Page 50 of What Blooms from Death

With a sigh, I sat up and crawled out of my bedroll—but I only made it a few inches before I froze.

Because Aleksander was rightthere, sitting with his arm draped over a bended knee, mere feet away from where I’d been sleeping. His eyes were open, bright in the dark and focused on something far in the distance.

My entire body flushed hot. Had I been tossing and turning, caught in the throes of my nightmares, while he watched?

I swallowed down my discomfort as best I could, settling back down on my knees. “You’re awake,” I said.

“You’re observant.”

“Have you just been looming threateningly over me the entire time I’ve been asleep?”

“I’m hardly a threat. Especially with him so close,” he said, nodding to a nearby patch of shriveled-up grass where Phantom lay, resting with his head upon his shaggy paws. The dog’s sides rose and fell with the slow breaths of sleep, but one ghostly blue eye occasionally cracked open, watching us.

“And I would stay much farther away from you, if I could,” Aleksander added, “but the more space between us, the more restless my magic becomes. A cruel trick the universe seems to be playing on me.”

On you and me both,I wanted to snap.

But I didn’t, for some reason. I merely got to my feet, stretching, and muttered, “Well, glad I could help settle you down.”

My attempt at a placid tone didn’t fool him.

“You would leave, too, if given the choice,” he said. “You were considering leaving earlier, when you went off totalkwith that Shadow-wielding woman. I could see it in your eyes.”

Lack of sleep and my growing frustration with the situation made my voice savage. “Of course I was considering it. She would likely be a far better guide than you through this realm—and she hasn’t murdered anybody in my family, as far as I know. So why the hellwouldn’tI want her help over yours?”

He shrugged. “Because we agreed to travel with one another?”

“I’ve traveled with you for all of one day. It was hardly a deal set in stone.”

“And loyalty is for fools, eh?” He didn’t sound particularly combative, for once. Tired, more like.

My laughter was still harsh. “Loyalty,” I snorted. “I’ve tried my hand at loyalty over the years. It’s led to more backstabbingsand close-calls than I care to think about. Nearly every person I’ve ever dared to trust has let me down in one way or another.”

“That just sounds like you’re a poor judge of character.”

I huffed out another bitter laugh. “Maybe so. Because here I am, close to you—again—back to travel at your side instead of finding some way to bury you and your magic out of existence, so…yes. Yes, I’d say I’m anabhorrentjudge of character.”

He met my words with a dry chuckle of his own. “I set up that particular jab against me, didn’t I?”

I shrugged.

“You win that point, then. Congratulations.”

“…Are we keeping score?”

“You seemed like the type who would.”

I considered this, tipping my head back and pretending to mentally calculate the points we’d both accumulated thus far. “I’m ahead,” I concluded.

He smirked, crossing his hands behind his head before reclining back against the ground. The movement lifted his shirt, revealing a band of firm stomach.

I forced my stare elsewhere, biting my lip as heat flushed across the back of my neck and tingled over my scalp.

Ridiculous.

But I couldn’t help it; I was suddenly burning up as if I’d never seen a naked man before, even though I’d seen plenty. Too many, really—but one had to deal with loneliness somehow, didn’t they? I wasn’t above trading favors for supplies or information, either, though I was selective with who I engaged with; with a few of my favoritebusiness partners, it was essentially a win-win for me.

It had been too long since I’d had any sort ofbusinessin that department, though, for anyreason.

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