The Sage's Vow

7.2 || Growing Unease

Every instinct in Josh screamed at him to dart away. Walking in on anyone crying was awkward enough, but this was a girl he barely knew. The fact she was a Sage he'd already had a few snippy interactions with didn't help.

Kaitlyn turned her head away and wiped at her face. Still, when she turned back to glower at him, the red eyes and damp skin continued to give her away.

"What are you doing here?"

Josh's fists clenched, but he took a deep breath rather than instantly snapping back. She'd just gotten told off by her dad. Of course she would be moody.

He pointed around them, doing his best to make his smile easy and friendly. "This is a library. Anyone can be here." Josh mentally winced at his own tone. That had not come out how he meant.

Yeah, that sounded pretty snarky to me, Boomer said.

If Josh's smile hadn't been strained before, it was now. Gee, thanks, Boomer. Josh cleared his throat. "I mean, I was just wanting to look for a book."

She frowned, and her annoyance changed to suspicion. "What kind of book?"

Josh opened his mouth but snapped it back shut. Researching Elementals had to be an innocent enough task, yet he didn't want to say his intentions. Could it be possible that something so simple would give him away?

Kaitlyn's eyes narrowed. "You just happened to be heading to the library, huh?"

He swallowed. She sure wasn't making it easy to be patient. "Yeah. I wanted to get something to read. Is that so hard to believe?"

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. With every second that passed, fury replaced the pain that had edged her expression. "Lunch just passed, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but what's that have to do with—" It hit him after a moment. The best route from the courtyard to the library was the same as the one he'd taken from the infirmary. Meaning he would have had to have passed Joel on his way there.

He held his hands up in a placating gesture. "Look, yeah, I heard some voices from here, but really, I had just been on my way. I didn't know anyone would be here. I just wanted some books." Not entirely a lie, but she didn't need to know about the eavesdropping.

By the look she was giving him, though, she suspected it anyways. "Odd, because my father wouldn't have been silent if he passed anyone."

Crud. She was not going to let this go. He tried for a shrug. "Your father isn't my biggest fan."

Something about what he said made her wrinkle her nose. "Oh, trust me, he would have stopped if he saw you."

Josh had been doing everything he could to escape this situation, but that brought him up short. "Why is that?"

She put her chin in her palm and pointedly turned away, though he didn't miss her eye roll. "It doesn't matter."

"Just like the reason you're crying doesn't matter, I'm sure."

She flinched but didn't turn back. "Aren't you here to find a book or something?"

Josh glowered. "Oh no. No way. You're not going to act like you didn't just say that."

Kaitlyn glanced at him from the corner of her eye, a pleasant smile on her face. "Say what?"

He wasn't going to win this, and he wasn't sure it was a fight he even wanted to take. Anyway, she probably just meant him as a general person, not him specifically. But as he went browsing the books, purposefully not going to his true destination first, he couldn't shake Kaitlyn's refusal to give him a straight answer. His insides squirmed. There wasn't any chance Joel would take a special interest in him, was there? Not like Josh feared the Sage leader or anything.