“I wasn’t before.”
“You stood against your mother tonight.”
“Only because I knew you’d catch me if I fell.”
Silence settled softly between us after that.
Heavy.
Tender.
Real.
Outside the tower windows, the auroras shifted slowly across the skies above Asgarheim while the distant sounds of the Spring Equinox Festival carried faintly through the cliffs below Runevald.
Somewhere out there students still celebrated beneath enchanted lanterns and ancient stars.
But here?
Here felt separate somehow.
Private.
Safe.
Menon brushed his nose gently against mine.
“You are tired,” he murmured.
“A little.”
“You should sleep.”
I smiled softly.
“You say that like I’m capable of sleeping when you look at me like that.”
His tail tightened lazily around my thigh beneath the blankets.
“How do I look at you?”
“Like you’re trying to memorize me.”
“I am.”
Gods.
I buried my face against his chest immediately.
“You cannot just say things like that casually.”
“I can. I am celestial royalty.”
I snorted against him.
“There it is. The ego.”
“It is not ego if I am objectively magnificent.”
