Page 81 of The Sundered Realms

Vhannor let out a choked laugh. “Oh yes I was.”

“Then why—“

“Liris, I’d just finished coming down on you harshly before we came through the Gate, telling you that I wouldn’t allow you to even cast, even though I know how much—“

“Exactly, so—“

“I was trying not to trap you.”

Liris blinked.

Vhannor looked right at her, their faces suddenly awfully close.

“Jadrhun was trying to recruit you, offering you all the possibilities in the world,” Vhannor said quietly. “I was worried if I said anything you’d think I was taking away your choices.”

Liris gaped. “You were worried I’d want to go with him?”

Jaw tight, he nodded.

“Vhannor, I’m not going to join someone who thinks unleashing demons is the answer to anything! I literally gave up everything I knew so I could fight him!”

“And so you could be free,” Vhannor pointed out quietly.

“Yes!” Liris waved her hands. “I know I made a rash decision at the Gate, but I’m not actually stupid! Jadrhun could have the best intentions in the world and I am still not going to leave with him by choice!”

“Ah,” Vhannor said vaguely.

“Wait.” Liris narrowed her eyes and stabbed a finger into his chest. “Don’t tell me this is part of your whole thing, where you help people and push them away lest they decide they like you? Like no one would choose to stay with you if they had other options?”

Vhannor frowned. “That’s not exactly—“

“Oh wow, you’re blushing, that totally is it. Vhannor.”

He scowled across the street at the diagonal buildings and muttered, “If we’re already at the stage where you can deploy my name with that tone of voice, you might as well call me Vhann.”

Okay that was a dirty trick. Now she was blushing too.

Short names weren’t a convention in Serenthuar, and in many places anyone might call another by one and have it mean nothing at all.

Isendhor was not one of those places.

She couldn’t call him that out loud. It definitely would not come out scowly.

Without looking at him—or the distressing buildings; clear sunset-gradient sky it was—Liris carefully scooted closer on the step until their shoulders bumped. “I don’t want to leave you.”

He nodded; a quick jerk of the head. “Good.”

She was going to strangle him. “And in the unlikely event that changes, I will tell you, like a person who can use words. Can you at least try to talk to me? In there, or at the Gate—“

“Sorry,” he muttered. “That’s just plain habit. I’ve been on my own so long, I’m not used to having a real partner I can actually trust—to think of things I wouldn’t, to do things I can’t—“

“Shry?”

Vhannor winced.

“Have you considered,” Liris asked, “that maybe it’s not your devotion to duty that burns people out of working with you, but that you’re a shitty partner?”

“Yes.”

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