Page 106 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
“Your fire didn’t erupt for you that night?”
“It did.” I plucked a blade of tall grass, peeled off one of its leaves. “At the end, when they were going to kill me.”
“Yet you assume none of the bats brought news of your powers back to their master?”
“Well, they couldn’t. I killed them all.”
His eyes lifted to meet mine—froze. “You killed bogeybats?”
“Three of them.” I tore off another leaf with a satisfying slice. “Didn’t mean to. The fire just came out of me.”
Pete’s brow knit as he tossed Sionna’s breakfast’s innards onto the coals. They sizzled and popped—as the bats’ charred bodies had done on that terrible night. I recoiled from the memory. From what I’d had to do last night.
“Shorty, you were defending yourself.” Pete’s voice mellowed. “You shouldn’t feel badly about that.”
I gulped a mouthful of emotions and asked, “Is that what you used to tell yourself?”
A small smile lifted his mouth. “Aye.”
“Did it work?”
He loosed a breath. “No. Never.”
His words hung heavy between us, but I appreciated his bluntness after a lifetime of lies.
“Thank you,” he murmured. When I blinked back at him, his molasses cookie eyes were warm, friendly—the eyes of the man in the tavern. “For coming back for me even when you had every reason to let me die. Still, you did, and I’m breathing today because of you and your fire.”
I flushed, his gratitude unexpected. “Well, you risked your life to save me first—after I aggravated you every minute of every day.” I giggled at his beleaguered look. “Figured I owed you one.”
Blading Sionna’s meat off her catch’s bones, he asked, “Does that mean you’ll quit harrowing me?”
“Of course not. If you’re still carting me to the Shadow Palace, then I’ll whine the whole damn way. I won’t make this easy on you, bud.”
He gusted with laughter—and exasperation.
“I don’t think you want me to, anyway.” I smirked sideways at him around my twirling blade of grass.
Pete’s grin spread like honey butter on warm buns. So delicious. So decadent. “Thought you said you didn’t know how to flirt, Shorty.”
My face flashed hot.I’mnotflirting.
Am I?
Pete snickered, handing Sionna her breakfast. She chomped it down in two bites.
“Why don’t you go cool those blushing cheeks in the stream?” He pointed his knife toward my backpack. “Wash all that grime off while I finish cooking breakfast.”
Desperation for a bath banished any embarrassment, and I leapt for my backpack—then stopped just short.
Pete raised a hand to heaven. “I promise I’ll keep my back to you.”
After several more beats of narrowed staring, I snatched my bag and scurried toward the brook. It babbled over smooth rocks under a breathy cloud of mist. Glorious and refreshing.
“But I can’t promise I won’t peek.”
Stumbling, I glanced back to find Pete grinning over his brawny shoulder.
I smothered my self-consciousness and kept on. Though I couldn’t help pouting at his soft, galling laugh.
