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Elias met my eyes once again. “She is a very old friend.”

“From childhood?”

“Something like that.” He ran his hand through his dark hair.

“Did you ever…have relations with her?” The question seemed to just come out of me. It was too late to take it back, whether I wanted to know the answer or not.

Elias watched me with suspicion as he considered my question. “You mean sex?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to relax my stiff muscles before nodding slightly.

He continued to eye me with curiosity before answering. “Yes.”

I think I stopped breathing.

“But that was a very,verylong time ago,” he added.

Seeing as he was maybe only in his mid-twenties, it couldn’t have been that long ago.

“I see.” My response came out more hoarsely than I was expecting. I cleared my throat. “And…did seeing her again rekindle anything?”

Elias raised a brow. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m allowed to be curious,” I nearly snapped back.

Elias observed me for a moment before responding. “No, nothing was rekindled. It’s not like that at all.”

I tried to let my body relax, but something still unsettled me. “And you’re sure there wasn’t an underlying reason to go to Monuvia, whether it was for Trybe or something else?”

He crossed his arms. “Why the sudden interrogation, Princess? You don’t trust me?”

There he went again, avoiding a question and being elusive. “Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “Maybe I’m not sure what to thinkof you anymore.”

Elias cocked his head slightly, his brows pinching together. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know, Elias. You’re more difficult to understand than this fucking book,” I gestured at my pack.

He continued to stare at me, his gaze unwavering. “You can trust me. I’m not sure what I did to make you feel otherwise.”

I scoffed and threw my hands up in anger, my temper growing with every word out of his mouth. I stood and dropped my blanket to the ground, suddenly feeling restless. Elias watched curiously, but remained seated.

“One minute, you say you won’t abandon me. You say I don’t owe you anything. Then the next minute, you say you’re only continuing for the money.”

Elias’s body tensed.

“Which is it, Elias?” I demanded. When he didn’t reply, I continued. “What is it that you want? Do you just want me to pay you now so you can leave?”

“No, I—”

“I thought we were at least becoming friends,” I interrupted, my eyesight becoming blurred by angry tears. “Then you tell Max I’m just abusiness deal.”

Elias finally stood and took a step towards me. He reached his hand up, as if to comfort me, but stopped. “Aura, I…” he trailed off, lowering his hand.

I blinked away a tear. He stood there, not continuing whatever it was he was going to say. In a fit of anger, I bent down and reached into my pack, pulling out the last two pouches, each filled with one hundred gold pieces. “Here,” I hissed, shoving the leather pouches one by one into his chest. “This is what you want, right?”

“No!” He dropped the pouches to the ground. “No, I want…Iwant…” he trailed off again, unable to form the words.

“What??” I snapped impatiently.