Not a very enjoyable family reunion after centuries apart.
"Animus."
I hadn't realized I'd stopped moving until Leveret called my name. He gazed at me with warm, worried eyes.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine."
Leveret stared at me. "Are you lying?"
Something about his intense gaze whittled me down. I blew out a breath. "Fine. Yes, I am lying."
"Why?" Leveret asked gently.
He was so innocent sometimes it made my cold, dark heart hurt. Did he not realize how pathetic I'd seem if I admitted my weakness? Spirits weren't supposed to be afraid of anything.
But Leveret's probing question brought up a good point: whywasI afraid? This "brother" of mine couldn't kill me. Harm me, sure, but nothing I couldn't recover from, and I'd heard all his insults and cruel remarks before. In regard to my magic, I was already convinced he'd never return it, so there was no anxiety about shattered hopes and dreams there.
If that was all true, why did I hesitate to approach him?
I looked at Leveret. He was so mortal. Sofragile.
My stomach flipped.
That was it, wasn't it? I wasn't scared for my own sake—I was afraid for Leveret.
Wonderful. One day in and my promise not to get attached to a hostage was already broken.
Leveret waved his hand in front of my face. "Animus?"
His voice plucked me out of my thoughts. Our wildly differing sense of time was a common problem with spirit-mortal interactions. While I assumed I was only lost in thought for a second, it might've been much longer for Leveret.
I had to stay in the moment with him. I didn't know how many more we'd share.
"Sorry. Too much thinking, not enough doing," I mumbled as I strode ahead.
Leveret caught up to me quickly with his long legs. "You didn't answer my question. Why did you lie?"
My urge was to cover up my lie with another lie. But I couldn't do that to Leveret. For some ungodly reason, I respected him too much.
"I didn't want you to think less of me," I said bluntly.
He blinked. "Why would I do that?"
It didn't even cross his mind to do such a thing. That was so typically Leveret.
I failed to bite back a smile. "I don't know. It was foolish of me."
Leveret regarded me with a thoughtful expression, like he was calculating a perfect response. Eventually he said, "I will never think less of you for having emotions. You can talk to me about them. I won't judge you. It's better to talk than to keep it inside, where it gets hot and angry, and hurts when you finally let it out."
I listened to his sage mortal wisdom with a sense of peace. Why did it sound so comforting coming from him?
"That may be true, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm not the most popular entity in the world," I said wryly. "I don'thaveanyone to talk to about my feelings."
Leveret grasped my wrist. "You have me. I'm here for you, Animus."
The second his fingers grazed my skin, sparks shot up my arm like a firecracker. I sucked in a soft breath, startled at the feeling. I'd touched him before but this was different. The sensation was so intense that it froze me where I stood.