Page 90 of Reckless
A quick smile lifts her lips in understanding. She is familiar with the sound of a subject change. “As if I would be jealous to begin with.”
I sigh in relief at her willingness to play with me. “It’s cute when you pretend you’re not.”
A quick roll of her eyes before she’s running her fingers over the braid. “Not bad, Azer. I’m not fully convinced you haven’t been practicing on someone.”
“Just you, darling.”
“Hmm,” she hums, flipping her hair over a shoulder. “How sweet.”
I glance up at the setting sun. “Let’s get moving. We can make it a little farther before nightfall.”
I pick up her giant hat from where I tossed it onto the ground. She huffs when I push it onto her head and over her eyes. After lifting thebrim to glare at me, she tucks the tail of her braid in before we set off onto the deserted street.
“You’re stepping on my hand.”
Her boot is crushing the fingers I have wrapped around the ladder’s rung. “Oh. Oops.”
“Yeah,oops.”
“I can’t see a thing up here,” she whispers down to me.
The barn we’ve snuck into is swallowed in shadow, and the loft above the stables even more so. We are nearly out of Dor now, and anyone willing to brave the Sanctuary of Souls stops here for a ride through it. Horses bray softly beneath us, settling into their stables for the night.
The shackle rubs against my raw ankle when she pulls herself up onto the loft. I feel my way up the ladder until I’m met with surprisingly sturdy planks of wood. I roll onto my back with a sigh, breathing in the smell of hay and the animals who eat it.
Her shoulder brushes mine as she lies down beside me. The feel of it has my mind racing with the memory of her on my lap. I push the thought aside, just like I’ve done several times now.
“You don’t think anyone saw us sneak in here?” she whispers.
I shake my head, stabbing hay into my hair. “I don’t think there is anyone even out here to see us.”
She’s silent for a long stretch. “I keep hoping he’ll find me.”
Straw continues its stabbing as I turn my head toward her. “Hoping who will find you?”
“Lenny,” she whispers. “Or any of the few people who still care about me.”
“I’m sure they’ve looked for you,” I say, ignoring the growing guilt I refuse to feel.
“Have you killed Mixes? Or just Ordinaries so far?”
I stiffen slightly at the hurt in her voice. “I haven’t found anyMixesin Ilya. Well, haven’t realized what they were if I had. But now that I know what their limited power feels like, I don’t doubt that I will.”
“And then you’ll kill them.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to,” she spits. “They are exactly what you and the rest of the kingdom are afraid of—your powers dwindling.”
I blow out a breath. “They are the beginning of the end of Elites.”
“And what is so wrong with that, if it means everyone gets to live?” she whispers, pleading for me to understand.
Silence surrounds us, interrupted only by the muffled stirring of horses. “Your mother was an Ordinary?” I finally ask.
“Yes,” she says simply. “She died of illness when I was a baby.”
“And your father a Healer?”
