“They don’t change,” I said, even though I hadn’t meant to. “Everything else around me can change, but they won’t ever. And it doesn’t matter where I am in the world, I can look up and see the same sky.”
“Everything always changes,” he said quietly. “And you wake up one day and don’t recognize the life you had before you went to sleep.”
I didn’t know quite what to say to that, so I said nothing at all.
Nothing happened for a few moments, but then he was up and moving from the other side of the fire, dragging his bedroll closer to me. I didn’t say anything as he spread it perpendicular to me, his head near mine. He lay back down and I tried to remember how to breathe.
“I can protect you easier if I’m closer,” he said.
“Because I need you to protect me. Obviously.” I refused to look over at him and instead looked back up at the night sky.
“I didn’t mean to avoid you.”
I rolled my eyes. “So you admit to the avoiding.”
“Possibly.”
“Were you aware of it?”
“Yes.”
“Then you meant to do it.”
I could hear the scowl in his voice. “Not specifically.”
“So, no specific avoidance, but a vague avoidance.”
“Talking to you is impossible sometimes.”
“I’m a wizard.”
“You say that a lot.”
“It’s a fact.”
“It sounds like an excuse sometimes.”
“Says the Knight Commander.”
Gary chose at that moment to snort in his sleep quite loudly, shooting a puff of green and lavender sparkles out his nose. He resumed snoring annoyingly like the princess unicorn he was. Tiggy tugged him tighter against his chest in his sleep.
“How did you meet them?” Ryan asked. “There are at least thirty different versions of the story.”
“What?”
He shrugged. The fire popped. An owl called out from the Dark Woods. “People talk about you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re you.”
“That’s… succinct. And frightening.”
“It’s a reason,” he said. “Trust me on that.”
“Okay, then.”
“So?”