Page 60 of Tears of Gold

I freeze. Why would I think of him as fish?

My head suddenly throbs. I crouch down to hold it, moaning as thundering noise hammers between my ears, forcing me to drop to my knees with a whimper, my pants soaking in the dew.

Something is very wrong.

“Hey!” Harper’s voice breaks through the hurricane in my head. “You okay?” Cool hands cup my cheeks.

I blink, my cheeks flaring against his hands as I puff hard. “M-migraine.”

“Enough running then. Can you walk?”

The pounding lessens. I nod, and he offers me a hand up. Was I trying to remember something? I can’t even recall what I was thinking about.

Harper winces as I pull on the hand he offered and he claps his free hand to his shoulder.

“What’s wrong with your arm?”

“Skye bit a hole in me.”

For a moment, I’m speechless, then a shadow of suspicion crosses my mind. “What’d you do to earn that?”

Harper glares at me. “Seriously? It’s gotta be my fault, huh? Your perfect boyfriends can’t do anything wrong, can they?”

“Wait, I didn’t—”

His nose wrinkles. “Well, I guess you’re right. I tried to leave, and Skye and Erritt’s guard dog dragged me back like a criminal.”

“You what?” I gasp. “Why would you leave?”

He groans and presses a palm to his forehead. “Because it’s too hard watching you run back to them.” His voice rises. “I’m human, Ava. I’m good for you.” He points up the hill. “They’re not even the same species as you!”

His words bring a sour note to my tongue. “And I thought elementals were the racist ones around here!” The tempo of the throbbing in my head speeds up.

“So what? You shouldn’t even be on this planet!”

Something hard and hot winds itself through my lungs. “And whose fault is that?” I shoot back.

His hands fist up. “Yeah, mine. I’m the one who fucking kidnapped you! And I’ll be sorry for that every day of my life.” He paces a few steps away before rounding on me, throwing his arms out. “But you’re going around with your eyes closed because you’re lovesick. Wake up, Ava! I can’t protect you here. I’m not even sure they can, to be honest. If that fucking prince can’t even protect himself, how’s he supposed to look after you?”

Shit, has he always been this much of an asshole? “Leave Erritt out of this!”

“There you go again!”

“Of course I’ll stand up for my boyfriend. It’s called loyalty!”

“And what does that leave me? What am I to you?”

I shake my head.

He grabs my shoulders. “Say it, Ava! All that happened in the warehouse! Was it a lie?”

His fingers grip me painfully, and tears sting my eyes. Where did we go so wrong? I was trying to apologize.

“I just want things to go back to how they were,” I mumble.

Harper’s eyes widen in shock as if I’ve slapped him. His face shutters, and he shakes his head. “Well, sorry, but I just can’t do that.” He spins on his heel and strides away.

I know I should call him back. Anything not to leave things worse like this. But I’m frozen in place, my heart throbbing and cracking open.