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I rambled, but he only stared blankly, and I heard myself rambling some more, desperate to ease the tension. “And I was pretty nervous after the Synod, and would you believe I even thought I saw Lilac?”
I waited for him to laugh, or crack a smile, or something. But if I’d thought his features were frosty before, they just about crackled now, cold and hard as a glacier.
“What did you say?” he demanded, slowly enunciating each word.
I flailed nervously. “I saw a girl, and for a second I thought it was Lilac. Remember, my old roommate who I beat in the Directorate Challenge? Funny, right?”
Alcántara turned from me, shutting me out. To him, I no longer existed. “Ready the boat,” he snapped to Carden. “I’ll return shortly. ”
And then he disappeared. No Good job, no Thank you, no nothing. He didn’t even look my way, as if by pretending I wasn’t there, maybe he could just make me go away.
It knocked the wind from me. “What just happened?”
I felt Carden appear at my back. “Relax, lass. ”
“Easy for you to say. You have fangs. ” I paced the beach. “He knows. ”
“About the bond? If he knew, you’d no longer be standing. ”
What had I gotten myself into? “You said you’d explain it all. Does this whole bonding thing mean we’re, like, married now?”
“It means we’re…bonded. It’s a thing to be experienced, not explained. ”
I glared.
“And,” he continued, “we are not married. Though we can always enjoy—”
“No, thank you. ” I put my hand up to stop wherever that sentence had been going. I had enough on my mind without going there in my head.
To my total consternation, the guy winked at me. “As you wish. ”
I rolled my eyes. “Look, we need to figure this out before he gets back. ” Alcántara was scaring me, but could he be as bad as the vampires we’d just fled? He’d said they were the bad guys, and what sort of evil creatures killed a bunch of priests, anyway? Maybe he was just jealous I’d brought Carden. “Do you think his mood is some sort of a guy thing?”
“Don’t work yourself into a lather. Something about that girl you mentioned upset him. ”
“Lilac? That’s preposterous. I killed her. ” Didn’t I? But of course I did. “And I’m pretty sure it was because of his help that I was able to do it. ”
“I was killed, too, once. And yet here I stand. ”
I stared dumbly at that. I guess if you lived forever, you got pretty nonchalant about things like killing and death.
“Don’t hurt yourself thinking, little one. ” He scruffed my hair and then wandered up the beach into the cave. When he came back out again, he was carrying the dinghy—by himself. He held it over his head effortlessly, as if toting no more than a giant basket.
I hopped to my feet. “Do you need help with that?”
“From a big, strong girl like yourself?” He smiled. “I can manage. ”
I scowled. If he was trying to take my mind off things, he was succeeding. “I’m stronger than I look. ”
“You’re but an infant, new to the world. ” The gleam in his eyes told me he was trying to get a rise out of me.
Unfortunately, his taunts weren’t good enough to distract me. I followed him down to the shoreline and sat down, battling the feeling of defeat that kept threatening to swallow me. Shutting my eyes, I tipped my face up, desperate to feel the sun warm my skin. “Sure thing, old man,” I said, my mind a million miles away.
The skies had cleared a little bit, and watery light cut its way through the clouds. It should’ve been shining down on me as I made my escape, sailing into the horizon.
Carden had a boat. Check that. We were bonded—we had a boat.
Escape was still an option.
