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“Sorry we didn’t bring you today,” Acacia said.
Wyll glanced up and grinned. She and the others had returned a few hours ago after clearing out a den of spiders, each covered in webs and looking miserable. “After hearing Astarion’s complaining when he dug webs out of his boots? I’m glad I missed it.”
She chuckled. “Normally he exaggerates. Not today, though. I can still feel the damned things crawling on me.”
He handed her a plate and she dried it with a thin towel. Gale had cooked and it was Wyll’s turn to clean. He had been in the middle of scrubbing the pot in the river when Acacia sat down next to him and started drying the clean plates. “You can head to bed,” Wyll offered. “There’s not much today.”
“I could use good company.” She glanced at him, and her expression turned uncertain. “Unless you need some time alone. I’m sure someone else is still up.”
“No! No, I enjoy your company, but you’ve been across half the coast today. I can handle the dishes.”
“Oh, well in that case,” she said, smiling again, and snatched a plate and kept working, “I’ll just stick around and help.”
He shook his head at her but couldn’t hide the fond smile. “If you insist, who am I to stop you?”
They fell into comfortable silence and soon the mismatched, looted dishes were clean and neatly stacked on a towel beside them.
Acacia leaned back on her elbows and stared out into the water. Wyll couldn’t help but watch her instead of the view. She was captivating. Tall and muscular, powerful from years of hiking up and down the Sword Coast and drawing a massive longbow, her body that was normally covered by thick leathers and heavy cloth when travelling was now dressed down in simple pants and a soft black tank with a neck so deep he suspected she had borrowed it from Shadowheart. Her feet were bare and her face relaxed as she gazed out at the night, where stars glistened perfectly in the water’s reflection. Even her hair, always braided tightly to her head to keep it out of her face during battle, was loose and hung in curly waves around her chin, a deep, vibrant red. A single scar marred her face, cutting low across her face and over her chin.
Wyll blushed and turned away, realizing he was staring. He’d been impressed by the beauty of others before, but she was more than that. His heart fluttered when he looked up to see her smiling, or when she was blood-splattered after a fight, or on the rare occasion she would crack a deadpan joke that sent Karlach roaring with laughter.
It was complicated, with the tadpoles and goblins and everything else. Of course it was. This was a fantasy, that’s all. He enjoyed her company. He didn’t need more than that.
“Wyll?”
He glanced at her. She wasn’t looking at him, and her face was very carefully neutral like it was when she would deal with problems in the group. “Yes?”
“How are you? I mean, not well, obviously, none of us are doing well. But,” she paused, turned to him with the intense eye contact that tended to come from a ranger, “how are you doing? With your father, and Karlach, and your damned patron. Most people would’ve given up weeks ago.”
He grimaced, forced a smile. “I’m alright,” he promised. “Honestly. There’s no point in worrying about things I can’t control, and we’re heading to Moonrise. Father was last seen there, and we can’t get there any faster with the goblins in the way. This is our best course of action.”
Her green eyes practically bored into him. “Really? I don’t want to push you, but you also can’t sit on all this.”
Wyll stared at her. She was right, but all he could think about was hellfire. The night he had transformed into a fiend. He had looked at her, and she had been horrified, had recoiled from him like he burned her.
That had hurt more than anything else.
“I promise you, I am fine,” he swore, tapping his chest with one hand and praying she hadn’t heard his words tighten.
Acacia stared at him. From anyone else he would’ve expected a tug through their tadpoles to check on him, but she hadn’t touched the damn things since they’d begun travelling. “If you’re sure,” she finally said.
She got to her feet. “I’m off to bed. You should too.”
Her tone wasn’t angry, just cool. Like she’d expected better from him. His chest tightened and he spoke before he could stop himself.
“You think I’m a monster.” He hated how broken he sounded. Wyll hadn’t cried in years. He’d refused to give the devil more ammunition for taunting, but now five simple words nearly ended that.
Acacia twisted around, horrified. “What?”
“When—” he couldn’t say it, so gestured to his horns instead. “You pulled away like I’d burn you. You looked at me like you looked at that hag who took the girl.”
Acacia dropped to her knees in front of him. Her eyes glistened and she reached out to gently, carefully, take his hand. Wyll felt his traitorous heart jump at the warmth of her skin and he had to squeeze his eyes closed. “I’m so sorry. Wyll, I swear on Lathander, I have never seen you as a monster. I pulled away because I was terrified to hurt you. Your skin looked like it was on fire, and I was afraid to make it worse.”
“You wouldn’t have hurt me.”
“I could have,” she insisted. “I’m a monster hunter, Wyll. Fey, undead, demons, whatever shows up to cause problems. When that damned devil showed up I wanted to rip into her, but then she started threatening you, and, gods, your pact. Anything I did could’ve ended with you in the Hells. Permanently.”
Wyll wrapped his fingers around her hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“None of this is your fault.”
“It feels like it is.”
She leaned over so she could meet his gaze. Her free hand gently traced his face and her thumb stroked the skin under his stone eye. “It’s not. I know you feel like a monster, but I know monsters better than anyone. You’re still you, under everything. No monster has a heart like yours. You are the kindest man I’ve ever met.”
Wyll tightened his grip and leaned into her touch until his forehead rested on her shoulder and her arms wrapped around him. “Thank you,” he said shakily. “You shouldn’t have to deal with my problems.”
“That sort of seems to be my job,” she said. She pulled back to look at him. “And, truly, it’s no trouble. I don’t want you to sit on these things.”
Someone laughed loudly over in camp and the pair pulled away gently. Wyll gave her a soft smile and released her hand. “We should get back to the group before they come looking for us.”
Acacia chuckled and got to her feet. “Especially since I mentioned to Karlach that I saw something big coasting through the water yesterday.”
Wyll raised an eyebrow as she tugged him off the ground. “And you didn’t mention this before now?”
“It was probably just a giant frog. Don’t go too deep and you’ll be fine. Now, come on. Let’s get some rest. We’re leaving for the goblin camp first thing tomorrow.”