Page 60 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
“Yes, I was.”
“Did you know that he’s an elderly man?” Somehow it was crucial to me, in this moment, if he did. “Do you know if anyoneeven tried to give him other options? An alternative to being thrown out of the city and left to die?”
“I don’t know details,” Zander said flatly, fully in his Enforcer role now. “Only The Council knows, which is how it should be. For all our sakes.”
“Should it, though?” I challenged. A group of people passed on our left, clearly oblivious to the traitorous, blasphemous words that were being uttered only a few feet away.
Zander shifted his weight again. “How did you know he was elderly?”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
“Cato told me,” I said quickly. I may have been willing to risk my own well-being with this conversation, but I sure as hell was not willing to risk the Strangers’. I visualized the heat that had risen in me dissipating, schooling my features into a nonchalant expression. “Speaking of Cato, I’d better get to work.”
“Hold on.”
My legs were practically twitching to walk away. But I paused.
“Maila.” He was still saying my name in full. “There was another reason I wanted to catch up with you.”
I waited.
“Are you seeing anyone?”
The question should have shocked me. Especially considering what we had just talked about. The deeply concerning things I had just said, out loud, in the middle of the Knowledge Center atrium. But it didn’t. In fact, for some unexplainable reason, it felt like the most predictable thing he could have asked in that moment.
What did surprise me, though, was the sickening pang that I felt in my chest when I answered honestly, “No.”
“Got it.” He looked over my head for a moment. When his eyes snapped back to mine, they were full of resolve. “You’re not seeing anyone. But you don’t see me that way, do you?”
I forced myself to do him the courtesy of looking him in the eye when I answered, “I’m sorry, Zander. There’s nothing about you that I would change. And I’m sure any woman in Cyllene who could hear our conversation right now would think I’d lost my mind. But I’ve…honestly, I’ve tried to see you as more than a friend. And for whatever reason, I just don’t.”
“Got it,” he repeated. His eyes flashed with something like anger, and for a split second, I thought he would ease the guilt in my chest by lashing out to protect his pride. But the expression was only there for a moment, and then he was smiling that easy smile of his. “Well, I guess we’d both better get back to it, huh?”
“I guess so.”
As I headed in the direction of the Library again, listening to his footsteps recede in the opposite direction, I knew.
At lunch, I had been trying to assess what felt different about Zander. But he wasn’t the one who was different.
It was me.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I moved through the rest of the day robotically. When the sun finally set and I had nothing else to do except climb into bed, it wasn’t a moment too soon. I was just pulling back the comforter when I heard a thud out on the balcony, followed by a whispered “Damnit!”
I hurried to the sliding glass door and slid it open to find Kieran hunched over on the concrete in front of me. He was rubbing his left calf muscle. Even in the darkness, I could see the rectangular shapes of blades of grass clinging to his clothes and sticking out of his hair.
He finally looked at me. “Consider this a heads-up that you’re going to have increased security throughout the city tomorrow.”
I would’ve felt his smirk even if my eyes were closed. That expression was so normal, so typical of him, that it made my heart swell to see it.
“Do I even want to know?” I asked, stepping aside so that he could enter.
“Hmmm…probably not.” He limped past me and over to my desk, where he half sat, half fell down into the chair. He took off a bandolier and slung it on the desk. Another prize from the cave devils’ collection, I was sure. “Unless the story of me taking down fourEnforcerswould make you swoon.”
I shot him a look, which I knew he and his enhanced vision would be able to see clearly in the dark. How could he joke about something so serious?
“Thought not,” he chuckled, then added, “There were fourEnforcershiding near our usual spot on the inside of the wall. Obviously, they figured us out somehow. The Enforcers are…let’s just say they’re incapacitated.”
