Black Sapphire | Xaden Riorson | S/H

XLV

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     There's a knock on the door. It makes me startle a bit, considering it's dark out by now.
     "Come in," I tell them. My hands are busy with the pile of clothes I'm moving out of the armoire. I drop the bundle to the floor just as the door swings open.
     "I just wanted—" he stops short as I turn around to look at him, but his dark eyes are scanning over the wreckage in the room.
     "Hello, Xaden," I chuckle.
     "Somehow, I'd convinced myself we hadn't done that but much damage, but..." he draws out slowly. He blinks with a raise of his brows and then turns his attention back to me. I offer a playful grimace and glance behind my shoulder.
     "Yeah..." I hum. I reach down and pick up a shirt. With a flick of my hand, an explosion of wood dust and splinters goes flying.
     Xaden grunts with embarrassed dissatisfaction at the mess, a good replication of the groan I'd released when I came back in after hunting. I didn't get anything, but Violet did find some plants she could use, and we'd had a nice and normal conversation, so it wasn't in vain. I didn't have a bow anyway, so I had little faith before she even arrived.

     "Least I can do is help you clean up, huh?" he murmurs, stepping in further and pushing the door closed. I shrug.
     "I wouldn't mind." He takes a step forward before looking to his left and wincing at the state of the armoire.
     "I swear it didn't look that ruined in the darkness when I left this morning." He twists to look at me. "Turns out you set more than a few trees on fire last night, too. Took two water wielders to get them out." I look away, feeling my cheeks heat up a bit.
     "That must be why Carr dragged me out to the mountaintops," I grumble to myself. I suck in a breath and pick up a shirt, moving to the open window. "You must've left pretty soon."
     "I had a leadership meeting and needed to get an early start." I bow my head down and flick the cloth against the outside siding to get all the debris off.
     "Ah," I hum quietly. I take in a deep breath, feeling his arm brushing my back as he reaches to re-anchor one of my talismans. I look over my shoulder at him and drop the shirt onto the bed.

     "I hope I'm allowed to touch these." He pulls his hand away quickly like the thought just hit him but I smile and shake my head.
     "Go ahead."
     "How did training with Carr go?" He takes a step back to face me and I pinch a frown.
     "It's exhausting," I murmur. "I didn't faint, though. Blacked out for a moment once or twice but never made it all the way to the ground. I think the cold helped." He nods his head and something washes over his face for a fleeting second. "I can't aim for shit though."
     "Really?" I nod calmly and move to lean back against the wall. The breeze rustles the loose hairs of what was a frizzy braid earlier today and makes me reach up to scratch my temple.
     "I think Barlowe attracted it. He was holding a sword straight up. Human lightning rod." He pauses to give the idea some thought and I furrow my brow. "Shouldn't have said that. That's a gross concept."

     "Try not to think about it," he tells me with a shrug of one shoulder. He looks away out the window, no smirk on his face—unusual for Xaden Riorson.
     "Well, y'know, kinda hard to just take a life and shrug it off," I murmur. I set my head back against the wall and pull my arms into a hug around myself.
     "A human one," he offers and I nod.
     "A human one," I agree quietly. "I don't eat those." He hums something just short of a laugh and begins picking up some of the items scattered on the floor to return them to the desk.
     "If it makes you feel any better, I couldn't keep anything down after the first time I killed anyone. I don't think less of you for feeling like that. Just means you still have your humanity." I cock an eyebrow and take a step forward.
     "So do you." I set my hands over my red journal in his.
     "That's debatable," he hums, ticking his head sideways and continuing to avoid looking at me.
     "Not to me."