Page 165 of Balance

How humiliating.

I bit my lip, unable to meet his gaze. Seeing Miles embarrassed made everything that much more awkward. There was no way this could get worse, unless, of course, one of these inconvenient connections involved mind-reading.

I would justdie.

“You’re upset.” He frowned at me, moving a thumb over my lips.

I almost choked, and I stepped back, ignoring his raised eyebrow as I tugged at the bottom of my shirt. “I’m n-not!”

The thin connection shattered, and my feelings were my own once more. “I’m just getting used to this.” My voice was weak as I rushed to explain, and my mouth went dry as I gestured between us. “It’s different than before.”

Miles’s thick brows furrowed, and he stepped back, crossing his arms. “No, it’s not.”

I stared at him a moment, unsure how to respond. Because, yes, it was different—anyone could see. But how to explain without putting it out there—the words I wasn’t ready to address just yet?

“But—” I began.

“These feelings are nothing new to me,” he interrupted, stepping forward once more and wrapping his hands around my waist.

Thistime the rush wasn’t so overwhelming. This time the remaining anxiety seemed to drain from me. Exhaustion fled in a rush, and the spots faded from my vision as I held his gaze, uncertain what was happening.

“But right now, it’s more important that you feel comfortable,” he said, a thread of determination in his voice.

What did thatmean? Two seconds ago, when he’d touched me, I’d almost collapsed under the weight of his physical reactions. And now there was this… calm?

“Are we there yet?” he asked again.

I really was going to throttle him.

“N—” I began, but the word caught in my throat. A crash rang through the air, echoing through the space. Miles, too, paused, dropping his hands from my sides, as he turned his head toward the noise.

We’d been stopped for quite some time, but I hadn’t even taken notice of our surroundings until now. Miles’s… stories, and presence, had been a distraction.

The wind rustled through the air, carrying away the last of the sounds, and orange and red leaves swirled at our feet. The air pressed in around us, every movement felt like I was walking against the current.

But I stepped forward anyway. With that motion, the spell was broken. The wind washed over me, bringing with it a newfound clarity.

“We’re here,” I said, my focus zeroing in on a barely-there pathway to the right. Had it been there before? Probably. I really hadn’t been paying much attention.

“Yeah,” Miles echoed; his voice uncharacteristically grim. “We are.”

I pressed close to Miles—but not touching—as we inched our way through the thickest part of the brush. We could hear them clearly now, but under Miles’s direction, I hesitated to call out or rush forward. A distraction might mean the difference between life and death.

Titus didn’t even glance in my direction, but considering that he was busy dodging the creature’s slow, but wide and swooping, arm movements, he had an excuse.

We could hear them—or at least Damen, who seemed rather fond of cursing—but at the moment the onmyoji and necromancer were hidden by the Snallygaster.

Half dragon, half duck, Kathleen had said. What in the world would possess her to make it look so…?

I glanced at it, tightening my hand around Miles’s fingers. It certainly wasn’t graceful, and its body lacked the symmetry often found in nature. It almost reminded me of a monster I’d drawn once back in elementary school: a purple and green beast, dragon like, with webbed feet and a bill. There were teeth too—this I recalled because the others had made fun of my artwork.

Drawing wasn’t exactly my strong point.

Despite that, the longer I looked, the cuter it seemed. I couldn’t imagine why Titus would try to kill it—didn’t this mean they were almost kin? Besides, he likedkawaii.

Titus kicked off from the creature’s back, twisting in the air. He’d been only an instant away from being snatched by the creature’s evolutionally defying razor-sharp bill.

I frowned at it, torn. It was violent, but might it be tamed. It couldn’t be all bad—Kathleen had made it, right?