Jade Fern Grove You assume I'm fine, but what would you do if I

While realization dawned on Mahler, Wylla stared resolutely away. She'd planned her trip impeccably to avoid this exact awkward moment, but Noctisardor Bypass was a fair distance further than Nova Peak, and the time she would have taken to return home and seek solitude was instead wasted coming here, and now he knew.

And some part of her was plucked toward him, stretching out for a fitting, masculine body she had known before, but she was quick to stomp on and bury it. It wasn't strong enough to compel her yet. She would be gone before that happened, and the price was too high for her to pay if she was not.

I will not, she said stiffly, choking on the softer things she wanted to say and the apology that pressed against the backs of her teeth. I will call them from here when I visit. I do not need special treatment. She should apologize. No! She did not owe him one, not even for threatening his life. Unreasonable to bar him from those meetings, she thought suddenly, and knew it was only because she wished for closeness to soothe her, but she could not abide it from him. She could not. This time, she would not.

Goodbye, she said.