Bria looked away at once, pretending interest in the fire. “I am a healer. Worry comes easily to us.”
But even to her own ears, the excuse sounded weak.
Kaelan watched the faint color rise in her cheeks and felt an unfamiliar warmth stir low within him. Fear surrounded her here, pressed against her from every shadow in Driochmor, and still her concern turned toward him, toward his well-being.
It set a stirring in him. One he welcomed.
“You should sit closer to the fire,” he said, seeing her shiver.
Bria hesitated only briefly before moving nearer. The warmth touched her chilled skin at once, easing some of the cold that had settled deep into her bones since crossing into Driochmor.
Kaelan remained standing for a moment longer, listening.
The forest whispered in ways most would never hear. Branches settling. Creatures moving through undergrowth. The distant rustle of wings.
Nothing was near and nothing threatened… for now.
His gaze shifted briefly to Bria.
She sat with her hands loosely clasped before her, though tension still lingered in the line of her shoulders. Fear remained within her, but she fought hard not to surrender to it.
He admired that more than she knew.
Bria glanced up suddenly, catching him watching her.
Neither looked away at once as the fire crackled softly between them.
“You are thinking again,” she said quietly.
A faint smile touched his mouth before fading. “You notice much.”
“I need to. It helps me understand people.”
“And do you understand me?”
The question caught her unprepared.
Bria lowered her eyes briefly, considering it honestly before answering. “I do not think you mean me harm.”
Something in Kaelan eased at those words, though he gave no outward sign of it.
“But,” she added softly, “I think there are truths about you that would frighten me if I knew them.”
His gaze remained fixed on her. “Perhaps, or perhaps they would simply change how you see the world.”
Bria looked back toward the fire, unsettled not by the words themselves but by the strange feeling that he believed them completely.
Outside, the wind shifted suddenly.
Bria stiffened. A low sound drifted through the trees. Not a growl but unsettling just the same.
Kaelan’s attention sharpened.
The sound came again, distant this time, carrying through the forest like something searching.
Without thinking, Bria reached for Kaelan.
Her fingers wrapped snugly around his hand. The moment skin touched skin, calm flowed through her again, quieting the fear threatening to rise.
