She stiffens almost imperceptibly before giving a small shake of her head. “No. Percy only intercepted the vision.”
A weight I hadn’t realized I was still carrying settles heavily inside me. Of course she had been afraid.
She’d watched me walk a male into a room and execute him in cold blood. She’d seen the gun. The body. The way I’d walked back out again without hesitation. Without the conversation beforehand, without Tevan’s confession, without knowing he’d already sold her to Kazren, there was only one conclusion she could have reached.
And yet she still stayed. For me.
I lift my hand and gently brush my thumb beneath her split lip. “The male you watched me kill was called Tevan. He handled information for the House. Nothing important enough to draw attention to himself.” My voice is steady, but only because I’ve spent a lifetime learning how to hold it there. “When he discovered who you were, he sold everything to Kazren. Your name. Where you were staying. That you were helping me investigate the breaches.”
Her grip curls tighter around my jacket.
“I caught him once before. I warned him that if he ever betrayed the House again, there wouldn’t be another chance.” I draw a slow breath,the memory still as sharp now as it had been standing over him. “Then he threatened you.”
Her beautiful human gaze finds mine, bright with unshed tears.
“I didn’t kill him because he betrayed me.” I meet her stare, needing her to understand the difference. “I killed him because he’d already decided your life was worth selling.”
She doesn’t answer straight away. Her attention moves slowly over my face, lingering as though she’s seeing me differently. The tight line of her mouth eases. The crease that’s lived between her brows since the night I returned from Tevan’s execution slowly disappears.
“I didn’t understand then,” she says, “but I do now.”
She reaches up, hesitating only for a moment before resting her palm against my cheek. The touch is light, almost tentative, but she doesn’t pull away.
“I’ve been trying to make sense of the male I met...” Her thumb brushes slowly across my skin. “...and the male I saw that night.”
“And?”
A tired smile touches her lips.
“They’re the same male.”
The last of the doubt I’ve been carrying quietly falls away.
“You could have thrown me into a cell the moment you realized I’d infiltrated the House,” she says quietly. “Instead you protected me when you didn’t have to. You risked everything to keep me alive.”
She holds my gaze without wavering.
“You were saving me.”
The words settle somewhere so deep inside me I know they’ll never leave.
“And I’ll keep saving you.” My palm slides to the back of her neck, my thumb brushing slowly beneath her ear. “No matter who stands in my way. No matterwhat it costs.”
I brush my mouth over hers as carefully as I can. Her grip tightens in the front of my jacket, bunching the blood-soaked fabric between them as she rises onto her toes to meet me again.
A slow breath leaves her against my mouth. Relief settles through me with every heartbeat.
I cup the back of her head, keeping my claws sheathed as I slide my fingers carefully through the tangled strands of her hair. She leans into the touch without hesitation, and that simple act almost undoes me more completely than anything that’s happened today. Hours ago she’d been planning how to escape me. Now she’s trusting me with every fragile piece of herself.
Her lips soften beneath mine. The tension leaves her one careful breath at a time until she’s resting against me instead of merely standing in my arms. Her palm slips from my jacket to my chest, spreading over my hearts as though she’s reassuring herself I’m really here.
I hold her there, memorizing everything. The warmth of her breath. The softness of her mouth. The way she fits against me as though she’d always belonged there. Her eyes remain half-lidded, her breathing unsteady, and I stroke my thumb gently across her cheek, wishing this moment belonged somewhere other than a place stained by the end of my father’s life.
I wish with everything I have that this place wasn’t stained with death, that my father’s body wasn’t lying only meters away.
“It doesn’t end here,” I murmur. “That kiss continues after my brother is accounted for.”
The corner of her mouth lifts, not quite a smile but close enough to make something warm settle inside me.
