“Why can I feel you?”
He went still.
“What?”
“When you came into the room, I knew.” One hand moved slowly toward her ribs. “It feels like something pulling from inside me.”
“My blood tethered your body to mine.”
Her face paled further.
“What does that mean?”
“It means distance will not silence it.”
“For how long?”
“That remains to be seen.”
“You don’t know?”
“I know it exists. That is enough.”
“For you, maybe.”
Rhen’s gaze hardened.
“Your name.”
The change in subject was deliberate.
She hesitated.
“Veya.”
He tested the name once in his mind and disliked the way the tether answered it.
“Why were you on that road, Veya?”
Her expression shuttered.
“I was leaving.”
“Leaving what?”
“A man.”
“The one who left the bruises?”
Her eyes flashed toward him.
Rhen did not move.
“His name.”
“No.”
The refusal was quiet but immediate.
