I swallow heavily, then go stiff when he steps toward me and inclines his head. Never have I touched foreheads with someone of his station, but I dip mine, and he presses them together.
“I am grateful to see you on your feet,” he murmurs. Hearing my language is a balm to my soul, even though the words are coming from a prince, which terrifies me. Pulling back, he glances over my shoulder. “Is Dante here?”
“The human is at his workplace,” I explain.
Quilliyn nods, then shuffles his feet like he’s nervous. “May I come in?”
It is not my place to give permission, but I think that Dante and Quilliyn are friendly. Dante goes to his gym sometimes and has always been so very welcoming to everyone.
Besides, I will happily take a punishment from Dante over what Quilliyn could order me to do.
Stepping aside, I allow him to move past me, and his gaze darts around, taking it all in before he sits on the edge of a couch cushion and waits for me to join him.
I hesitate, then start to kneel when he catches me. “Please don’t. Not here.”
I stare at him.
“I know who I am.WhatI am,” he adds. “But I’m not the prince while I’m here.”
I don’t know what to make of that because Vyastil are who they are, no matter what realm they walk. I might be in this gorgeous space with a kind human, but I am still an outcast.
Quilliyn takes me by both hands and urges me to sit beside him before letting go. There’s been so much touching since Iarrived. So much contact. It’s soothing in ways I didn’t know it could be, but also terrifying because losing it would be a greater pain than I want to bear.
“Tell me you’re okay,” he says after a moment. His gaze flickers down to my scarred chest and the spaces where my adornments are gone. His expression falls. “Truly. You’re healing alright?”
I nod. “The humans have been very kind.”
His face softens. “Yes. Some of them are.”
And some are not, goes unspoken.
“They wouldn’t let me see you after you were granted the pardon from the dungeons,” he says. “I was…worried.”
I bow my head. “Your favor to Everest is fulfilled. I am healing.”
He stiffens and catches my gaze. “Everest told me what happened, but I would have come for you. What happened wasn’t fair, Cielo.”
I haven’t heard my name spoken in my tongue in a while. Even Rathyn avoids using it unless he has to. The feeling sits heavy in my chest.
“I broke the law.”
“A bullshit law,” he spits. One of the words is not Eretharian at all. “You would have been punished if you’d denied Rathyn’s companion anything. And then you were punished when you obeyed orders. How is that fair?”
He isn’t wrong. But our laws have never seemed to favor anyone but people of his station. Of Rathyn’s station.
So I say nothing.
After a while, he lets out a long breath of air. “You can be happy here, you know. I…I know it’s horrible. I know the feeling of missing home.” He closes his eyes, and I fight the urge to remind himhecan go back any time he chooses. That this life—this exile—was something he wanted. “There’s so much here that can be good.”
I hesitate, then say, “Hugging?”
He laughs. “Yeah. Hugging is amazing.”
“Kissing.” I have not experienced it, but I have seen the joy it brings Rathyn.
Quilliyn’s teal skin darkens. “Have you…”
“No.”
