"I slept the whole day away?" Leonie groaned that evening, when the group finally stopped to rest for the night.
She still felt exhausted, but much better than in the afternoon. While the men lit the fire and prepared the camp, Leonie busied herself with unpacking the food so she could at least feel useful.
Slowly everyone settled around the fire, and she handed out dinner to each of them.
Dorian watched the expressions on his friends' faces as they observed Leonie bustling about. It filled him with satisfaction that they were all treating the girl kindly and seemed to enjoy watching her. Perhaps a little too much. Even Xavier grumbled a "Thank you" to her.
"I can't wait to get home and finally eat Revna's cooking again," Nir whined as he eyed the dry meat in his hand with a critical look.
"I'm sure Revna thanks the heavens she finally gets some peace from you," Aeson remarked mockingly.
"Revna is a kind soul. I'm certain our company is not a burden to her, otherwise she wouldn't invite us over," Filarion said in a dreamy tone.
"Pff, we all know the real reason we hang around her all the time, don't we, Dorian?" Aeson teased him, and Leonie's head snapped up despite herself.
Revna? She had never heard that name from any of the elves before. Why had they never mentioned her?
If these men were constantly at her place, she must be important to them. And what had Aeson meant by that comment?
Perhaps Revna was important to Dorian in particular?
An odd, gnawing feeling began to seep into her chest and eat away at her.
If Dorian had someone waiting for him…
Not that it mattered. The man had not promised her anything, and she expected nothing from him. He had told her what his intentions were, after all. He would help her find out what had happened to her family, and that was all. What they had between them was a deal, nothing more.
So why did her heart feel so heavy?
"We don't go to Revna's because of me, but because you like how she fusses over you," Dorian sighed.
He seemed uncomfortable with the topic, which only nurtured the seed of jealousy growing in Leonie.
"Revna would fall ill if you stopped visiting her," Marcus added, and at that, the whole group began nodding.
Dorian let out a long sigh.
"I've told you to leave this alone. My relationship with Revna is my own business," he said.
Leonie's heart twisted. His relationship with Revna…
So the woman really was his sweetheart.
How could she ever have thought that Dorian's gentle concern for her might possibly be romantic in nature?
Perhaps she had only hoped, had trusted that the man might be interested in her too…
And how exactly was she interested in Dorian?
She was completely confused, and she shouldn't be feeling this wave of horrible emotions simply because of this.
For the rest of the evening, she just sat quietly among the chatting elves, and soon enough she withdrew to sleep, a little farther from the group. She had had a very draining day; that must have been the reason this unexplainable gloom had taken over her.
Dorian also noticed how quiet Leonie had been all evening.
But he did not want to ask in front of the others what was wrong. Maybe it was just that the magic had been too much for her. Even here, in human lands, using magic exhausted them as well, and Leonie had only had access to her power for about a day.
He wished he could look into her mind and find out what was going on inside her.
When the girl excused herself and went to bed, he waited barely five minutes. Then he stood up and left the group without a word.
He walked over to her and lay down beside the bundled girl—after all, in this cold she surely couldn't fall asleep if he didn't warm her up a little.
He grabbed another blanket and pulled it over them.
He hadn't been far off: Leonie really was shivering under her covers, but she still tensed up the moment she felt him move closer.
That hurt him a little; surely she didn't still think he would hurt her. He had thought it meant something that she had wanted to travel with him today.
"Is something wrong?" he asked after a while, because not knowing what had happened was driving him mad.
"Wrong?" Leonie chattered. She didn't know herself.
She couldn't very well demand an explanation from the man as to why he had a partner waiting for him at home. Once again it felt as if the ground had been pulled out from under her feet.
"N-nothing's wrong. I think… I just got really tired today, and I'm cold, too."
Dorian fell silent for a moment. He obviously didn't believe her, but he didn't push the matter further. Maybe she would tell him tomorrow.
He grabbed the girl's blanket, lifted it, and slipped underneath.
"What are you doing?" Leonie squeaked, her voice a whole octave higher.
"You said you were cold, I'm just warming you up," he said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.
"This isn't proper," she muttered. Now it was far less the physical contact that bothered her, and much more the thought of that Revna elf girl.
"Go to sleep already," Dorian ordered.