My face is still bursting with color as I take it from him without meeting his eye. Under the flitting of my wildly beating heart is the steady pulse of the daemon. Back at last. I knew it would be but disappointment still sours me. “Magic?” I manage once I’ve recovered myself. Our clothing flies from the tree limb it’s spread over in response. My clothes land in my lap, warm, dry and wrinkles removed. I stalk off to hide behind a tree to shuffle them on, sneaking one last lungful of his shirt in before pulling it over my head.
By the time I come out he already has our supplies gathered and reattached to Epona’s saddle. I hand him his shirt, and he hands me my cloak that I promptly fasten around my neck as he does up his buttons. “Ready?” I nod. He grips me around the waist to haul me up before he clambers on behind me.
I promptly lean back into him, knowing if I don’t, I’ll get an earful, but he nudges my shoulder to push me away.
I quickly put distance between us, floundering in total mortification. “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought that’s what you—“
He snorts. “Pandora,” he says, cutting me off sternly. “I need to sort out your hair right quick.”
“Oh.” His magic flickers through my hair, whipping it lightly, but then it’s his hands that pull it back and begin weaving it into a braid. “It feels strange to hear my name again.” Or maybe it just feels strange to hearhimsay it…
“Well, unfortunately for you. Everyone now knows you as Syra, so you’re going to have to keep that up… forever.”
I shrug. “It’s alright. I kind of prefer them not knowing my real name. Couldn’t you use magic to braid my hair?”
It takes him a few beats to respond, intently focused on his job. “Hmm, I could try, but I’m kind of concerned it’d end up in a knot. Sometimes, it’s easier to do things the old-fashioned way.” I’m learning more and more about the limitations of his magic.
“I don’t have a hair tie,” I say as he nears the ends of my hair.
“That’s alright, I have one.”
“You have a hair tie?”
“Mhm.” He finishes, tucks my hair in behind my cloak and tows me back to his chest. His hands linger across my shoulders for a moment, chin tipping the top of my head like he’s trying to make a point of it. As if to saythis is right where I want you, you silly girl.A slow warmth sweeps over me like a tide. He really does not know personal space. He takes the reins in his hands, and we slowly filter between the trees.
“You said I get to pester you with questions today.”
He groans. “No…I don’t think that’s what I said.”
“Yes, you did. You said exactly that.”
“I think you’re mistaken. You weren’t really all that lucid yesterday.”
“Yes, I was!”
“I distinctly remember you thinking you were dead.”“Sitri!”
His laugh is a deep, resonant sound. He finds a path carving through the Wood, and our speed increases momentously—faster even than I remembered. I bring my gaze to his symboled hands to keep the nausea at bay.
“I’ll make you a bargain. For every question you get, I get one too.”
“You already asked me so many questions last night.”
“Yes, but I don’t recall you asking for any such bargain last night, so those don’t count.”
“That’s not fair.”
“And, we can pass on answering if we choose, no questions asked.”
“Do I at least get to go first?”
“Go on.”
I know I have a million questions bursting at the seams. Now that I have the opportunity to ask them, they flood right out of my brain.
“Your go, pet.”
“I’m…trying to think of a good one.” My mind lingers on what I thought he was doing to me with his magic, but I’m not treading anywhere close to admitting that…if only I knew what he was capable of. “Okay… what kinds of things can younotdo with magic?”
