Page 76 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom
But she wasn’t sure.
That burned more than I could admit.
Footsteps crunched behind me, deliberate but unhurried. I didn’t turn.
“Gonna break a tooth or something if you keep clenching your jaw like that.”
“Go away, Sadie.”
She stepped up beside me, arms crossed. “Look, I’m not here to argue. I just didn’t want you to walk into a monster’s mouth because you were too busy sulking.”
I glared at her sidelong. “I’m not sulking.”
She snorted. “Sure.”
We walked in silence for a few breaths. The trees thinned, the jewel-toned foliage slowly giving way to something darker. Rot clung to the edges of leaves. The moonlight, what little there was, began to bend in strange ways.
Sadie finally sighed. “She’s scared, Vareck. She didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”
“She meant it exactly the way it sounded.” I shoved a low-hanging branch out of the way. “She’s unsure. I get it. But I’ve been patient. I’ve given her space. And all I needed was for her to say she wanted this. That in the end she would choose us. Even if she wasn’t ready to right now.”
Sadie didn’t argue. She knew I wasn’t wrong.
“You need to cut her a little slack,” she said after a pause. “Meera is crazy about you, but this thing you guys have is permanent. It scares her.”
I ground my teeth. “You think I don’t know that?”
“Intellectually? Almost certainly,” Sadie said. “But the way you’re acting doesn’t exactly screamunderstanding,if you know what I mean.”
“I’ve been understanding,” I snapped.
She raised a brow. “You sure about that?” I opened my mouth to say as much but she held up a hand. “She’s twenty-five, Vareck. In an ideal world she’ll live over five-hundred years. How long have you known each other?”
“That’s irrelevant?—”
Sadie barked a laugh, cutting me off. “It’s entirely relevant. Look, I get it, my sister is pretty fucking awesome. She’s not perfect, though. Give her time to figure it out,please.”
I stopped, turned to face her fully. “You think I’d walk away? You think I’d give up on her?”
“No,” she said without hesitation. “But I think you’re about to do something reckless that may make the decision for you.”
My fists clenched. “She doesn’t understand what she means to me, Sadie. What this bond means. I’ve already chosen her. There’s no going back. But she’s still deciding if I’m worth the risk. That”—I broke off, swallowing past the tightness in my chest. “That hurts.”
Sadie’s expression softened just a little. “You are worth it and I think she knows that. Her heart is yours. I just think her brain needs some time to catch up.”
“What if time isn’t on our side?”
“What do you mean?”
I sighed heavily. “I mean that bonds break down. They decompose just like these trees if left incomplete for too long.”
Sadie stepped in front of me, planting herself firmly in my path. “Then you hold out as long as you can. For her. Because she’s worth it. If you push her now, she’ll run, and not because she doesn’t care, but because she does. That’s the messed-up part.”
I exhaled slowly. “I’m not going to push her. I’m not going to punish her. But gods, I’m allowed to be angry.”
“Then be angry. Just don’t let it cloud your judgment where Meera is concerned. She’ll come around. I really do believe that. But you have to give her time.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing at all. I just nodded in agreement. When she pointed behind me, I accepted her quiet, yet firm, instruction to return to our camp.
