Chapter 114
The only time I had ever participated in a treasure hunt was when I was Amanda, and that one had lasted all of half an hour.
Some nerd from the other team had deciphered all the clues almost immediately and found the treasure before the rest of us had even figured out what we were supposed to be looking for.
I had spent most of the time pretending to search whenever someone was watching me, randomly poking through bushes whenever I got bored and, at one point, abandoning the entire hunt to buy an ice cream from a nearby stall.
So naturally, when I considered Rhaevan-the resident nerd of this world-I assumed this expedition would go more or less the same way.
It did not.
After that embarrassing incident of wardrobe malfunction , I had somehow composed myself and got on with the expedition.
We had searched what felt like countless lakes, streams, ponds and other suspiciously wet places, and we were still nowhere near the clue.
The compass would occasionally glow, making me ridiculously excited, only to fade again a few moments later and crush my hopes.
At this point, I was beginning to suspect the compass was enjoying this.
But as frustrating as the hunt was, there was something else that concerned me far more.
I was getting closer to Rhaevan.
Not physically. Although, considering how often we had to squeeze through narrow paths and climb over rocks together, that was happening too. I meant something else.
The butterflies that had tormented me in the beginning were gone. I wasn't constantly flustered around him anymore. Somewhere along the way, being with Rhaevan had simply become easy.
Far too easy.
I had started looking for him whenever we entered a new place. I noticed when he was tired, when he was hungry, when he was quietly lost in thought. I had begun noticing the little things he did without ever drawing attention to them.
Like how he always made sure I got the better piece of meat whenever we ate at an inn.
How he quietly slipped snacks into my satchel before we left, as though he had somehow decided that I was incapable of remembering to feed myself.
How my water flask was almost always full, even when I couldn't remember the last time I'd filled it.
He never mentioned any of it. He simply did it.
And then there were the teleportations.
I had started looking forward to them. Not because I particularly enjoyed being teleported across the continent- that would have been ridiculous - but because of what happened immediately afterward.
Every time we arrived somewhere, my legs took a moment to remember that they were supposed to function. And every time I staggered, Rhaevan was there before I could embarrass myself properly, one arm steadying me until the world stopped spinning.
Sometimes his hand settled around my waist. Sometimes he caught my arm and pulled me against him. He never made a fuss about it. He would simply wait until I was steady and then let go as though holding me had been the most ordinary thing in the world.
I, unfortunately, had begun to find those moments suspiciously convenient.
Apparently, my dignity had developed a very specific weakness.
I noticed the way he sometimes stared into the distance for long stretches, lost in thought. The way his brows furrowed whenever he examined something during our search. The way he grew quieter when he was tired, though he never complained about it.
And then there was his smile.
Rhaevan smiled whenever I made a joke, even when the joke was terrible-which, to be fair, was most of the time. Somewhere along the way, I had started making increasingly ridiculous jokes around him, not because I thought they were particularly funny, but because I liked seeing him smile.
I liked knowing I was the reason for it.
That realization alone should probably have been enough to make me stop.
It wasn't.
For someone like me, who had never really experienced this kind of care in either of my lives, those small gestures had begun to mean far more than they probably should have.
The snacks. The water. The steadying hand after every teleportation. The quiet smiles.
They mattered.
More than that, I had started measuring my days by him without even realizing it.
A successful search felt better when he was beside me.
A bad day felt easier when he smiled. Even the silences between us had become comfortable, the kind that didn't need to be filled simply because neither of us had anything to say.
Somewhere along the way, his presence had stopped being something I noticed and become something I expected.
And that was when I finally understood what had been happening.
Rhaevan mattered to me.
The realization settled quietly, but it landed with enough weight to make my chest tighten.
That was dangerous.
Very, very dangerous.
Because I knew exactly where feelings like these could lead, and it was a road I had no right to walk down. Not when I had spent so long convincing myself that whatever existed between us was nothing more than friendship.
Not when he was my sister's lover.
I tightened my grip on the strap of my satchel and looked ahead at the endless stretch of water before us.
The compass was glowing again.
Normally, that would have made me excited. Instead, I found myself thinking about him.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Somewhere between the endless search for the Heartforge, the terrible jokes, the quiet meals and all those small acts of care, I had wandered straight into the one place I had promised myself I would never go.
I had been searching for a treasure hidden somewhere in this world.
Instead, I had somehow found something far more dangerous.
My own heart had apparently decided to become the most useless treasure hunter of all.