“Careful.”
“She is not a choice you are waiting to make. She is not a weakness you would ever use against me. She is my queen, and her heart has always been mine.”
“Then why the fuck are we talking about it?”
“Because tonight was not about what you feel.”
Sule’s voice remained calm and immovable.
“It was about what you chose to do with it. You stood beside her. You kept her alive. And not once did you forget that she is my queen.”
Rhen’s mouth twisted.
“I didn’t keep her alive. She did that herself.”
“You helped.”
“I kept her upright.”
“You stayed.”
Rhen’s glare could have cut through stone.
Sule did not look away.
“I know what you feel for her,” he said. “I also know what you would never do.”
The silence after it was absolute.
No jealousy.
No challenge.
Only the truth both males had carried for years without forcing it into words.
Rhen’s expression hardened further, armor closing over everything Sule had exposed.
“Then we’re done.”
“We are.”
Rhen turned on his heel and strode toward the door as though the room had grown teeth. His hand closed around the frame, gripping hard enough to make the wood creak.
“Rhen.”
He stopped without looking back.
Sule kept his voice low.
“If carrying it ever becomes too much—”
“Not gonna fucking happen.”
The words were immediate and final.
Sule accepted them for what they were: refusal, warning, and promise tangled together.
“I know.”
