Although  it  was  hard,  he  attempted to keep
his gaze locked on the road,  instead of letting
it  flicker  to  the  brunette  next  to  him. It was
just a small assignment;      they would be fine.
Even if things went South,  she was more than
capable.     Hell, she had managed to stake him
twice.       If that was not a show of great skill,
he was not sure what it was.    Still, a feeling of
uncertainty    had   his   stomach   turning.   He
hoped his discomfort  wasn’t  displayed  in his
eyes.      If it was,  Rose had most likely already
guessed most of his thoughts.   Sometimes, it
was as if they had established a psychic bond,
after    the   one   between   her   &   Lissa   had
disappeared.

“You got to keep it  —-  ?”   was  his  question
when his  eyes inevitably  shifted to  her,  quickly
scanning   her  full   body   &   her   surroundings.
Guardian habits die extremely hard.       The stake
was hardly missed by his attentive gaze,         and
its  geometrical  pattern  identified   it  as  the one
she had taken in Siberia.        & the one Tasha had
used   to  kill  the   queen  with.     That   particular
thought   still   made   him   cringe.  His long-time
friend   involved   in    such   an   inexcusable    act
wasn’t   a   mental  picture  he  was  very  fond  of.
Pushing the  thought  away  was  harder  than  he
thought,  but it was possible,  and he immediately
realized what Rose would’ve had to do.          "You
must really like that cell,“   if you’re stupid enough
to steal that thing,  was left unsaid,  yet the words
hung  in  the  air between them as he regarded her
with a mixture of amusement, disapproval & pride.