“You know things, don’t you? About us? How much do you know?”
She watched me for a few moments like she was thinking about how to answer. “More than I want to sometimes,” she said. Then her foot came off the skid bar.
“Wait.” I didn’t want her to leave. I scrambled to say something. “How’s my face looking? Black and blue?”
She leaned back into the Jeep and squinted a little. Her hair slipped out of its knot and spilled over her shoulder. “You have a few bruises but they’re already getting better.”
“Bet you wish they weren’t.”
“I’m glad you’re healing. But I’ll admit … I didn’t mind seeing you get put in your place.”
She meant Marcus, but she put me in my place all the time. “Daryn…” I felt like I was staring at her, but I couldn’t make myself stop. She was just so steady. And pretty. “I know I wasn’t very cool to you last night. I just didn’t want you in harm’s way.”
“Thanks for saying sorry. I’m pretty sure that’s what that was.”
“You’re correct. Thanks for interpreting my apology.”
She smiled. With the desert glowing gold and amber all around, so much like her, it was a perfect smile. No secrets. No hesitation. Like she’d laid the full measure of herself on me.
It leveled me.
I reached for her hand, which was surprising to both of us. But I was already committed so I wove my fingers through hers, keeping it smooth. Under control. Maybe I even came across a little jaded, going into instant damage control.
Daryn went really still. She stared at her hand in my hand. Hers, perfect and smooth. Mine, bruised and crusted with dried mud. I could’ve probably thought through this a little better. “What are you doing?” she asked.
At least we were on the same page there.
“I just wanted to hold your hand for a second. It’s nothing. I hold hands with people all the time.”
Her smile made a small comeback, but she didn’t look up. “Are you going to hold Sebastian’s hand?”
“Uh, no. The thought hasn’t crossed my mind.”
“Marcus?”
“No.” He was no joking matter. The guy was a problem waiting to happen.
“Gideon, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
That didn’t seem like a very clear directive. “If you want me to stop holding your hand, I will. Do you?”
She met my eyes. Everything stopped. The clouds. The planets. Time. Everything. “There’s something I have to tell you,” she said.
Explosions of possibility went off in my head. “I’m listening.” I ran my thumb over her knuckles. Her skin was so soft. We were connecting. Taking a first step.
Together. Now. Yes.
“I’m starting to get a headache.”
For a second there I thought that I, Gideon Blake, had grossly misjudged the entire situation and annoyed her to the point that I’d given her a migraine.
Then I remembered and shot out of the Jeep, almost knocking her over. “You mean a vision-download headache?” I did a move with my hands like I was shampooing my head. Like that was going to clear things up. “The kind you get beforehand?”
“Yes,” she said, calmly. “That kind.”
“Okay. Okay. Sit down. Sit right there.” I tried herding her into my Jeep but she sidestepped.
“I’m fine, Gideon. Relax.”
“I’m relaxed.” That wasn’t totally true, but I was also completely ready to do anything she needed me to do. I was buzzing with the need to help. “I’m actually trained to handle this kind of thing.”
“You’re trained for this?”
“Definitely. There’s a whole section in the Ranger Handbook. Seeker Assistance Procedures Checklist. SAPC for short. Section One-A of SAPC says, ‘Secure a safe location for the Seeker’—which is you. So, sit. Please, Daryn. I know what I’m doing.”
“Soon,” she said. “I will soon.” She was still smiling, but starting to blink slowly, the way a person does right before they’re going to fall asleep. “Is this scaring you?”
“Does it hurt you?”
“The headaches a little, but not for long.”
“Then I’m not scared.”
“You look worried.”
“Just alert. This is my vigilant face.”
“I actually believe you. Gideon, can you,” another slow blink, “can you keep Marcus and Sebastian away while it’s happening?” She got hung up on the S’s in Sebastian, slurring a little. “It’s not that I’m embarrassed, it’s just…”
“No one’s getting close to you.”
That should’ve sounded overprotective and crazy, but as I stood there, the heat of the desert sun on my back, it just didn’t. I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be. Standing guard. Looking out for her.
“They’re over pretty fast,” she said. “Five minutes, usually.”
“Okay.”
“It probably says that in the Ranger Handbook. Or maybe it says three hundred seconds. You military types are so strange about time.”