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Kaden felt for his pulse and then let that drop too.

I couldn’t breathe, could barely think. He might’ve been a bully, but I hadn’t meant tokillhim. “Is he…”

“Dead? No. He’s fine. Just rattled.” Kaden didn’t seem concerned about the unconscious man at all.

“I thought you were going to absorb my magic?”

“I did. I couldn’t absorb all of it unless you wanted to end up with a broken nose for your efforts.”

“I’m done.”

“That’s fine. I think we made enough progress today.” He was still looking at Mason.

“I wasn’t asking you.” I walked off.

Luisca was in the kitchen when I got back. I slumped into a chair at the table. If I went up to the bedroom, Kaden might show up and speak to me. He was the last person I wanted to converse with. This might be the only place to not get stuck with him.

“Can I help you?” I asked, watching her with a newfound envy. Tiber never would’ve made her do something she was uncomfortable with. Those two were a team. They were always looking to each other for feedback. They were nothing like Kaden and me.

“Of course you can.” She gave me a knowing smile as she slid over a bunch of leaves.

I rolled and bent them until the leaves were dark green, as she’d been doing.

“Would you like tea? I was just about to brew some.”

“That would be amazing.”

She went to the stove, watching me as she did. “Are you all right? You seem a little off.”

I stared at the leaves I was creasing. Did I tell her about the man I’d just dropped to the ground? How seeing him there reminded me of what I’d done to my grandmother? I’d rather chew off my tongue first.

“Just getting settled, I guess.”

“It’ll get easier.” She put a cup of tea beside me.

I was pretty sure it wouldn’t.

Kaden eventually returned, and neither of us said a word to each other. Not during dinner, when Tiber and Luisca were staring at us, not when we went to the lake, and not when we went to bed.

Chapter Eleven

Kaden wasn’t in bed when I woke, or in the kitchen eating breakfast when I got down there, even though I was early and everyone else was there.

Maybe he realized he’d pushed it too far and was giving us both a little space, doing something else today? I sat down to eat breakfast, smiling at the girls and feeling twenty pounds lighter than when I’d walked into the room.

“Kaden left a message for you to meet him at the field,” Luisca said as she put some more bacon on the table.

All hopes that yesterday had been a one-off were scorched. He hadn’t left to give me the day off. He’d gone to go round up some more bullies to take shots at me.

I nodded, and the biscuit I’d grabbed suddenly did not taste very good. I glanced at the bowl of eggs and plate of bacon and couldn’t drum up a lick of appetite.

Luisca poured me some tea, and I used it to wash down the biscuit that was trying to lodge itself in my narrowing throat.

“You’re not eating anything else?” Tiber asked, looking at me as if he knew more than he was saying. He must’ve heard something. There weren’t enough people here to hide what had happened yesterday.

“I ate a lot last night. I guess I’m not hungry yet.” I chugged the last of my tea. “I better get going. I don’t want to leave Kaden waiting.”

Luisca laid her hand on my arm as I went to get up. “If you don’t come back for lunch, I’ll bring something over for you.”