Page 21 of Keeping the Human's Heart

Something’s gone wrong. This is definitely not what I intended.

I’m torn between which of them to comfort first. Drazak looked angry, so I’ll leave him alone for now. He needs to cool off from whatever happened. Esme, on the other hand, doesn’t know how to look for help when she needs it. She’ll simply curl in on herself until someone rescues her.

I sidle up to her on the log, and reflexively, she flinches away. That’s curious.

“Are you okay, puppy?” I ask, petting her hair. Her eyes squeeze shut, and now I’m certain that something awful has happened.

“I’m sorry.” The words come out a whimper. “I’m sorry, Han’zir.”

My hand pauses on her head. “Sorry?” I ask. Maybe they got into some kind of argument. “What for?”

Finally, she looks at me, and her eyes are red. She blinks away tears and says, “Drazak. I... We...” She’s at a loss for words. After a moment she steels herself and says, “We touched. In the river. I’m sorry.”

They touched? That’s all? Finally, it occurs to me what probably happened. They got into the heat of the moment, and our little Esme felt guilty.

I should have expected that. Now I feel terrible for engineering something that would hurt her.

“Poor puppy.” I scoot even closer and lean her head against my shoulder. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be sorry.”

“But why?” She pulls away and looks at me accusingly, like I should be mad at her and she’s angry that I’m not. “I’m bad. It was bad.”

“You’re not bad. Why would you say that?” I glance over at the house where I know Drazak is inside, surely loathing himself just as much as she is. “He’s hot, right? Gorgeous.” I tilt up her chin. “So kissable.”

“Kissable?” she repeats.

I nod, then tilt her up even further, lowering my head until our noses are almost touching. I give her just the smallest peck on the lips, my skin grazing past hers and lighting me up like a match striking a flint.

“Kissable,” I say.

While Esme sits there with her mouth slightly open, I get up and dust off my pants. “I’m not mad at you, puppy,” I tell her. “You’re good. All right?”

She looks utterly perplexed, but that’s better than crying, so I leave her alone to go patch up the other broken fence.

Drazak

What have I done?

Han’zir is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Why would I even risk throwing it all away, just for a human?

Fuck. Esme isn’t any human, and even I know that. She means so much more than that, to both of us, and that’s what makes this even more fucking shameful.

When the door opens and Han’zir steps in, I want to sink into the earth.

“Hmm,” he says, walking up behind me and dropping one hand on my shoulder. “The two of you seem upset.”

“It’s fine,” I growl. I don’t need him poking around, because then I’ll have to tell him the truth, and who knows what he’ll do then.

“Fine?” He slinks around the table and sits across from me. “Doesn’t seem fine. Little puppy was nearly in tears. What did you do to her at the river?”

It takes a moment to click what he’s said.

“How did you know she was down at the river?” I ask, my voice dropping low. He’s the one who told me to go find her with that mischievous look in his eye. “Han’zir, what did you do?”

His careless shrug makes me want to strangle him. “I’m just trying to help,” he says. “I know you want her. I just made sure you had the chance, that’s all.”

At this statement, all the dread seeps out of me, replaced by outrage. “You set me up?” I demand, getting to my feet. “You wanted me to be with her? To be with... someone else?”

He doesn’t look anywhere near as upset as I am. “I wanted you to be happy, Drazak.”

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