“What business of yours is it?” Eden looked down at the man on the ground. She didn’t have to explain herself to him.

A few days’ growth of stubble enhanced his good looks, damn him. A face that probably made women drop their panties, lips perfectly kissable, and a set of lashes that should be illegal, framed dark eyes—a perfect setting for his dark skin.

She fought to keep her gaze from traveling from his face down to that muscular neck that topped a chest, which filled out his shirt, muscles bulging. He was leaning against the tree, one leg angled over the other, arms crossed over those pecs.

Eden looked away quickly. She looked away before Piria could notice she was having a reaction to Sean. She gulped down a lump of nervousness.

A streak of heat made its way through her body.

Dammit. She bit her lip. Piria knew.

“I guess it’s not my business.” Sean was frowning. “What’s wrong?”

“You need to go.” She kept her gaze averted from him. “Now.”

“Why?”

She dropped to the ground and whirled to face him. “Go, now.” She was almost screaming.

A searing pain coursed through her nerve endings, starting from her shoulders, down her arms, into her hands.

“Now!” she yelled, as a flame took hold of a bush. “Go.”

But he didn’t go.

So, she did.

She ran from him. Eden glanced back. He was putting out the fire with the shirt he’d removed. Stomping on the flames and uttering curses.

She’d left her basket in the tree—lunch uneaten—but at this point, did it really matter?

Finally, she stopped and talked to her elemental in her head.

“Piria, you need to talk to me. You can’t keep setting things on fire because you don’t like bears.”

Eden’s panther snarled.

“You hush,” she told her panther.

“Piria. Please. Talk to me.”

Silence, still.

Eden paced in a tight circle in front of a hollowed out old tree. Over and over again, she paced trying to get Piria to come out and talk to her.

No luck.

Exhausted from fire-creating and the pacing, not to mention the running, plus the emotional fatigue, Eden plopped into the hollow, curled up and held her legs tightly against her body. She tucked her chin onto her knees.

Her stomach rumbled with hunger, and she thought of the basket she’d abandoned. Too bad, too late now.

“I can wait, Piria. I can wait until you do talk to me. I can wait indefinitely.”

Unfortunately, the next voice Eden heard wasn’t Piria’s. It was Tyler’s. And it came from somewhere nearby.

“Have you ever been close to her elemental?”

Who was Tyler talking to?

The answer to that came very soon. On a parallel path, a few yards away, Tyler and Camden were taking a walk.

Eden stayed motionless, unseen, unnoticed.

She studied the couple as they kept a leisurely stroll. There was something off with her sister’s body language. And something odd about the interaction between Camden and Tyler. There was a distance between the two of them. Not huge, but they weren’t holding hands, like they usually did.

Eden narrowed her eyes and appraised them.

“No, Piria doesn’t seem to be of a mind to become close to anyone.”

That wasn’t Camden’s voice!

The realization hit Eden hard. She was eavesdropping on a conversation between Camden’s elemental and Tyler.

And they were discussing Eden—or rather, her elemental.

“What can we do to help Eden? She’s going to burn the house down. Camden didn’t have any ideas, do you?” Tyler had turned to face Camden—or rather, Avala.

Great.

She held back a sigh. I’m just everyone’s little problem.

“I think Camden’s idea to call Circe is the best one yet. Circe might have a suggestion,” Avala said.

A fury raged within Eden. She couldn’t even talk to Piria, and here was Camden’s elemental, chatting with Tyler like they were besties. Tears of wrath built behind her eyes. Eden closed her lids tightly to keep them from escaping, but no such luck. Her tears made hot tracks as they trailed down her cheeks.

Tears of frustration with Piria’s unwillingness to communicate or help her, tears of frustration that she felt irresistibly drawn to Sean, and could barely talk to him without Piria trying to burn everything down.

She tucked herself deeper into the tree’s hollow and surrendered to her panther’s snarls in the deep recesses of her mind. Her panther had always been one to soothe her.