She shouldn’t care that he sounded so grumpy, she didn’t care. Nope, not at all. “I was wondering why you dress in the skins of animals?” Actually she hadn’t been wondering that it all, it was just the first thing that came to mind. “How many squirrels did it take to clothe you today?”
His brow lifted. “And I suppose because you shift into a cat it offends you?”
Now that he mentioned it… “Yes.” She tilted her chin haughtily.
Rolling his eyes, he growled, “Woman, where the bloody hell are you taking me? We’ve been walking nigh close to an hour, the sun will set in minutes, we’ve lost valuable daylight traipsing to nowhere. At this point I doubt in the veracity that you’re actually leading me to the springs. I do not recall the fairy springs being so far. In fact, I’m beginning to suspect you wish to make a meal of me.”
“Good Gods,” she laughed, “here you are the one wearing the carcasses of skinned creatures, and you accuse me of trickery.”
“What does that have to do with anything? You speak nonsense, and you’ve yet to tell me…”
“Tell you what?” She shrieked.
“Anything. Anything at all.”
She twisted her middle toward him so that she could look directly in his face. “What would you like to know, it’s not as if I have anything to hide?”
“How about everything for starters? Starting with how’d you just happened to come by some magical stone that could cure leech vine poison?”
Oh the man was vexing, if he weren’t so cute she would have left him to rot. In fact, the thought of it made her smile. “Why are you so distrustful of me?”
“I’m distrustful of anything in Wonderland. Everyone knows you can only believe half of what you see and none of what you hear within this mad realm.”
She scoffed. “Says who? The learned men of your realm? Or perhaps the crazy beggar who lines the befouled streets of your village? Because we all know we can trust an insane man.” Actually, she’d never admit this to him, but she was beginning to have a little bit of fun. It was just too easy to get under his skin.
He hissed.
If looks could kill she’d be six feet under.
“See, my point has been made. You are maddening. I ask a question, I get no answers, only more nonsense.”
“The stone belongs to me. I bartered it in exchange for the beans I’d found by the Riverside two nights ago to the little old lady who lives in the shoe down the lane.”
“And what would make you do that? That sounds awfully circumspect.”
“You’re just cranky and I really don’t want to talk to you when you’re like this.” She sniffed, twisting back around so that she could laugh without him seeing it. Honestly, she was having way too much fun.
“Woman,” he groused, and muttered beneath his breath.
Covering her mouth with the back of her hand, she giggled. Thankfully she was pretty sure he didn’t notice. She heard him inhale deeply and then a moment later he asked, “Are healing stones in high demand around here?”
She pinned him with her frostiest glare, wishing they weren’t currently walking upside down through an enormous redwood tree trunk, as she was sure the glare wasn’t nearly so frightening when it resembled more of a smile. “Well, considering that you needed one today, I’d say yes it was a very good trade.”
“Which brings me to another question, did you know this was going to happen? That I was going to need a healing stone? Can you read the future? Do you know where Chrysalis is right now?”
Aeric’s lips were nice. The bottom lip slightly fuller than the top, she couldn’t stop thinking about them ever since he’d begged for a kiss. He’d been so pliant and yielding and what she wanted to do was ask him for another. But she doubted that request would go over well. Too bad. She grinned. “You give me entirely too much credit here. I only know what the woods tell me.”
“What exactly is a guardian?”
That was such a loaded question, how to answer something when she had no idea what the answer even was. “One day I woke up and I knew to listen to the words in the wind. Anything I know is because of it.”
“So you’re saying that Cheshire is one of these… Guardians too?”
She laughed. “No, you said that.”
A terrible growl vibrated through his chest.
She held up her hands in a placating fashion. “The truth is I’m not sure how many guardians there are in these woods. There could be twenty, or there could just be me.”
“How could you not know how many guardians there are?”
“Do you know how many huntsmen there are in the world?”
When he didn’t answer she felt the irrational urge to crow about it. But she didn’t, because his flared nostrils and tightly clenched, unbelievably chiseled jaw was good enough for her. But she did clear her throat. Loudly.