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*****

~ SASHA ~

Sasha struggled to shake off the dread from the dream. Even when they discovered that she could give Zev her thoughts—and her feelings, something she wasn't quite as sure about—the little lift soon deflated when she touched his face again.

He was hot. Very hot. And not in the good way.

His skin was flushed, and his eyes bright with fever. Part of her wished for a thermometer from home. But then she thought, she didn't know what the normal temperature for a Chimeran was. And what if his temperature was horribly high? What if he was sicker than he was letting on?

As they walked out of the ravine and back into the valley meadow, following the line of the land, back towards the village, she didn't know whether to rush him, or keep the pace slow and save his energy.

Neither of them talked much. Sasha was deep in thought and assumed he was the same, but half an hour later when they were climbing out of the valley to the trail—going more east this time, because he insisted that they pass through the City so she could see it.

"You can't make an educated decision without it, and we don't know how long it will be before we can travel again," he insisted.

She didn't know if was alluding to his own illness stopping them from traveling. Or just that they would be too busy.

Neither sounded great, but she worried more about him. Especially when he pulled himself up over a rock, then reached down for her, and groaned when he took her weight.

"Zev," she said worriedly.

He shook his head. "It's painful, Sasha. That's all. I'm plenty strong and it's only going to be a few more hours. Stop worrying. Please. I wouldn't go on if I wasn't sure I could do it safely. I promise. I don't want to leave you in any position of vulnerability. This is more important than getting back to the village an hour or two earlier, I promise."

She wanted to resist, but the truth was, his conviction and determination helped her feel more confident that maybe the fever really wasn't as bad as she thought.

She swung back and forth, but the truth was, she wouldn't have known how to get back to the village directly without him anyway. So she didn't have a lot of choice.

Another hour in and she was beginning to tire. She was about to suggest they stop for a rest, when Zev paused, dropping his bag to the side of the trail and unbuttoning his jacket.

"What are you doing?!" she hissed, reaching for him.

"I feel hot," he said casually. "Being in the cold air will help take my temperature down."

Sasha fussed and protested, but he stopped moving and held her gaze. "Sash, I'm doing this to help myself. Seriously. This isn't something you need to worry about. I've had way worse injuries. This is a little hiccup, that's all. Okay? I'm strong, and I'm doing the best to help my body. In a few hours, we'll be home and I'll go straight to the healers, and then it'll get better from there. Just relax."

She frowned, but nodded and didn't protest when he shoved the jacket into his bag, then continued.

And he did seem to perk up a little after that, his skin making steam in the air, which was half-terrifying, and half-thrill-inducing.

By the time they reached an intersection of trails and he smiled, pointing her off to the right—deeper into a thick forest, rather than the more open air and rocky landscape they'd follow back to the village.

"We're almost there," he said, the words a touch breathless. But his eyes were sharp and focused, and he was smiling. "I've missed the City a lot."

"Really? Why?"

He shrugged. "It's home."

Sasha could understand that, she supposed. She'd have given her left leg to walk into her own apartment just then, tuck Zev into her bed, and feed him soup, call a doctor, then turn on a movie and lay in bed with him for days.

Zev made a little hum of pleasure. "I'd like that too," he said, his tongue curling around the words.

Sasha groaned. "How is it that I'm sending that to you? I don't mean to."

Zev chuckled and stopped at the side of the trail to offer his hand while she navigated a series of large tree-roots. He didn't answer until she was through, then he smiled. "When you think about a person, or something for them, you're automatically more likely to connect. As wolves, we learn to guard our minds from each other, so we only send what we choose.

"In those moments you're more open to me emotionally, so you're offering yourself without realizing it."

"So I need to be more guarded with you?"

He stopped walking and turned to look at her, his cheeks flushed. "No, Sash," he said quietly. "Please don't do that. I just meant… if you're thinking something you don't want me to see or know, be careful in your thoughts. Hold them to yourself. Don't… reach for me inside."

What did that even mean? Sasha wasn't sure, but before she could ask, Zev turned and started walking again. "We're almost there," he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

She hurried to keep up with him, shifting the weight of the bag on her shoulders as he pushed between bushes and through vines crawling from the tops of the trees, all the way down.

How he knew where they were going when there was no defined trail that she could see, she didn't know.

But soon his eyes sparkled and he nodded to a shaft of light punching through a gap between some trees ahead. "That's the clearing, the Square," he said, then smiled down at her. "Are you ready?"

"Um, sure." She wasn't sure what was so great about this place, why he was anticipating it so excitedly…. Until he pushed a thick branch from a low tree back, and ushered her through and she stepped out from the forest to find thick stones—cobbles, or bricks? She wasn't sure. The grass grew up between them in such uneven lines, she didn't know if it was cobbles that were just overgrown, or if it was natural stone placed to pave the road.

But as soon as she raised her eyes, all those questions fell out of her head.

Her mouth dropped open.

"Oh, Zev," she breathed.. "It's beautiful."