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Though, what should he do now? He could carry her across. He had been reluctant to carry her to the bed in the train, but that had been when she had been asleep and unable to tell him if she did not wish it.
Farrendel closed the distance between them and bent to pick her up, opening his mouth as he tried to find the words to ask if she would allow this.
“No, wait!” She backed up yet again, an edge of panic to her voice.
He froze. He had messed up and frightened her. Not his intention. What should he do or say to reassure her?
“Sorry. I just…I can do this. I have to do this. I’m going to be living here, and I have to get used to walking across these branches.” She inched forward, her back stiff, her fingers clenched. Her chin lifted as she faced him, though he was not sure whether she was challenging him or the branch ahead of them.
Did she want help or not want help? She did not wish to be picked up, yet she also seemed like she wanted something from him.
Perhaps if he walked slower this time. Let her ease across the branch at her own pace instead of his.
He eased upright and held out his arm again. This time, she latched onto his upper arm with both hands as if afraid the darkness below would try to tear her away and drag her down.
He probably should say something soothing or reassuring. But his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth, and his brain could not seem to process words.
Instead, he inched across the branch, letting her steady herself between each step before he took the next one.
She took a step, then tottered. Her gaze darted to the drop below, her face somehow paling even further. Her breathing turned into gasps, and she flailed for him as if she were a vine trying to latch on to a tree’s bark to begin twining upward.
It was instinct to put his arms around her, steadying her. She did not flinch away but held him tighter, her knuckles brushing his skin as she gripped his tunic.
She tore her gaze away from the drop to stare instead at his chest, the stiffness in her muscles relaxing a fraction. She swayed closer still.
Could she hear the way his heart was beating faster? His mouth had gone dry as sunbaked earth, his head as light and dizzy as if he were suffering vertigo from the heights they walked.
He could not be…this was not…was it possible he was attracted to her?
She looked up and met his gaze, her eyes more green than blue in the faint light of the nearest globe. And he found himself struggling to breathe, wanting to stay like that with her warm in the circle of his arms.
What magic was this that muddled his thinking so? He forced himself to ease back, putting distance between them. He knew little of her. She knew little of him. Apparently, he was attracted to her, but he did not know if she was attracted to him or if she simply was grateful he had not let her fall.
All of Machasheni’s talk of love and stories and elishinas had gone to his head. That was it.
He finally dragged up the words he should have said at the beginning of the branch. “Relax.”
She eased back, her grip on his tunic releasing as she switched her fingers back to his arm.
He held her elbows to continue steadying her while holding her at a distance. “If you are tense, you will fall.”
She drew in a deep breath and nodded, that set to her chin returning.
Good. Whatever that strangeness from a moment ago, he could put it behind him and ignore it.
He eased backwards along the branch. He did not need to see where he was going, this path familiar, his senses telling him exactly where the branch and his rooms lay.
She took a few more steps, then glanced down, her balance wobbling again.
Farrendel tightened his grip, steadying her. “Do not look down.”
Her gaze latched onto his, her eyes wide. Yet something in her gaze seemed trusting.
That trust stabbed into his chest. How much trust did it take for her to follow him across this branch? He was at no risk of falling, but she apparently was. She was trusting him with her life at the moment, and he was so unworthy of it.
Yet, somehow, she was giving it anyway. She held his gaze as he led the rest of the way across the branch until finally his heel bumped into the step of the porch surrounding the main room. As he stepped up, she followed, gaze unwavering from his. “We are here.”
She blinked, then looked around at her surroundings.
