Page 158 of A Song of Air
Iron Rings
“Are you sure you wantto do this?” Malika asked quietly.
Bryson took a breath. “My time here has come to an end.”
“Mine too. I’ve already lost so much of it, I don’t want to waste anymore. My sister needs me. Besides,” she nudged Bryson in the arm, “I can’t leave you alone. You’re my best friend.”
The affirming words warmed Bryson’s heart. For a while, she’d feared Malika would forget about her now that she had her sister back. She’d been a fool to feel so bitter towards the ice Elemental. People didn’t have to be shackled by one thing or one person. They had many facets to them. They could have several people in their lives that meant so much to them. It didn’t make anyone else any less special just because someone new—or old—came back into their lives.
Her love for her friend was not so fragile that it would break over something like that.
“I’m ready for this new chapter,” Bryson confessed. “But I’m not looking forward to this.” She nodded at Arlo’s tent, which they were currently standing in front of.
Malika sighed. “Yeah,” she said. “Me neither.”
“But it has to be done.”
“He’ll be upset.”
Bryson nodded. “I know.” She squared her shoulders. “But he’ll get over it.” And then she walked towards the tent.
Arlo was bent over his desk when she went inside. He was staring at his map, his knuckles digging deep into the surface of the wood. He didn’t look up when Bryson stepped inside. But his shoulders did tense.
There was a pregnant moment of silence. He didn’t say anything, and at one point that silence would have unnerved her. It would have made Bryson want to rush to please him. To make it right if only so he’d look up at her. Speak to her.
She was no longer the same Fae who felt indebted to him, so his silence was no longer a weapon he could wield against her.
“I’ve come to say goodbye,” Bryson finally said. Short, to the point.
“You will regret it,” he said without looking up.
“I won’t.”
“You will.”
Frustrating man.
Bryson sighed. “You saved my life, Arlo, and for that I will be forever grateful. But you cannot keep acting like what you do is a service that should be repaid when those you saved never asked you for your help in the first place.”
He still didn’t look up.
“I won’t spend the rest of my life trapped in these woods as your slave.”
