She had to admit that had the situation not been so tense, had the encounter not shaken her so, she might have laughed at his sulking denial of needing love. If anyone needed love, she thought, it was the creature before her. She had seen the pitiful look on his face just then as he had released her. Had watched him break apart in his trailer. Part of her wanted to insist on holding him, but she made no effort to stop him when he distanced himself.
She was momentarily stunned by his admission that it had not been her reminders of his Djinn counterpart that had halted him, but rather her own unvoiced experiences that had pulled him back to himself. Her wings gave a jolting spasm behind her as she considered that, only half listening to his recollection of the events that had led them here.
"That does not make you sound any less Careless," she murmured, and shook her head slowly, tilting her head back to look up at the perpetual darkness of the sky overhead. She stepped back, giving him more of the space he desired, a prominent tenderness meeting her fingertips where they still splayed across her belly. "And what? Burn the entire cirque to the ground? Destroy everything? Everyone? Destroy yourself?" She made a sound in her throat and dropped her gaze to regard him seriously.
"There are hours left in the Hunt. Where will you go?"