Rhazek’s attention returns to me, and I can feel the tether tighten slightly under the focus. “The proximity requirement must be respected.”
“Then we test it properly,” I say. “Upstairs. Controlled. Not you looming over my shoulder while I try to breathe like a normal person.”
His expression shifts just enough to show he’s calculating the risk.
Good.
I jerk my chin toward the stairs. “Move.”
For a moment, I think he’s going to argue again.
Then he does something far more unsettling.
He listens.
He moves up the stairs without another word, each step measured, controlled, as if he’s mapping the distance in real time. I follow close behind, not because I trust him, but becauseI don’t trust what happens if I don’t. Corin comes after us, lighter on his feet than I have ever seen him, which still hasn’t stopped being wrong.
The spare room smells like dust and old linen, the faint scent of dried lavender lingering in the corners from sachets I shoved into drawers months ago. The bedframe creaks when I test it, and the floorboards shift underfoot with the familiar weakness of a house that has seen too many winters.
Corin steps forward, stamping once.
The board doesn’t creak.
He looks down, then stomps harder.
Still nothing.
“Well,” he says slowly, “that’s new.”
I stare at the floor, then at him. “Do that again.”
He does.
The wood holds.
He grins, something bright and dangerous flickering across his face. “I think I broke physics.”
“You didn’t break anything,” I say automatically, even as I know that’s a lie.
Rhazek steps into the room fully, his presence pressing against the space in a way that makes the air feel tighter. “His structural strength has increased.”
“That is not how healing works,” I snap.
“It is how infernal interference works.”
Corin crouches and presses his palm flat against the floor, then pushes down hard. The board doesn’t flex.
“I used to avoid this spot because I thought I’d go through it,” he says. “Now I could probably jump.”
“You’re not jumping through my floor,” I say immediately.
He looks up at me with a grin. “Not even a little?”
“No.”
“Cruel.”
Rhazek watches him with an intensity that makes my skin prickle. “Your endurance will continue to increase.”
