Kissing in the library was one thing. It could be ignored as purely physical. A momentary lapse in judgement, nothing more. This though, her voicing her fears that he was going to leave her, was something more. It indicated forethought. About him.
Now you’ve really gone and done it.
The words were spoken now though, and she was surprised at how badly she wanted the answer. Yes, he’d been on her mind lately, but somehow, she’d not recognized that for what it was, instead thinking it was purely about the team, about training. Somehow, she’d managed to deny to herself that she was thinking about him because she wanted to.
All of their interactions so far had been bickering with one another though. Well, except for the library makeout session, but that was, again, a physical lapse in restraint. Little more.
Or was it?
“Anyway, my question still stands about the team,” she tried to say, but Altair shook his head.
“I don’t understand,” he said.
She knew what he was referring to.
“Are you going to be a team player, or do I have to get Circe involved?” she said, stating the two options.
“That’s not what I meant,” Altair told her softly, but firmly. “And you know it.”
She chewed on her lower lip. Should she answer him? Or just ignore that it had happened and try to push forward?
So far, pushing forward hadn’t worked with him, though. He was very adept at ignoring her, doing as he pleased and pretending as though she was blind to what he was doing. Perhaps then, a different tactic was needed now. Something that would get his attention.
How could it go worse than what she’d just seen him doing against the demon?
“What are you confused about?” she asked, throwing caution to the wind in an attempt to penetrate the barrier Altair kept around him at all times.
“You think I’m abandoning you? Leaving you?”
She looked away as he spoke, stunned by the punch to gut his words had just delivered. This was supposed to be her trying to get through to him! Why did it hit so hard?
“Yes,” she said after taking a minute to compose herself. “Because you would be, if you do something like that.”
“You don’t like that,” he said quietly.
Christine bowed her head, thoughts and emotions connecting inside her mind that she hadn’t even realized she’d been having. Not consciously, at least.
“Yes,” she said, accepting the truth of it. That she didn’t want him to go. That she liked having him around. Around her, in particular. “I don’t like it. I hate it in fact. There, are you happy?”
Altair was moving his head back and forth slowly. “But, there’s nothing between us?”
She sensed the lack of conviction in his words the moment he started speaking.
“Yes, there is,” she said, correcting him. “Unless you just go around kissing all the women you can, of course?”
Altair flinched, leaning back from her, but remaining silent.
“I really wish you would stop lying to me,” she said bluntly. “I had thought we’d developed some sort of...I don’t know. Friendship? Something. Enough that at least you would be willing to tell me the truth, instead of lying to my face.”
It was the first time she’d tried to quantify whatever was going on between them, and she was finding there really wasn’t an accurate label for it. Friendship didn’t feel right, because of the pure heat she’d experienced in the library while in his embrace. Friends didn’t feel that way about one another.
Was it something more? Could it be something more? Christine had so many questions that she needed answers to now, and nothing was helping her figure it out, least of all Altair himself.
“You...you want me to stay?” Altair asked, still on her slip of the tongue.
Now that the jar had been opened, she didn’t really need to think about it much before answering. The truth of it was right there in front of her. All she had to do was accept it.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I would like it if you stuck around. If you could stop feeling like you needed to give up your life on some wild quest. If nothing else, I kind of enjoy our banter, I guess.” She shrugged, not able to process why she was saying what she was, but knowing it was the truth, nonetheless.
“But...how did this happen?”
She frowned. Altair sounded like he was talking to himself, not to her. As if he’d been purposefully avoiding letting any sort of interaction between them blossom into more than just perfunctory conversation.
“Is this not what you wanted?” she asked, fearing the answer. “Were you trying to avoid this?”
“I tried so hard,” he said quietly. “To prevent this from happening.”
“Well, I don’t know how it did,” she said. “But it did, Altair. So now I’m here, saying so to you. Can’t you feel it too?” she asked, now beginning to wonder if she was imagining everything that had gone on between them.
Altair was quiet for so long that she started to believe in her inner doubts, giving them strength and voice. Christine began dissecting everything, including that one solo physical moment between them. She started analyzing it from different directions, trying to figure out where she’d gone wrong, where the mixup in her head—and it seemed, her heart—had been.
“Yes,” Altair whispered at long last. “I can feel it. I feel it, and I’m afraid.”
Licking her suddenly dry lips, Christine asked the next question. “Afraid of what?”
“I’m afraid that if you stay with me,” he said slowly, lifting his eyes to finally meet hers. “You’re going to die.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Christine
HE WAS TERRIFIED, SHE realized. Paralyzed with fear for her life.
“Why would I die?” she asked. “I don’t understand. Do dragons eat their other half or something?”
Several witches had already gotten together with dragons. Some permanently, others just for fun. Christine hadn’t heard any horror stories like that, but technically the dragons, despite all their human characteristics, were aliens. Sort of.
“Ew. Of course not,” he said with a snort. It
