Page 50 of Hunted

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

“Oh,” I said, stopping at the top of the stairs. “Did I wake you?”

He looked up at me, a surprised look on his face. “No,” he said, shaking his head, “I thought… I had a feeling you may have still been awake.”

“Were you coming to… check on me?”

“No,” he shook his head. “Yes, I… suppose I was. I wanted to talk to you, assuming you weren’t asleep.”

“Talk to me?”

“If I could. For a moment.”

Glancing across his shoulder, I saw the fire was still going, and Tallin was fast asleep in front of it. I decided to move aside and gesture for Valerian to come up the stairs. “Alright,” I said, “We can talk in the bedroom.”

Valerian headed up the stairs and moved toward the bedroom. I followed, hugging my furry blanket tightly around me. The wind hadn’t let up much, I could still hear it buffeting the walls of this tiny cottage, and with the blinds all drawn, it was mostly dark inside. I could just about see his silhouette amidst the gloom.

When Valerian entered the bedroom, he stood by the side of the bed and waited for me to come inside. I sat down at the edge of the bed, pulled my knees up, and looked over at him. He seemed… troubled, maybe. Uneasy.

“Is everything alright?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, “Considering the circumstances.”

“It could be worse, I guess…”

“How could it be worse?”

I shook my head. “That’s something humans say. It could be worse… but it could also be better.”

“We could be back in Arcadia, living our lives.”

Me, a life of luxury, him the life of a… survivor.“Right,” I said, trailing off. “What did you want to speak to me about?”

“Of course…” he paused, then took a deep breath and exhaled. “A lot has happened today, but before the creature arrived, we were speaking.”

“In your bedroom. I remember.”

“Do you remember what the last thing you said to me was?”

I had to think for a moment. He was right, so much had happened, it was hard to believe this was still even the same day. How wasn’t I exhausted? How was it I hadn’t managed to find sleep, yet? It hit me, then, with a warm flush of fresh blood to the face. I had asked him about our kiss.

No, I had pressed him about it. I had wanted to know why he hadn’t mentioned it, and why he had labelled us as friends. Thinking back on it, I had been kind of aggressive. I hadn’t meant to be. I nodded at him, then spoke.

“I remember,” I said. “I should be apologizing.”

“Apologizing?” he asked.

“You reached out with a gesture of friendship, and I… I’m not sure what I did, or what I was thinking.”

Valerian sighed. “You had asked me why I hadn’t mentioned our kiss,” he said.

“I did. I probably should have just left it alone, like you did.”

“You’ve misunderstood my intentions, and for that I apologize.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me, Valerian. I understand.”

“But you don’t.” He paused, as if to consider what he was going to say next. “You avoided me after our kiss,” he said. “You made it clear you didn’t want to speak of it again… and as time went on, I started to feel guilty, like I had done something wrong.”