Warm fingers wrap gently around my wrist to stop my retreat.
“Don’t apologize,” he says, voice low and rough. “I…like it. You just surprised me.”
My cheeks flush as heat blooms through me. He lets go of my wrist and I let my fingers return to him, trying not to overthink it.
A shy part of me hesitates, but the comfort of his skin beneath my fingertips quiets the doubt.
I trail my fingers over his skin slowly, tracing unknown patterns into his skin. A scar catches beneath my touch, a raised line etched into skin. I trace it slowly, then let my fingers wander a little higher toward his chest.
His chest rises and falls beneath my palm, each breath measured like he’s trying not to spook me. ButI’m not afraid…I’ve never felt safer than I do right now, wrapped in his warmth, hidden in the stillness of this moment.
I draw a slow circle beneath his collarbone, then another as my thoughts wander.
“Do you think I can trust the other kings?” I ask quietly, my words a feather-light offering in the hush between us. “Or are they examples of the unsavory souls you mentioned?”
He breathes in slowly, deep and deliberate, and I let the silence stretch between us, not needing to fill it. There’s no discomfort in those moments. Not when his heart beats so steadily beneath my cheek, not when his body remains relaxed beside mine.
I know he will answer when he’s gathered his thoughts.
When he finally speaks, his voice is quiet.
“I don’t know.”
I lift my gaze slightly, just enough to glimpse the profile of his face in the moonlight. A stubbled jaw, loose tendrils of hair dropping into his golden eyes fixated on the ceiling, and the scar on his upper lip are all illuminated.
“My inclination isn’t to trust them myself,” he admits hesitantly. “But I also want to take my own feelings out of it when answering you, and that’s not easy.”
A heavy weight burdens his words, but I admire his attempt to remove his own bias.
“We’ve been enemies longer than we’ve been anything else,” he continues. “The four factions–fae, vampire, wraith, shifter–that kind of history doesn’t just fall away despite this new treaty. It’s in our bones to expect betrayal from each other. To protect what’s ours by never letting our guard down.”
He exhales heavily.
“But today…” his voice trails off for a moment, then returns, steadier. “When you wanted space, when you left them to think, none of them pushed you.”
I blink slowly, remembering the quiet field and the way they’d watched me.
“I’ve never seen them do that,” Torryn says, more to himself than to me. “To respect someone else's feelings above their own needs and desires.”
A new warmth unfurls in my chest with that tidbit of information, but it isn’t just the words that settle inside me. It’s the way he says them. Begrudging, yet honest. He tore down his preconceived notions to answer me, even if it makes him uncomfortable.
I shift closer without thinking, tucking my head beneath his chin and letting my fingers rest over his heart. His arm wraps more fully around me in response.
The silence holds us together in the dark, and with the sound of his heartbeat in my ear, I let my eyes fall shut.
Chapter 13
Wren
The warmth beside me is gone.
I feel it before I open my eyes, a quiet ache within me longing for his steadiness. The blanket covering me is heavier than the one I fell asleep under, thick and soft, carrying the faint scent of cedar, fur, andhimlingering in the threads.
Pale light spills through the high window, soft and silver, catching on the curve of the wooden beams overhead. The world is quiet. Just the hum of distant birds and the faint, rhythmic gusts of the wind outside.
I push up to sit and find my gaze snagging on the low table beside the bed. There’s a small meal in two wooden bowls, one filled with sliced fruit, the other with a fluffy yellow mixture. My stomach hums with quiet gratitude as I bite into a slice of tart green fruit.The juice runs down my fingers and I lick at it to keep it from getting onto the bed. I eat slowly, chewing as I glance around the quiet space in the daylight.
I notice a set of clothes at the end of the bed, laid out in offering.
