Her breath caught softly at the question, though she would not show it.
“Leaving your home?” he continued, his voice lower now, more deliberate. “The creature that hunts these woods?”
He stepped closer, not enough to threaten, but enough that she felt the presence of him more keenly than before.
“Or what you do not understand… what you feel for me?”
The words struck deeper than they should have.
Bria stared at him, caught between denial and something far less certain. “You presume too much.”
“Do I?” he asked, his dark eyes focused on her soft blue ones.
Her heart betrayed her then, beating faster, her thoughts no longer as steady as they had been moments before.
“I know what I am,” she said, grasping for what had always made sense to her. “And I know where I belong.”
“Do you?” he challenged. “Or have you simply never been given reason to question it?”
She shook her head, though the certainty she reached for did not come as easily now. “This is not a matter of questioning. It is a matter of sense.”
“And sense would have you walk away from what you do not yet understand?” he asked.
“Aye,” she answered firmly. “It would.”
Silence settled between them again, though it felt different now—less certain, more unsettled.
Bria drew in a breath, steadying herself. “I am returning to Willowmere. If you choose otherwise, that is your decision.”
She moved again, determined this time.
Kaelan’s hand tightened around hers. Not enough to hurt, but enough to stop her.
“You go where I go,” he said, leaving no room to argue.
“There is no need for this,” she protested, pulling lightly against his hold. “We must return home. It is the wise thing to do. Whatever this creature is, it moves away from us.”
His gaze turned briefly toward the forest ahead. “And the farther it goes, the more difficult it will be to find again.”
“That is not our concern,” she insisted. “Others will deal with it. The king’s men?—”
“This cannot wait,” he insisted.
Bria was adamant. “It can and it should.”
He almost smiled, seeing her stubborn side for the first time, though it would never match his own tenaciousness.
“The trail is fresh,” he said. “If we lose it now, we may not find it again.”
Her frustration grew. “You speak as though this creature is yours to hunt.”
“It is mine to track.”
“And what will you do if you find it?” she asked.
“That is yet to be determined,” he said.
“That is no answer.”
