Page 56 of The Anointed's Paladin

“I don’t have time for—” I said, standing up to leave, but Talon easily tackled me again. Shit, he was strong.

I snarled, swinging and clipping his ear. He raised an eyebrow. Well, there were other ways to get away. I let the cold wash over me as I prepared to vanish, but Talon summoned the same espial light he had during our fight with the drisands. It’d let him see me even when invisible. Little shit.

“You had your fun,” he said firmly, “but now you’re going to help me.”

“Oh, come on.” I put on a winning smile. “It wasn’t justmyfun. You enjoyed that too.”

“That’s beside the point,” he said mildly, scratching his neck. Shit. Nothing. I fiddled with the brush. For some reason, panic was welling up inside me. Was I supposed to do this?

“This is stupid,” I snarled, snatching the soap and shoving the shirt into the water. Asshole.

Why was he making me do this? Usually, people were tripping over their feet to be nice to me after I fucked them like that. Shit, I couldn’t believe I’d had that moment of weakness with him.

“There.” I shoved the clean shirt towards him. I stalked off towards my spot, and he didn’t stop me. Had I done something wrong? Had he not liked what we did?

Nidori landed beside me, peering up. “You all right?” she asked, putting a hand on my knee. Shit. That was even worse. I felt a lump in my throat.

“Fine, sweetheart. I’m just being an ass, I guess,” I said, trying to put on a smile.

“Why are you two fighting?” she asked, frowning. “I saw you together, and you looked like you had something…special.”

“That’s just how sex looks.” I grabbed my necklace, running my finger on the smooth edge. She’d been spying again? Cheeky little thing.

“I don’t understand. The way you were looking at each other, it was like nothing else existed in the world. Like you existedforeach other. How can you fight after that?”

My face settled into a scowl, and I just grunted. Because, maybe, it sucks to realise that it’s all a fucking lie afterward?

Nidori folded her arms, and thankfully, she buzzed away.

I heard her arguing with Talon in a low voice, and then a yelp. I looked up to see her dragging him towards me. She was only managing to move him because she had fistfuls of his hair that he was trying to get her to stop pulling.

“Ow! Nidori, really?” said Talon as he tried to swat her away. He yelped again as she ripped a few strands of his hair completely out, anddespite my bad mood, I cracked a smile at that. She stopped in front of me.

“Now,” she said, panting, “you two. Stop fighting.”

“We’re not fighting,” we said together.

She crossed her arms and glared at us. “Somethingis wrong. Sort it out.”

We were both silent for a minute. I wasn’t sure what she was expecting. It’s not like—

“Fine,” Talon said grumpily. He sat down in front of me and tucked his hair behind his ear. His shoulders were hunched, and he looked at the ground. I steeled myself for whatever blame he was going to throw my way.

“You did owe me for the shirt. But I shouldn’t have forced you like that. I should have talked to you about it.”

It took me a second to compose myself. Talon was truly something else. What kind of person just…admitted they were wrong like that?

“Yeah, what the fuck?” I managed. He seemed to take that as an agreement.

“I was mad. At you. But that’s not an excuse.” He looked up at me, seeming genuinely upset.

“Mad? What on earth were you mad about?” I asked, incredulous, folding my arms. “You were pretty fucking happy ten minutes ago.” An uncomfortable feeling welled in me. Had he just been pretending? He’s the one who came up with a safe word for that exact scenario.

“You just…left.”

I froze.

His eyes, filled with pain, darted down. “Sorry,” he added quickly. “I know I’m bad at this. And you had every right to leave. I was just…not expecting you to. Which is dumb.”

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