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Something palpable buzzed between us, and goosebumps rose on my arm. “Oh.”
He reached towards me, like he’d tuck back a lock of hair that had tumbled free and curved along my cheek. My breathing stopped. If he touched me, all the resolve I’d held in the last day would fall apart. He yanked his hand back and slid it into his pocket. “We need to leave. We’re behind schedule and the rest of our team is meeting us.”
“There are more members of this team?”
He laughed, the tension that had strung between us falling away with it. “A few. Let’s ask Elisa if she has something you can wear.”
CHAPTERNINE
NEIA
The restof our group were not waiting for us in our pre-arranged location.
We were hours late, of course.
Thanks to the siren who currently wore a trim brown skirt over a pair of fitted pants that belonged to Elisa. The pants were slightly short on her, revealing the leather of my pair of spare boots I’d given to her. Sai said he wanted her to stand out less, but with the way his eyes kept training on her I wasn’t sure it had worked—for him at least. Luz waited with them, sitting on a low branch of a tree, their leg undulating like a vine.
Elisa and I sat away from the others on a boulder near the fence that hedged around the town. Pinned notices on it rattled together in a breeze. We were supposed to drop Lira here. Instead, she stood by Sai, fidgeting her fingers, lips pinched together, her tremendous blue eyes darting about the clearing as if it would magically produce answers to all our problems. Sai stepped in closer to her even as his focus remained on the path where the rest of our group should stride up any minute now. It was like she drew him to her without either of them realizing it. Sai’s behavior had been erratic since they’d met, and it only got worse the more time they spent together.
“You’re staring.” Elisa crunched into an apple and the curves of her lips molded around it before her tongue flicked out to capture a stray fleck of the fruit. She sat close enough to me that strands of her auburn hair brushed over my shoulder.
My mind shifted to more pleasant imaginings, and heat rose to the surface of my skin. I pressed my hand against her back to feel the weight of her body. “I suppose I was.”
“Concerned for Sai or about Lira?”
“Both?”
She leaned in, kissed me, and allowed her lips to linger, the taste of her mouth sweet like the fruit. “What is it?”
I brushed a thumb over her cheek and couldn’t help but smile. “Do you see how he acts around her?”
“Yes. It’s because she's his Atalla. I already told you.”
Dark clouds pressed against the sky, and wind whipped from a storm that threatened. Elisa’s curls danced out on it, and I snagged one and wound it around my finger. “I love this romantic side to you… even if I don’t agree with it.”
“Think about it. The old ones always say those with the deepest magic have the strongest bond to their Atalla. Look at the two of them.” Her eyes flicked to where Sai had stepped even closer to Lira, her shoulder resting against his chest now. “They’ve barely known each other a full day.”
“That,” I hissed, “is my point exactly. This job requires focus and look at him. He’s… as distracted as one can be.”
Elisa shrugged. “I’d be happy if he found someone. He stays too alone. He scarcely has friends outside of you.”
“I would also be happy for him… as soon as this snatch is done.”
“Are you worried if we can trust her or not?”
“Nah. If Luz trusts her, I do.”
Elisa gave a nod that swept more of her curls over her shoulder and out against the darkening sky. There was no arguing with that—you couldn’t fool Luz.
“Of course, Lira’s different from most of our group… but so am I, I suppose.”
“Every one of us in this group is different.” Elisa rocked forward and kissed my nose. “And I love you for who you are.”
I softened at her words. I loved her unconditionally and exactly as she was, so I understood those feelings. “Being different can be dangerous.”
“Dangerous… Sounds exciting.”
Her voice had taken on a husky tenor, and I cleared my throat hard. God, if my desire for her wasn’t a distraction itself sometimes. The point I was making was about Lira. We didn’t know her magic or how much she understood it. She seemed uncertain. Now we just pulled her into this job that required hyper precision. The wind crackled the notices on the fence, and one yanked free, revealing another. I jumped up and ripped it loose. “Sai, come look at this.”
