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"No."

I frowned. "What do you do all night?"

He didn't answer.

"Azaren."

Silence.

"You've been with me for a year."

"...Yes."

"So what did you do?"

Another long pause followed so long, I didn't think he was going to answer, and prepared a new batch of questions, when he admitted, "I watched."

I stopped walking. "You... watched me?"

He tried to backpedal. "I wasn't... watching watching."

I stared at him—I thought. "There's a difference?"

"You are remarkably accident-prone."

"I am not!"

"No?"

"No!"

"You nearly stepped on three western diamondback rattlesnakes."

My mouth fell open. "I what?"

"I relocated them."

"You... relocated them?"

"They objected."

"I would've died!"

"You did not."

"Because of you!"

I tried harder to make out where he was this time. Not being able to see him was infuriating.

"I saw no reason to alarm you after the danger had passed."

I kept looking. There. A flicker. No, just a firefly.

He said it so matter-of-factly I couldn't help laughing right until he kept going. "There was also the mountain lion."

My laughter died. "The... there was a mountain lion?"

"It was young."