Page 81 of Balance

No one was with me when I woke the next morning. After stretching and fumbling to make myself a tiny bit more presentable, I exited the tent.

“Good morning,” Julian greeted as he sat on the other side of the campsite, arms over his knees. “Did you sleep well?”

Titus turned toward me, about to offer a greeting of his own, when—

Damen stomped into camp, not even looking in my direction. “I don’t want to hear a single word from Miles when he fails.” He threw himself on the ground next to Titus. “Why does he have to be so stubborn?”

Miles… stubborn? I found that hard to believe.

“What’s he being stubborn about?” I asked, crouching beside the onmyoji.

Damen jerked sideways, turning toward me. “Where the hell did you come from?” His eyes were wide, and he pressed his hand to his chest. “Weren’t you just sleeping?”

I frowned at him, taking in his frazzled appearance. My attention wandered from the tips of his expensive, but now scruffy, shoes, to his deepening nine o’clock shadow and wind-blown hair.

It was strange seeing Damen with anything other than confidence or flirtatious behavior, and this expression of surprise on him—jaw still lax and cheeks flushing—was actually charming.

So, when he wasn’t putting on theatrics, he was just a normal guy.

Who would have thought?

Still, calling attention to it might embarrass him. He was pretty sensitive, and he had a hero complex. So I probably better not.

“Is Miles going to fail his graduation project?” I asked instead, silently giving Damen time to compose himself. “Is it because we’re leaving?”

“He doesn’t want to leave.” Damen pushed away from Titus, where he had landed, and ignored the other man’s smirk. He sat up, brushing off his shirt, before answering curtly. “But no, I’m not talking about his graduation project.”

“Then what are you talking about?”

Damen scowled at the ground, crossing his arms.

Okay…

I chewed the inside of my cheek, fighting back my hurt feeling. It was an intrusive question, and Damen might not be able to disclose Miles’s business.

I should ask Miles instead.

“Wait…” That hadn’t been the only thing Damen had said, after all, and my heart began to race in realization. “We’re not leaving?”

“Wecan leave any time we want,” Damen replied, picking up a twig and tracing patterns in the dirt. “We might have to but Miles has something he wants to complete on his own. He says our being here is a distraction.”

What?

“But we came all this way to find him…”

“He didn’t ask us to,” Damen pointed out. “We did this because you were worried, and you needed him. And frankly, we all needed a break. But now that we’ve found him, it’s fine, right? You see he’s safe, so we should probably head back.”

“No!” I didn’t understand—his words were completely logical, yet it felt like I was going to be sick. “Where is he?”

Damen finally looked at me, face twisting in regret. “You can’t make him—”

“Don’t tell me what I can do!” I turned on my heel, stalking off in the direction Damen previously stumbled in from. “I’m taking care of this right now.”

For a moment, I thought they’d follow, but, several yards down the trail, I didn’t even have to look back to know I was alone.

Miles was sitting amid a collection of boulders, his back to me, when I finally found him. He didn’t turn at my approach. As I drew closer, I saw what had captured his attention.

We were high in the mountains, and some few feet away from the witch’s outstretched legs, the ground gave way. The sky was clear. From this point, a sea of orange and red spread out for an eternity before us. He hadn’t moved at my approach, and his chocolate hair—which was in a bed-tangled mess on his head—swayed in the gentle breeze. For the first time since I’d known him, he truly seemed to be at peace.