31. Chapter 31 #2
Aurelia shook her head, offering an apologetic half smile.
“Even after a hundred years, no. You tell yourself you saved the ones you could. That their lives mattered, and that you did everything you could have,” she paused, looking to the stars that shone overhead.
“But some nights… you only remember the ones that you lost.”
Isla nodded, her eyes flicking over Aurelia. Her fatigue had deepened, pulling at her fair features even more than it had when they’d first begun healing the injured. Aurelia offered her a lazy half smile, “Not you too. I don’t need anyone else worrying after me like Vaelin does.”
Isla blushed, dropping her gaze. “So are you and Vaelin…?” she trailed off.
She chuckled a tired laugh. “Absolutely not.”
“Why?” Isla blurted, then felt her blush deepen with embarrassment as she tried to backpedal. “I mean — you seem really close. I guess I just wondered.”
Aurelia brushed her blonde locks over a shoulder and shrugged, indifferent.“We’ve known each other forever,” she said, “But it’s not like that. Never has been, never will be.”
Isla smiled, thinking of Oren. “I have a friend like that back home.”
Aurelia returned the smile, shrugging again. “He’s pretty, but… not prettier than me,” she joked. “I guess he's just not really my type.”
Isla smiled, something like relief washing over her. “What is your type?”
“Bad decisions,” Evric quipped from behind them.
Isla jumped at the voice. Beside her, Aurelia narrowed her eyes at the firewielder, whose lopsided grin had returned.
“If that's true, why have you and I never had a torrid affair?” she inquired.
Evric smirked, eyes shining with mischief as he threw an arm around her shoulders. “Oh, I’m sure our time will come, Aur.”
Aurelia rolled her eyes, unmoved, and Isla felt another grin on her lips as they reached the campsite.
Evric shrugged, looking directly at Isla and winking roguishly, “Maybe I’ve just been… distracted.”
Isla felt her eyebrows lift, surprised by his blatant flirtation, but was saved from responding as a sudden clatter cracked through the air.
She turned to see Vaelin, having dumped an armful of kindling on the ground.
He glared at Evric, a dangerous storm in his eyes, waves of tension wafting from him.
Evric grinned at his friend. “Everything okay, boss?”
Vaelin ground his teeth, saying nothing. Isla glanced between the two, confused, as Aurelia pressed her lips together, fighting to hide a smile as she lowered herself gingerly to the ground.
“Make yourself useful,” Vaelin growled at Evric after an awkward beat of silence had passed, jerking his chin at the pile of lumber. Isla’s eyebrows rose at the sharpness in his tone, but Evric simply sketched a bow and sauntered over to collect the discarded wood at Vaelin’s feet.
“Who’s on first watch?” Isla asked, silently dreading denying her body the rest her muscles ached for.
“I can do it,” Aurelia yawned, shaking her head as if to shake the fatigue that tugged at her.
Vaelin narrowed his eyes at her. “Absolutely not. You used too much,” he clipped. “Both of you,” he added, turning away before Isla could meet his eyes. He hadn’t looked at her since they’d made the bridge crossing, and something sharp twisted in her chest at the realization.
“You both rest,” Vaelin continued over his shoulder. “Evric and I will cover watch tonight. We’ll need you both at full strength when we reach the sands.”
“Thank you,” Isla murmured, watching a muscle tick in Vaelin’s jaw as he nodded stiffly, still avoiding her eyes. He turned, disappearing down a nearby trail, no doubt to find higher ground for a watch post. Isla dropped her eyes to the rocky earth, a dull ache rolling through her.
Aurelia bumped her shoulder into Isla’s, smiling gently.
Isla shook her head, fixing her eyes on the earth. “I think he’s mad at me,” she murmured.
“I really don’t think that’s it,” Aurelia replied, dryly.
Isla said nothing, kicking at a small rock that had made its way into the space where she planned to sleep.
“I’ll be right back,” Evric announced, as a blazing fire roared to life where he’d piled the lumber. Isla looked up to see his broad figure retreating up the same trail Vaelin had taken.
Vaelin sat on the cold ground where he had found a rise from which he could watch over their campsite, pressing the palms of his hands against his eyelids until tiny bursts of light flashed.
Isla's face swam in his mind's eye, terror threading throughout her body like a fast-acting poison as she trembled, wholly convinced of her impending death. He could have drowned in the green seas of her eyes, wide and fearful as they latched onto his like a lifeline. When he’d turned to see her frozen, more than twenty paces back on the bridge…
He had never felt fear like that. Paralyzing. Crippling.
He blew out an unsteady breath, bowing his head to his forearms where they sat propped on his knees.
He barely felt the bite of the mountain air, nor the chill of the rocky earth as it seeped into his bones through his clothing.
He had never felt colder than he had in that moment. Nothing could ever compare.
Vaelin had lived long enough to know what it was to experience attraction, lust, love, and loss. This felt reminiscent of those, but jarringly different in a way he couldn't yet articulate. And whatever it was, he felt it with a bone-deep certainty he’d never known. And that vision they had shared…
He ran his hands through his hair, releasing a groan that seemed to stretch through the night.
"That bad, huh?”