Page 57 of Sword & Shadow
“Perhaps it should,” she said, then reached over to take his hand. “It was awfully fun, pretending to be you.”
Deckard’s jaw flexed with something that resembled discomfort. He slipped out of her grasp, moving to the far side of the alcove. “Is that so?” he muttered.
Sure that he was only being coy because he feared her rejection, Evylin leaned against the soaring trunk of a pine. She crossed her legs at the ankles, giving him one of her most teasing looks. “Indeed. It was rather eye-opening as well.”
He frowned but said, “Do tell.”
She played with the end of her braid. “I realized how difficult it must be, standing so high among your peers. You’re always so above the rest of the world. It’s no wonder you have a martyr complex, trying to save us all.”
Those words didn’t have quite the effect Evylin expected.
Instead of laughing off her teasing compliment, Deckard stared back at her, clearly unamused. His expression grew tense,his back rigid. And suddenly, Evylin realized she might have misread the situation.
“Jonn,” she stepped toward him, crossing half the distance in the narrow enclosure of trees, “what’s wrong?”
Gaze dropping away from hers, Deckard raised a hand to run it through his hair. The action left the reddish-brown curls disheveled and drooping onto his forehead. “I want you to know, Evylin, that I’m sorry. If I could, I would ignore this.”
Uncertain of what was to come, Evylin reached out to rest her hand on his arm. She couldn’t deduce what was bothering him. Had he taken offense to her remark about his self-sacrificing tendencies? Or was there a chance she was right, and he brought her out here to confess his desire for her? Though she thought she’d made her willingness clear to him in the past, Deckard was a romantic. He surely didn’t envision their consummation taking place in the muddy forest of Wauld. Perhaps this was merely his way of apologizing for not having the strength to wait any longer. Whatever the case, she attempted to ease his discomfort through her touch.
Deckard glanced down at her hand on his arm as if disappointed. Then he met her gaze, his eyes now a sharp green. “You have to give the Day Relic back to Rafferty.”
The order didn’t sink into Evylin’s mind at first. It was so unexpected that she wasn’t entirely certain she’d heard him correctly. But the determination in his stare confirmed that she had.
Dropping her hand away, Evylin kept her expression neutral even as her pulse began to race. “What?”
“When we get back to camp, you need to give the Day Relic to Rafferty.”
No.The thought came unbidden and violently. A tight laugh slipped out of Evylin. “I don’t have the Relic,” she lied.
“You don’t?”
“No.” She didn’t feel the dry grin that twisted up her lips. “Why would I?”
“That’s an excellent question.” He continued to stare at her, his blank gaze accusing.
Evylin crossed her arms, drawing back. “Well, I wouldn’t—I don’t.”
Before she could react, Deckard hooked a finger under her open coat. He grazed her collarbone, sending a tingle across her skin as he tugged up the golden chain. “In that case, what’s this?”
Glaring at him now, Evylin held firm. “A necklace.”
He scoffed, letting the warm chain fall back in place.
Evylin sighed. “Yes, all right. I kept the Day Relic. So what? I thought it would be better this way.”
“Better than what?” His tone said he didn’t believe her.
“It wasn’t safe, leaving all three Relics with Rafferty. He can’t use them. What if we’re ambushed again? Wouldn’t it be better if I already had a Relic, ready to defend us? Hewitt might not have died if—”
“Are you serious?” Deckard gaped at her incredulously. “You’re using Hewitt’s death as part of your excuse—yourlieto try and keep it?”
A thread of sorrow and horror bled through the strength of the Day Relic’s hold upon her emotions. Evylin tamped it down, gripping onto whatever shred of joy she could find. “Why are you making such a fuss about this?” she asked through a feigned laugh. “I’m not grieving anymore. I’ve learned that life goes on, and so must I. The fact that I have the Relic has nothing to do with it.”
“So you’d be happy to give it back to Rafferty then?” he challenged.
Panic flashed into her heart, searing in her veins like ice, but Evylin attempted a lazy grin. “Jonn,” she said his name playfully,“I’d have no problem giving him the Relic. But I don’t see why I would. It’s illogical and dangerous.”
“It’s dangerous in your hands.”
