guys can’t keep this from her. It’s not fair to take advantage of her ignorance. Plus, you know who’s going to pay the biggest price for it? Me. She’ll kick my ass for not telling her, and I don’t call her Chuck Norris for no reason. I know she really can,” Jordan said, and my heart warmed a little. She really did love me.
And because I was super curious as to what secrets they were still keeping, I stopped moving down the stairs and waited for someone to respond.
“We know, Jordan, but it’s not only up to us,” Mom said. “Ryland has to decide as well.”
Nothing but silence followed, and my curiosity was piqued at what Ryland might have to do with this big secret.
“Well, Ryland. What are you going to do?” Jordan pushed.
“Not a damn thing. We don’t have time for this right now. We can deal with it after we hunt down Alaryk. You of all people should understand that a mission will always come before anything else,” Ryland answered.
“Ah, I see. You’re afraid. That’s okay, because you’re right. I do understand, but at least I had tried. There’s a huge difference here, though, and you know it. James wasn’t my Meraki. Yes, I loved him, but I wasn’t bound to him. He wasn’t my soulmate. We both knew the risks and took them anyway.
“You, on the other hand, are denying your soul the very thing it wants most in this world and causing me to omit extremely important information from my best friend. Now, man up and deal with it or you’re more liable to cost us this mission than you are to save the day.”
“I remember a time when I was your best friend, too,” he grumbled.
“You still are, or I wouldn’t be saying anything at all right now and keeping your secrets,” Jordan responded and then my parents changed the subject, but I didn’t comprehend anything after that.
Jordan had said the words “Meraki” and “soulmate”, and she was talking about me. Correction, me and Ryland. What in the world did Meraki mean, and why would she think Ryland was my soulmate? If I had some connection to him, wouldn’t I have known it?
Sure, I thought he was hot when I first met him, but that didn’t mean anything. There was no possible way my attraction was more than that, and I was going to prove it.
After taking a deep breath, I decided I wasn’t going to say anything. It was a secret I’d let them think they were keeping for the time being, because if Ryland was actually right—if there was something between us that somehow I wasn’t aware of—then it didn’t need to be discussed until my life and the lives of others weren’t in danger.
Strolling into the room, I put on my best poker face and took my seat again. “Sorry about that. I just needed some air.”
Mom reached for me. “It’s quite alright, dear. Do you feel better now?”
“Yep. Better than ever before. So, I was thinking upstairs, I don’t want to wait. I think I should begin my training as soon as possible. How do we make that happen?”
Ryland pushed away from the table. “We don’t make anything happen. I’m in charge of your schedule, and I’m busy tomorrow. It will begin as previously scheduled.”
Okay, being quiet about what I’d overheard was not going to happen if he insisted on acting like a jerk. Even though I knew stooping to his level didn’t make me any better than him, I didn’t give a crap in the moment.
“Listen, Ryland. I don’t care who you are to my parents, to Arvayta, or even to me with whatever this Meraki thing is. I realize I don’t know everything I should, but I’m willing to learn, and if you don’t want to be the person tasked to help me, then go away instead of making things harder.”
His eyes widened for a split second before he glared at Jordan. “This is your fault.”
Snapping my fingers, I brought his attention back to me. “No, this is your fault for acting like you’re better than me.”
My eyes held his as emotions within me warred. Ryland infuriated me like nobody had before, and that was saying something considering my best friend was Jordan.
“Fine. I’ll be here tomorrow morning at five. Be ready or I’ll get you ready myself.” Then, he stormed off and I couldn’t help but smirk.
His irritation only fueled me to be better than he thought I