The thought rose instantly.Savage.Ancient.His djinn power surged toward it with enough force that Shade had to actively leash the instinct before it showed across his face.Because this, right here, was where lesser males became greedy.Possessive.Careless.And if he pushed now?He would lose her.Shade knew it with painful certainty.
So instead he matched her pace through the corridor, keeping his hand wrapped loosely around hers as the Nushtonia shifted softly around them.The parchment walls whispered with moving words he no longer tried to read.Every truth this place revealed seemed to cost blood.
Myanin glanced sideways at him suddenly, suspicion narrowing her silver eyes.“You’re being weird.”
Shade nearly laughed.Weird.After everything they had just admitted to each other, weird was apparently the word she chose.“I am exercising restraint,” he informed her solemnly.
“That sounds fake.”
He swallowed hard, keeping his voice level.“It is extremely real.My self-control deserves songs written about it.”
She snorted softly.
The sound hit him harder than it should have.Because she had laughed.Not sharply.Not defensively.Genuinely.
Shade realized then how long it had been since he’d heard that sound from her without pain wrapped around it.
Dangerous female.
He was already ruined, and she kept finding new ways to make it worse.
Myanin’s expression softened briefly before she looked away again, her gaze fixing on the glowing corridor ahead.“You know this changes absolutely nothing.”
“Of course.”It absolutely changed everything, even if she didn’t want to acknowledge it for a century.He would wait.
She narrowed her eyes on him.“You agreeing that quickly feels suspicious.”
Shade shrugged.“I am choosing survival.”
Myanin bobbed her head.“Smart.”
“I have my moments.”
Silence settled between them again, but this one felt different.Less sharp around the edges.Less like two warriors circling each other with blades hidden behind their backs.
The book noticed, too.
The gold light surrounding the corridor warmed slightly, the oppressive pressure that had followed them for days easing just enough for Shade to recognize it.
Acceptance.
Not approval.
The Nushtonia did not care about morality.It cared about truth.
And for the first time since entering the cursed thing, Shade realized the book had stopped fighting them.
Interesting.
His gaze slid toward Myanin again.
She looked exhausted–both physically, because she no longer had her power, and emotionally.There were shadows beneath her eyes that had not existed before the Nushtonia and tiny fractures in the iron control she’d spent years building around herself.And despite everything in him that wanted to pull her closer, shield her, claim every broken piece she tried hiding, he chose restraint.
Shade understood something now he had not before.Loving her was not the same thing as owning her.The thought settled heavily through him.Necessary.Painful.True.
Ahead of them, the corridor shifted again.
Pages peeled apart slowly along the walls, exposing brief flashes of memory before sealing shut once more.A battlefield soaked in silver fire appeared, along with a younger version of Myanin standing alone in a sparring ring beneath storm clouds with blood running down one arm.Thadrick stood across from her, a smile of victory on his face.Shade himself, years earlier, stared out across the djinn realm with enough longing in his face to make present-day Shade want to punch his former self directly in the throat.
