Free Everywhere and Nowhere (Safe Haven Book 1) by Rebecca Royce

then had the nerve to yawn. “The one that says you’re thinking too hard.”
    “I’m in another dimension, for goodness sake. I’m entitled to overthink things in these circumstances.” She had no idea why she felt the need to justify herself to him.
    “There’s going to be plenty of time to worry.” His eyes clouded over for a moment. “Trust me. But for now, enjoy the breeze and the wonder of this. I started to believe I would never know this small joy again. Now, even if I don’t return from rescuing the princess, I had this moment.”
    She smiled. She still hated everything about this, but she liked the peaceful line of his neck muscles and the way the small lines near his eyes seemed to lessen. Shaking her head, she forced herself to stop considering Hadrian as if he belonged to her. Who cared if most of the time he was stressed? All she needed to focus on was getting to the people who could cure her so she could go back and fix Hailey.
    “This bird here,” Hadrian’s voice broke her from her reverie, “he is either the son or the grandson of one of the birds I had when I left here two centuries ago. I recognize the markings. They’re very unusual.”
    Hadley hadn’t really bothered in her state of shock and distress to examine the animal. She looked at it now. The bird, mostly black and white on its head and wingspan, had an array of spots on its back that ranged from blue to red in color. She’d never looked up the subject but if she had to wager a guess, she’d say that on Earth there weren’t blue hawks flying around.
    “So you train birds?”
    He nodded. “Among other things, but yes, hawks are my specialty. It’s why my name starts with H. I was named for the hawks. In fact, that’s why some of my friends called me hawk-boy when I was a kid.”
    “That’s quite a nickname.”
    “Hadrian is my actual name.” The wind picked up around them and Hadrian raised his voice to continue speaking. “We all have an animal here. Only the royals can make them talk but we all have one that is special to each of us. When a baby is born, the parents make a trek to Astor and one of the royals reads the baby’s aura and tells the parent what animal they’re connected to. My parents were told it was a hawk and named me Hadrian to match. My brother’s name is Dragon and my sister is Rabbit. They gave up even trying to be creative, just used the animals themselves. Jeremiah is
    Jaguar and Zamara is the Zebras.”
    “What is Stone?”
    Hadrian narrowed his eyes. “Why are you so interested in Stone?”
    What the hell is he talking about? Hadley sighed. “I’m not following your line of thought, Hadrian. Have I given some sort of indication that I have a preference for Stone?” Had her jumping Hadrian not been obvious enough?
    Hadley struggled to turn around to look at the aforementioned member of Hadrian’s crew. After a moment, the giant bird seemed to get the idea and adjusted its claws so she could see. Stone and three other men were right behind them in another, remarkably even bigger bird’s claws. They chatted away, completely unaware of her focus.
    “You held his hand when you walked down the road.”
    She shrugged. “He offered it to me. I didn’t want to trip.”
    “You could have refused it.”
    “And you say I talk in circles?” Hadley’s head started to spin and she didn’t think it had anything to do with bird travel or heights. “I had no reason not to accept his hand. Is there some rule I should have been made aware of? Have I committed a crime? Can a man not help a woman walk through a rocky, pit-filled road without bringing on the ire of his leader?”
    “You could have held my hand.”
    Was it wrong that arguing with him made her hot? “You didn’t offer it to me.”
    “I might have in another second.”
    Hadley opened her mouth to rebut him but her breath clogged in her throat. Hadrian was jealous. It wasn’t even a question. He was upset because Stone had held her