“She sensed me.” It was the conclusion he’d come to a few moments ago, for how else would she have been aware of his spying eyes when she’d not once come anywhere close to turning in his direction. And he was certain he hadn’t made a sound like some novice Guardian.

“Sensed you? How?”

“I don’t know yet. But I think we need to find out.”

“How? By accepting her invitation to luncheon and sipping tea while nibbling on sandwiches? Shall I chaperone? I’d hate to see you break your vow to the Goddess of the Wood.”

Cainan had learned to bridle his temper when dealing with Sinna’s ever-flowing fountain of sarcasm and scathing judgments, but this one went too far even for her. “I would never do that. This isn’t about me. This is about her. And what she might be. My gut is telling me that driving her away is the wrong solution. Can you just trust me for once?”

Finally, he met her unwavering gaze. Maybe it was the defiance in his eyes or the vehemence with which he’d spoken, but her expression softened. “Yes, I can trust you. I do trust you. I’m sorry, I know I can be…a lot…sometimes. Over-confident to a fault. Demanding. Impatient.”

“You left out condescending.”

She smiled. “Shall we list your faults next? I fear its length would challenge my own.”

“Maybe next time. So are we in agreement on the way forward then?”

“Yes. On one condition.”

He groaned. “Dare I ask what?”

“If you expect me to trust you, then I ask that you grant me the same privilege.”

“I do trust you, Sinna. You know that.”

“Do I? Then why did I need to track you through the forest three times before finally learning where you’d been disappearing to? And don’t give me that load of rubbish about ‘just going for a walk’. You don’t even like walking.”

He cast his eyes to his feet. Raised his gaze back to her, feeling genuinely regretful that he’d hurt her feelings. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should’ve told you right away. I should’ve trusted you. It won’t happen again.”

“It better not, because you’re damn hard to track, you bastard. All that cutting back on your own trail, climbing trees, and wading down streams was exhausting. Thankfully today you were lazier than the previous days or I might’ve never caught up to you. And then we would’ve never had this little heart to heart. It was nice, wasn’t it? Shall we hug to seal our promises?”

“Pass. I fear you only know how to give one type of hug, the kind that chokes the life out of a person.”

She mock clutched at her heart. “You wound me. One would think I was a monster.”

“Are you not? Weren’t you just talking about burning down a woman’s home and driving her from the forest?”

“That’s fair. But by such a definition, all of the Forsworn would be monsters then.”