Page 100 of The Freedom You Seek

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“That Rite that you mentioned.”

“Not a chance.”

“Don’t dismiss it outright. That’s exactly what I mean. Imagine you’ll find yourself in a situation where you fail because you’ve been too scared to take a leap.”

“I’m not scared.”

“But?”

“You’ve met Dion, haven’t you? Does he seem like someone you want to give even an ounce of control to? I mean, he used my Potential to shackle me to the bed because he didn’t want me to leave the room alone.”

“Which is kind of funny and cute. And honestly, you’ve told me the last time you two had a fight, you ran away. I can understand he doesn’t want to take any chances with a flight risk like you.”

I scowled at Rewi. “You can’t seriously suggest I should dothat. Withhim.”

Shrugging, Rewi faced my scorn. “Why not? He seems like a decent guy underneath all that prickly, growling facade, and even a blind person can see that he cares about you. Sure, a blind person canalsosee that he has some sort of god complex, but if he can back it up with actions, would it really be so bad to have a protector like that?”

“I don’t need a protector.”

“I know, I know, you want to be independent. But why can’t you be independent together? Correct me if I’mwrong, but your talent isn’t helpful without a Wielder around, is it? Instead, you are meant to be part of a team. Just set boundaries and rules beforehand. It’s as easy as that.”

“Maybe it sounds easy to you. But it’sDionwe’re talking about.”

“You two need to talk about that topic. Perhaps after you’ve fucked all that delicious tension out of your systems.”

My face contorted into a bright red, distorted mess at Rewi’s crude words. “Rewi!”

She simply laughed. “You should see yourself.”

“Never repeat what you’ve just said—I warn you.”

“I won’t, promise. But for what it’s worth—and you know I’m an expert judge of character—I think your Dion is all right. Think about what I’ve said, Nayana.”

I nodded and peeled myself out of her arms. “I’ll think about what you’ve preached about the Rite. The other thing is completely not an option.”

“What other thing?”

“Taking Dion to bed.”

I sounded convinced, but Rewi just nodded like a mother who knew her child had said something silly. “Sure, Naya. Now let’s go and find your guard dog before he comes back and tears me to ribbons for taking up too much of your time.”

It turned out everyone was waiting for us downstairs. Dion’s expression screamed murder, and from the barely veiled glares toward Bryon, it wasn’t hard to deduce he would be his preferred victim.

When Dion spotted Rewi and me, he stalked over to us and grabbed my hand. “Finally. We thought the bonfires wouldn’t be more than ashes by the time you decided to join us.”

“Stop exaggerating.”

“Just come.”

Together, we left the inn. Dion’s hand still held mine, and when I tried to disentangle myself, he simply threw his arm around my waist and tucked me into his side as we walked toward the celebrations.

“You can let me go, you know. I’m not running away.”

“No.”

By the gods and all their godlings, it was so clear that this was Dion’s favorite word, and he knew how crazy it drove me when he answered in such a curt manner. I grumbled and sent him my most beautiful scowl but refrained from further escape attempts that were doomed from the beginning anyway.