For the Taking ✅

28 • Heard

Seraphina POV

"Have I done something wrong? If it's about Jensen sharing his finding with me please don't punish him. He's doing me a favor out of the kindness of his heart and-"

"I told him he could resume his research." Osiris cut me off.

"Oh," Now I was bewildered. "Are you mad at me?" I murmured under my breath.

My face was cased down toward my feet as we tracked through the snow. Osiris suddenly stopped turning around to face me. His hazel eyes darkened as they took me in fully.

I could have sworn my heart had stopped for a moment. I felt as though I were under a microscope and a heated lamp the way he stared at me. The silence did little to ease me apprehension.

As I rubbed my nose that reddened with the cold, glanced around the barren forest. My eyes steered clear of his figure as I stood still.

"I'm not mad at you." He spoke softly.

My eyes slowly rose to match his. There was a flicker of something I couldn't quite read, he almost looked sad, though I couldn't understand why. The corners of his full lips dipped and when I looked back up to his eyes he quickly diverted his gaze.

Osiris kicked a stone at his toes looking to be struggling with something behind his regretful eyes. Something about the way he looked left me on edge.

"Are you alright?" I whispered hoping that if I broke the ice first he'd be more willing to talk. When he cautiously peered over at me I knew I had said something right.

But then I was proven wrong condescending Osiris makes an appearance.

"I've heard that you wish to have your human friend stay here with you."

"Yes."

"Is that really what you want Seraphina or are you only saying this because your friend brought it up first?" HIs question struck my chest like a bat. Of course, I want my friend to stay with me, I may not have thought about it first, but the idea sounded great. I was thankful Andy even brought the idea up.

I crossed my arms in defense. "You think my friend persuaded me?" He cocked his head matter-of-factly. "My friend did not and is not making me do anything I don't want."

He shrugged. "So you say."

"Excuse me?"

"Just because someone is your friend doesn't mean you can't say no to them."

I rolled my eyes. He was being a hypocrite telling me not to let someone persuade me and here he is trying to get me to agree to him.

"First off, my friend has a name, it's Andy. Secondly, let me reiterate, this is what I want and I am asking for." I took a deep breath reminding myself to remain calm. Getting myself worked up wasn't going to change his view on Andy though I wished it would.

He pushed off the tree to stand up right. "If you say so." Osiris shrugged. "Well if you truly like to have Andy stay here then he is your responsibility."

It was a statement meant to be straight forward but I felt as though it was anything but straight forward. Osiris said it as if it were the worst idea to come to his mind. He might have told me Andy was my responsibility just to get over the conversation but when he began to walk away from me, further into the woods, the tension in his back told me he was unsettled.

"What do you mean by Andy is my responsibility?" I questioned clumsily trying to catch up.

Osiris hopped over a dead tree effortlessly. I tried to do the same only to scrap my forearm against the bark.