Chapter 10: Destination Temptation

-ALEC-

We’ve been walking for what feels like both hours and minutes, conversation surprisingly calm and easy after the kiss. Leena’s laugh is like sunshine, and when she throws her head back on a guffaw and bares her neck to me, I have to look away or risk doing something else I’ll regret.

“Okay, okay. So,” Leena bites her lip, trying to stifle her giggles, a young gesture that takes years off her strict, serious facade, “Let’s say I’m a really good liar, stone-faced with no vocal intonation to give me away. How would you be able to tell if I’m lying, then?”

I grin, sidestepping Leena as she kicks a foot out to trip me when I don’t answer immediately.

“It’s a speed round, Alec. No thinking, just answers.” Leena chides, taking a few rapid steps to catch up to me and sticking a foot out again, absolutely relentless.

“Alright, alright,” I placate, actually stumbling this time, the toe of my boot catching on her sneaker, “No thoughts, just words. Uh—” My mind draws a blank.

“Pff,” Leena rolls her eyes, “You are so bad at this.”

“Heartbeat!” I jump on the word, startling her as she keeps pace next to me.

“Jeez, more like a heart attack. But, okay, explain, why heartbeat?”

“A normal heart's rhythm is relatively steady from person to person, there are exceptions of course; trained athletes, people with medical conditions, or just some oddballs who have weird heartbeats.” Leena’s looking at me with rapt attention, so I continue quickly, not wanting her attention to stray.

“So when a normal person is nervous, or in this case, tells a lie, I can hear the pattern of their heartbeat change. It takes years to master, and most bitten wolves can’t master it at all.”

“Based on keen observation and some random patterns of deduction that I’m totally making up, I can deduce that you can read lies in heartbeats. Am I right?” Leena seems too proud of herself, but I don’t have it in me to lie to her. She’d probably know anyway, her intuition spot on despite not being a wolf. But I can take it as an opportunity.

“Why don’t we find out?”

“What’re you suggesting?” She asks, stopping and leaning against a tree to shake the rocks from her sneaker.

“Tell me some things about yourself, I’ll tell you if it’s a truth or a lie. We can even try for the best two out of three that we never got around to for…reasons.”

She looks contemplative for a moment, eyes to the sky and fingers thrumming on her knee, “Alright. You have yourself a deal. Right now?”

“Right now.”

“Hm. Alright, uh. My sister is a witch.” Leena’s words are measured and careful, trying not to give any outward clues that could tip me off to her truth or lie. But I don’t need to look to hear it.

“Truth.”

Leena nods, not looking impressed, “That was an easy one, consider it a warm up.”

“How gracious, your majesty.” I snicker when her hand slaps my outstretched arm.

“My favorite color is pink.”

“Truth. Ugh, why, Leena? Pink? There are so many great colors, but you pick one of the colors I can’t see. How can I get you flowers if they all look like some form of gross greenish-gray?” She looks mildly offended but somehow also flattered, eyes squinting and arms folding over her chest as she slumps to sit and rest against the scratchy, white bark of a birch tree. I follow her to the ground.

“First, I find it super interesting that you can’t see shades of red, and I’m super sorry that pink looks gross to you, it is truly the most magnificent color, and you’re missing out. Second, what’s your beef with pink aside from that? It’s a perfectly fine color. I bet yours is something cliche and broody like gray or black.”

“First,” I tease, mimicking her, “Gray and black are both shades. Second, my favorite color is blue, just to clear up that nonsense right now.”

“Typical, probably because it’s one of the colors you can see best.” She leans into me, her shoulder resting against my side as she ponders her final statement.

“You wouldn’t be wrong.” I muse, quieting after to let her have the space to think, but still needing to have the last word.

“I don’t feel bad about leaving my town to take this trip.”

I listen closely, this statement is the most important of the three she’s given, and I want to be sure I’m correct before giving my answer.

“It’s a lie, but there’s also more to it,” I begin, turning to face Leena so I can look at her face and see her expression, “You desperately want to be ok with leaving, and it sounds like you’re starting to, but you still hold a lot of resentment. Which I also understand.”

I wait her out, giving her time to think about what I said, hopefully not too much time, because if she overthinks it, she may overthink it to the point where she wants to return home. But her response comes quickly enough, and it’s genuine.

“I feel like, even though I have guilt about leaving, the town will be fine without me, your blood made sure of that. And I think that I have a good reason to be out here...with you.”

I smile, and it’s a little too sharp to be fully human, but she doesn’t seem to mind, giving me a shy smile in return that’s followed by a full body flush that I can smell more than see.

“I’m glad I’m a good enough reason to leave. You deserve some more variety in your life. And—”

A familiar smell of fresh water and overgrown, damp foliage comes to me on the next breeze, cutting me off from what I was going to say, lips curling into a smile.

“What is it?” Leena asks.

“You in the mood for an adventure?”

“I thought we were on an adventure.” She side-eyes me, a secret, private smile curving her lips that makes me want to lean in and kiss her again.

I shake my head fondly instead, getting up and offering a hand, and I try not to let the surprise show on my face when she takes it and stands, not letting go of it as we begin walking. It’s like the sky is suddenly spitting out rainbows and sunshine, the world feeling comfortable and right for the first time in years. If it wasn’t for Leena so close and our relationship so tentative, I would cry with how happy I feel.

But the smell of fresh water on the wind presses me onward, and soon I’m pulling Leena into a run as we traipse through the trees and finally break into a clearing. Her eyes widen as she takes in the scene before her.

A large waterfall cascades over multiple large boulders, all streaming into a shallow pool that looks just deep enough to wade in. Hopefully deep enough to swim. Everything is covered in moss, ferns, and dense foliage; and if I had to take a guess, I’d say the water is likely to be warm due to how shallow the pool is.

“How about a swim?”