tree elves.” She bit into her bread. “They’ve designed this place for weary travelers. They only ask that you make sure it’s tidy in the morning.”
“Huh.” He’d never heard of such a thing, but she’d rolled over onto her side and was now facing the wall.
It was a clear signal to him that she wished to be left alone.
Sighing, he grabbed an apple and took a bite out of it. Outside the night sky gleamed with thousands of twinkling stars. It was a nice place to rest his head, he supposed.
Giving her one final look, he also turned onto his side and soon they both fell asleep.
They left everything tidy in the morning, and for the next several days their routine was the same. Travel with little talk between them and stop at one of the elven dwellings when night fell.
For a few days he’d tried to extend an olive branch, attempting to help her cross creek beds, or handing her a bunch of wild roses he’d plucked from a bush. He wasn’t sure why he continued to try so hard, but each time he did she would give him a withering look and ignore his proffered hand. He’d thought he’d made some headway with the flowers—she’d stared at them for a long while—but eventually she’d turned her face to the side and jogged away. After that he’d stopped trying to get her to talk to him.
But after two weeks of near silence, Giles slammed his hands down on his thighs. “Are you cross with me, Lilith?”
There was a question in her eyes. “Why?”
“Because you hardly talk anymore.”
She opened her mouth and then quickly clamped it shut. “I was going to tell you nothing, but that wouldn’t be true. I have a question for you, knight. What have I done wrong?”
Giles was no longer angry about the stone—that’d happened days ago and he was mostly over it—but the truth of it was he missed the woman he’d met days ago. The one who made him laugh, even when she wasn’t trying to. The one with a sharp tongue and ready wit, it was nonsense…mostly because they didn’t know one another well, but he’d had fun with her, and up until the dragon he’d thought she’d had fun with him, too. Not that this trip should be about fun, but it didn’t have to be this strained, either.
“Nothing.” He shook his head, knowing he couldn’t tell her how he really felt because it even sounded foolish in his head.
Her lips thinned. “Sure.” Snorting, she pounded a fist into her pillow.
He wanted to ask her what he’d done wrong this time, but he wasn’t even sure where to start. Her silence shouldn’t bother him the way it was, and yet he could not deny that it did.
Frowning, he made to lie down, ready to put yet another day of travel behind him when her voice broke him from his thoughts.