I can’t seem to swallow. “It was nothing. Just…a moment. Perhaps it was the wine, or exhaustion.”
The lie tastes brittle on my tongue, but I don’t know what I saw, or even if it was real. I would just sound crazy if I tried to explain it.
Azyric’s gaze lingers on me a moment longer, then shifts toward the doorway where an attendant stands dutifully.
“Dinner is over,” he says, standing so suddenly his chair scrapes faintly against the stone. “She’s done for tonight.”
Ilyria frowns. “Az–”
“She needs rest,” he cuts in, voice low but not cold.
“She needs someone with her who doesn’t treat her like a threat!” Ilyria’s voice sharpens, quiet but edged. She stands too, moving to go around him. “I’ll take her.”
Suddenly a wall of shadows blocks her path.
“She’s with me,” he says, sharper than anything I’ve heard from him before. His silver gaze locks on Ilyria’s. “I’ll see her to her chambers myself.”
I feel like I can’t breathe through the tension, and shame courses through me for causing this moment.
Ilyria blinks at him. Her mouth opens slightly before quickly closing. She studies him and thenslowly, without a word, lowers herself back into her seat.
Azyric turns his attention toward the attendant. “Bring bread, soft cheese, and cured meat to her room, now. Also a pitcher of water.”
The attendant bows and vanishes into the shadows.
“Come, Wren.”
It’s a demand, but a soft one. I rise to my feet and offer a look at Ilyria, hoping she knows I’m sorry for ruining our dinner before following alongside him in silence.
The castle corridors are completely empty now as I walk without looking at him and without saying a word.
Something brushes the center of my back, gentle but constant. Not guiding. Just…there. A soothing presence.
I glance out of the corner of my eye, noting his hands at his sides.
Instead, his shadows are reaching out, as if steadying me before I have a chance to stumble or fall into a trance again.
I let them as unease circles tightly within my chest.
Somehow in less than a day, I went from screaming in fear of his shadows to soaking in the comfort they provide me now.
As my eyes drop to the smooth stone floor, I wonder just how much more will change in the days to come.
Chapter 7
Wren
We stop just outside the door to my chambers and as he turns to face me, his shadows retract from my back, retreating back into the ink on his forearms.
His gaze rests on the dark wood of the door.
“Earlier…when you drifted. Did you remember something from your past?”
The question startles me more than if he’d barked it across the council chamber. It’s soft, almost hesitant.
His eyes lift to meet mine as my mouth parts, unsure what to say.
“I thought maybe you didn’t want to speak of it in front of Ilyria,” he continues. “But if you remembered something, I’d liketo know.”
