Page 14 of Silver & Gold

“Rahim won’t do that. What he wanted was to deliver you to Zarina himself. He wanted the credit, or maybe he thought it would give him leverage, I don’t know. But it’s not about justice for him. He made that pretty obvious.”

“Well, what about Julian? He can’t go back to Masir, not with Kahzir there. His only hope is to convince Zarina that her uncle is at the Arcanum. He needs the book for that.”

“I don’t care.”

“Yes, you do. And don’t even think about whatever shit you were starting to think about back there. I would never let you do that.”

Seth looked away. He hadn’t realized how obvious he’d been. He hated how the idea of killing Julian had flitted through his mind. It was the first time in his life he’d ever had a thought like that. But then, he’d never had to choose between his principles and his heart before.

It shocked him how easy the choice was. His heart. Raider. No contest.

Would Seth actually murder someone?

No. At least, he didn’t think so. (He honestly didn’t want to find out.) But he would absolutely abandon Julian to vanish with Raider. He would give up the Arcanum and his work. In fact, it was the only possibility in front of him. All that mattered was Raider—who was being incredibly frustrating right now because he was trying to make this about anything and everything but himself.

Seth growled, “Would you stop worrying about other people for one fucking minute?”

“And do what, Seth? What exactly should I—”

“For starters, you can come here and let me see that you’re okay.”

Raider’s crossed arms tightened. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

Raider kept his gaze locked on the landscape. “Because I have to stay focused, and so do you. I need you to accept that.”

Raider had a point. Seth was losing focus, which was something he never did. Raider, clearly, was much more accustomed to packing shit away. He’d been doing it for a long time.

It frustrated Seth. He wanted to fix things. At the very least, he wanted Raider to let him help. But what Raider needed right now was to be allowed to deal with things in whatever way worked for him. There wasn’t time for anything else.

So Seth conceded, “All right. I will accept that—for now.”

Raider gave a small huff that sounded more like exasperation than amusement. His arms were still crossed, but he looked at Seth, finally. “You’re so damn dominant. You do know that, don’t you?”

“I thought you liked that about me.”

“When we’re fucking? Absolutely. Other times? It depends.”

Seth’s body was way too responsive for that kind of talk. “If you want me to stay focused, don’t talk about fucking.”

“All right, I will accept that. For now.”

At that echo of his own words, Seth chuckled. Gods. Who but this man could make him laugh right now?

Raider’s arms uncrossed at last. He stepped close to Seth and reached around him to grab his ass. Seth’s pack hit the ground as Raider hauled him in and kissed him hard and deep. But Seth’s tongue only got one sweep against Raider’s before Raider let go and stepped back.

It took everything Seth had to not grab at him. He rasped, “You’re such a damn tease.”

“I thought you liked that about me,” Raider remarked, once again tossing Seth’s words back at him. “And it was just a little kiss. Would you keep your mind on the problems at hand? I have an idea.”

It had absolutely not been just a little kiss, as Raider well knew, but there were problems at hand. Seth needed to focus on them.

“So what’s your idea?”

Raider didn’t get to tell him, however, because the problems were even closer at hand than either of them had realized.

Fortunately, Raider had turned to point down the slope to the river, so the arrow that would have hit him flew wide.