Herbalists' Cache What a find

The resignation in her voice wounded him greatly, and he looked at her, mouth half-open as if to offer a rebuttal--but the words wouldn't come. None of this was her fault. Had they met in a different place, at a different time. . .things would be different. And if she were some temptress like Samaantine that he'd be fine with fucking and fleeing. . .things would be different.

But this girl, this beautiful, kind girl--she didn't deserve his ambivalence. Nor the ghosts that danced in his dreams, night after night.

Her parting words, though, sparked a fire in him, and as she turned to leave, he raced toward her, half-blocking her path out of the glade. "My feelings?" Shale asked, voice incredulous. "You think this is about my feelings? Pema, if it were about my feelings, you would be mine, this instant!" A heady mixture of anger and insult swam through his brain, and he blinked, trying to calm his thoughts.

"It's for you that I'm choosing to let you go. It's so I don't hurt you. You think I'm doing this for me?!"