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I have much making up to do with her.But I was also a man of action. I wanted to be able to tell her she was right to be concerned, inform her of my suspicions with examples of his behavior, and offer a solution. And that would only happen if I spoke to Baelen myself.
“Charlie, I wondered if you have time for some training today?” Elizabeth asked. “Ingrid has a library here that we have been offered to use.”
Charlie glanced at me but nodded. “I don’t have any other plans, and my familiar is pissed at me, so I might as well get out from underfoot.”
“We can also discuss that.” She raised one brow in the way a disapproving mother does. I huffed out a laugh. Charlie might not have had a mother growing up, but Elizabeth was displaying all the same behaviors my own mother had. It sent a pang of longing through my chest.
He widened his eyes and replied sarcastically, “Ah, just what I’ve always wanted. Advice about women from my birth mother. Another tick off that life goal list.”
She left, ignoring him, and he nodded at me as he shut the door behind them.
I was left with my soul mate.
But was it really him?
CHAPTER18
ZAIDE
Sigurd looked between us with interest as a cold tension swirled like a frosted window. There were no smiles from my soul mate. He had more interest staring at the protector as though he had the secrets of the realms written on his forehead.
“I’m sure you have much to discuss since you have been apart for so long.” Sigurd coughed and bowed his head. “I will leave you to your conversation.”
Baelen watched him go with assessing eyes before turning in my direction, still not looking me in the eyes. He smiled widely. A smile I’d never seen before. A smile that seemed sinister somehow. “Am I to join you in your cabin now that I’m well?”
“Are you well?” I raised my brow and crossed my arms.
“Of course I am.” He walked to the window and looked out.
“Why won’t you look me in the eyes?” I asked as I crowded him.
He scoffed and said, “You are afraid of them.” In the reflection of the window, I saw his sneer. “I don’t want to make you afraid of me.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
If he truly was concerned about my fear of him, as I had been when we first met, then I wanted to assure him. But I also said it to warn whatever was influencing him. Whether that be his fathers or something else, it was clear this person was not the modest, genteel male I knew.
He turned around, and his red eyes met mine. The dark ring around them was like a smudge and shifted the blood red of his iris to a thin line around the pupil. Like the ink splodges on his skin, it seemed to move, retract.
He smiled, and it wasn’t the sinister one from before. It was small and soft. “Am I to join you? I understand if I am not welcome. You are all much better acquainted with each other than I am with you.”
“You are always welcome, Baelen.” The vulnerability in his words made my heart lurch, but I couldn’t trust this switch. It was more like Baelen, but he was still a proud male. He wouldn’t pout. I continued, “However, there is only one bed. Charlie, Clawdia, and I have been sharing but you may not feel … and there isn’t a lot of room.”
He shrugged and pushed past me to the sofa. “Is there a comfortable lounge chair like this one? I can stay there. I don’t want to be away from my soul mate.”
“Soul mates,” I corrected with a frown as I followed him.
“Yes.” He held up a finger as he picked off lint from the sofa and inspected it. “I want to talk to you about that.”
“About what?”
“I don’t intend to consummate my bond with you.”
My mouth dropped open with surprise, and I flinched back. “What? Of course not. We are still getting to know one another.”
“I mean ever.”
I sucked in a sharp breath and staggered as though a knife had been plunged right into my heart. My eyes stung but I clenched my jaw as I tried not to show more emotion.
