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I raised both eyebrows this time. “Was that an admission of something?”
“Nope. Not in the least.”
“I consider it a huge kindness for Raven to entrust me with such a concept. How will I ever repay her?”
Questions like that incited a round of guilt. For it was a kindness bestowed upon my crown. I’d barely established myself in this realm and yet Raven was willing to trust me with something magnificent for her pack.
So, why in the great name of the Star Goddess had I treated one of her pack members with gaping rudeness?
Izdor grinned and tapped my hand the same way I had just done to him. “Don’t think too hard about it, Galanthia. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“It’s certainly something to be called upon by Raven for a grand project.”
“I meant about the wolf man.”
I laughed. “Would you stop calling him that? You’re making him out to be a Hollywood monster of some kind.”
“You seem to be treating him as such.”
It was a reasonable observation, and I deeply loathed the implication that I thought of Xavier as a monster. Yet the more I pried my feelings for the logic, the more my body resisted discovery of the facts—which were nonexistent at this point.
I couldn’t figure out why I despised the man. I simply despised him.
Never in my many years of existence had I ever encountered such a strange occurrence.
“Why don’t you go home and sleep on it?”
Evidently, Izdor had been speaking for some time. It was just now that I had tuned in to his frequency, having been lost in my head on a supposition.
I nodded. “Yes, that might do the trick.”
“Don’t sweat it too much, Galanthia,” Izdor recommended. “I believe the three of us have just become susceptible to the charms of Earth.”
“You mean it’s rubbing off on us?”
He beamed. “Precisely.”
He had a decent point, and I was more than glad to chalk it up to such nonsense instead of dwelling on undeniable facts. After bidding farewell to my friend, I cautiously left the hospital, noticing that the lobby and the sidewalk outside were clear of pack members.
Namely, the one member who I didn’t wish to see.
Never mind his appearance, his fiery spiked hair and hazel-blue eyes. His height, which most earthly men would have gawked at as particularly tall, actually met mine. When I gazed upon him, I didn’t need to pivot my head as if I were addressing a child. To be met on such a level was rare, something only reserved for other Elderlings of my stature—or in this case, rather tall humans.
He wasn’t exactly human per se, yet he was more human than wolf. Whatever animalistic tendencies resided in him weren’t apparent other than his scent, which was a mixture of musky creature and peppermint. If I hadn’t known better—meaning, if I hadn’t visited the very mountains of this dimension myself—I would have presumed it a cologne of some kind.
But no, it was his natural scent. It was something that carried through the air whenever he was nearby, alerting me to his presence in an almost annoying fashion. And yet, despite this occurrence, and the repetitive nature of it, I had physically collided with the man.
As though Fate herself were up to something with my perpetual run-ins.
Aggravated by the notion, I jogged the rest of the way to the house and locked myself inside, grabbing a fluffy blanket on the way to my room. Luxuries weren’t readily available in Estaria, and not because we were short on such things. War didn’t necessitate luxury. So, being on Earth meant indulging in ways that were practically foreign.
Without war, without my whip at my side at every second, I felt lost. Amid the chaos was a purpose I wore well, yet living a stationary life in Silverdawn made me feel like I was missing something. A piece of me was out there somewhere. Beyond the lush crimson curtains, the green throw pillows, the dashing four-post bed with Egyptian cotton sheets and secret panels housing my memories, there was something.
What could it possibly be that I didn’t have access to here?
Cloud-like pillows cradled my head and upper body. I cast my eyes skyward, where a ceiling made of forest-green silk rustled from the air blowing through the vent. Once my hands were folded on my belly, I drifted off, absorbed by a cataclysmic dream.
Muscles ached. Head throbbed. Every one of my senses was heightened. Shame hovered over me like a dark cloud as I headed for a break in the trees. I could hear myself panting and could feel my heart thudding violently between gasps of air. Everything hurt, yet I knew I couldn’t stop, not until I had gotten to the other side.
