Maldenis sighed. “You are being very unhelpful.”
“You showed up uninvited.”
He studied her for another long moment. Then, maddeningly calm: “I can stay.”
Her eyes widened. “You cannot stay.”
“I can.”
“No, you absolutely cannot.”
He gestured casually toward the street. “Monsters are welcome here.”
“Yes, but not ones who accidentally married me!”
Maldenis smiled slowly. “Well,” he said, “that seems like something we should discuss.”
She groaned loudly and tipped her head back toward the sky. “Why,” she muttered, “did I get into that spring?”
Maldenis’s amusement faded, and for the first time since he’d shown up, the cocky ease slipped from his face. “Liora,” he said quietly. “Look.”
She crossed her arms tighter, already bracing herself.
“This is bigger than us.”
She snorted. “That’s what everyone says right before they try to drag someone else into their mess.”
“My family has lost standing because of this.” His jaw tightened, but he kept going. “The elders think I acted recklessly. Some think I did it deliberately.”
“Again,” she said dryly, “sucks for you.”
He exhaled slowly through his nose. “You don’t understand how basilisk houses work.”
“I understand perfectly,” she shot back. “Your reputation took a hit because you took a human to the wrong spring.”
“It’s more than reputation,” he said.
“Is it?” she said sharply.
“Yes.”
The single word landed heavier than the rest. For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then he stepped closer.
She felt it immediately, the heat of him, close enough now that it pressed into her space, wrapped around her before she could brace against it. It dragged something sharp and unwelcome to the surface, her inner thoughts flashing back to the spring, to water and heat and the way she’d let herself go with him. Her breath caught and she shook her head slightly, forcing the memory back down where it belonged.
“You have to come back with me.”
“No.”
He reached out instinctively, his fingers brushing her arm. The contact was brief, but it was enough.
A flash. Not an image exactly, but more like a door slamming open in her mind.
Stone halls. Voices raised in argument. The cold weight of disapproval pressing down like a physical force. A towering basilisk with emerald scales speaking sharply while others watched in silence.
Maldenis standing in the center of it.
Alone.
