Alone in her room in the inn, Corabelle had little to do but bake in the summer heat. She couldn’t even rest on the bed. Touching fabric made her instantly sweat, the material clinging uncomfortably to her skin. She almost missed it when she had nothing to wear, at least then the heat wouldn’t shrink her clothes to her skin.

  Opening the window let in a breeze but with it came a heavy humidity.

  Zaramir had offered her a spell to put her to sleep, to wane off the hours of inactive boredom, but she declined.

  She didn’t even want to rest, there was no sense now that sleep was out of the picture.

  Zaramir had pointed out that they would need to be at full strength to fight the elemental, especially now that it was summer. A wild one would be at its strongest and most difficult to sense coming.

  So against her protests, they got rooms for the night.

  At the very least, he left her with something to do. As he retired to his room, he hastily scratched out the instructions for basic water spells; One to summon water, the other to mould it.

  The instructions were highly simple though, so simple she was surprised he’d never offered them to her before. Regardless, she practiced, once nearly flooding the hallway from under her door before he could recall the water. She was worried for a moment that someone might see, but no on ever came to question it.

  It took less than an hour to have an expert grasp on them. After which, she was left staring at the half moons, waiting, ‘resting’ in the wooden desk chair. While the chair was still uncomfortable, it wasn’t insufferable like the bedsheets.

  She watched the moon crawl across the sky like a lazy snail as she counted the stars in the night sky to pass the time.

  Finally morning came, turning the sky shades of purple, that gave way to red and pinks. Before the sky turned blue though, Zaramir was at her door, telling her it was time to leave.

  Despite being ecstatic to have anything at all to do, she kept up her cold fa?ade. Eventually he would give in, she knew it, and just tell her the truth. Then this could all be over.

  While she didn’t want to be alone, it was better than being somewhere she wasn’t wanted and, worse, being lied to about it.

  A couple hours into their walk, Zaramir spoke, “I’m assuming you learned the spells I gave you?”

  She jumped slightly, startled by the sudden sound resonating through the dull hum of the woods. Keeping her voice steady, she replied, “I did.”

  “Did you have any trouble with them?”

  “No.”

  “I didn’t expect you would,” It was a moment before he spoke again, “It has been nearly a year since the accident at the House. Any wild elementals that would still be around will likely be approaching critical instability. If it seems to be the case, I ask you to stay back. You can help from a distance if you must, but don’t get close. If it fully destabilizes before I can bind it, there will be a blast of pure magic. I have been around long enough to survive it, but even for me it would be highly unpleasant. You are still too new and would likely not.” There wasn’t even a hint of fear in his voice, not a single morsel of concern for himself or her.

  She slowed down her pace, feeling an uncanny deja-vu but off, like a nightmare in the twilight of sleep. This wasn’t right. Even if he didn’t want to spend eternity with her, she knew there was no way she earned this amount of disdain in this sort of time.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Zaramir quickly gained distance on her, as she stopped dead in the path.

  The last time he warned her about the elementals, he was so concerned, tense, and fearful. He forced her to stay back. While, granted, she had certainly been more fragile as a human, this wasn’t a matter of her new strength and ability. It was more as though he simply didn’t care. The words were a suggestion, and barely even that, more like a flat statement about inevitable fact.

  He couldn’t possibly hate her enough for a change this quick. He couldn’t just suddenly not care if she died. Eternity was long, perhaps too long to hold on to a friend, but she knew he’d never wish harm upon her, even if he had grown bored of her.

  Zaramir halted, realizing how far she’d fallen behind, “You stopped.”

  She stared at him, feeling uneasy. He certainly looked no different. His movements were still as graceful and proud as ever. He walked with his head high, posture impeccable. He looked no different. Though he had seemed to have cut his hair sometime in the last few weeks, it was back to the same style it had been when they met. She hadn’t noticed the change until this moment.

  After a long moment, he finally questioned, though insincerely, “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine. Just…” She muttered. “Do you remember the name of my goat from the grove?”

  His head cocked to the side, though there was no curiosity behind his eyes, just a frightening blankness, “The one I killed? You called her Neve if I’m not mistaken.”

  She had known it was impossible that he was an impostor, but she had to settle her mind. Unfortunately now there was a new problem.

  What is wrong with him?

  “Yes,” She replied, choosing her words carefully trying to gauge his response. “Her name was Neve. Did you ever feel bad about killing her?”

  “I did.”

  “Do you still?” She inquired.

  He huffed, “Why these questions?”

  She answered his question with one of her own, “What is wrong?”

  “We’re stopped for no reason. You’re wasting time.”

  “What is wrong with you?” She repeated. “What happened? Ever since I agreed to stay you’ve treated me like you hate me, so what’s the matter with you?”

  There it was again, that same twitch as before, that same tension. A fraction of a moment where something slipped through. This time it lasted a bit longer but fell away nonetheless, yielding the consuming blankness.

  “There is a lot happening right now.” He told her. “I can assure you that I don’t hate you, I’m not upset with you, and I don’t want you to leave. I simply have a lot of things I must do, not all of them you’ll understand nor could I even tell you .Just know that there is a problem I must solve before things can return to how they were, but I ask that you not press this matter further.”

  His work. She should have known.

  She was new to the Fae, just freshly created. Not strong, not trained. She should have known she wouldn’t be privy to the intricate knowledge of his work that, from what she could gather, was far more advanced than much of his, their, species. Despite that fact, she was still upset he hadn’t at least told her so sooner.

  “Alright,” She agreed. “But next time, please, just tell me as much.”

  He gave a short nod.

  Though, as they continued their walk, she couldn’t help but shake the feeling that there was more to this than even that. He had always told her, at the very least, that what he was doing was secret. He’d never hidden that fact.

  So why the sudden secrecy around the idea of his work? It didn’t make sense. Nor did the subtle hostility. Perhaps he was just feeling stressed, pressured by the Fae to hurry his work, Maybe his nerves were just worn thin. Or maybe it was something else entirely. Though she couldn’t even imagine what. What would be so secret that she wouldn’t even be allowed to know that she wasn’t allowed to know about it?

  Honoring his request, she decided to not question it out loud, but the nagging feeling still clawed at the back of her mind. She just had to hope it'll blow over soon and then, maybe, she’d get some answers. Hopefully he was telling the truth and soon things would return to normal. Even if she never got answers, she’d be happy with that much.