He rose halfway from his seat. “You shouldn’t be here. Auryn,it’s freezing." His eyes slid to the hem of her skirts. "You’rebarefootagain…”
She didn’t move. “Because I am myself, and whether that is an inconvenience to you or not has ceased to trouble me.”
That stopped him cold.
She drifted closer, wrapped in a too-large tunic—Void, was that his?—over a simple commoner’s dress, and the world shifted again. Like gravity pulling him inward into her orbit—away from the Vargrún, from the Mandate, from the looming shadow of his brother's cruelty. His chest ached.
"Leave, Auryn…" Then, softer, "Please."
"No," she said. “I would hear it from your own lips. This truth you’ve kept from me.”
"Which truth is that?"
The Mandate? Had Zarrek told her? A flare of panic at that. He examined her eyes, the way she stared at him and couldn't tell if she was still seeing the man she'd met in the Moores or something else.
She didn’t flinch.
Didn’t blink.
Just stood there like this was her room, andhewas the one who didn’t belong.
He decided to start with the lesser hurt.
“The wagons have come. I’ve made arrangements with the traders. You’ll go to the capital. To Maradryn. I’m purchasing some land for you there. You can live peacefully. Quietly.”
“You mean to say, I can live a lie.”
He frowned. “It’s not a lie, Auryn. It’s safety.”
She made a bitter sound. “Kailorien, why did you save me? After the rift?”
He stared at her, confused. “I saved you because I couldn’t bear to lose you.”
She turned, wrapping her arms around herself. “Why did you come after me in the Moores?”
His fist clenched at his side. “My answer is unchanged.”
Her silver eyes met his—deep, vast, unfathomable.
“And yet, you want to lose me now. Perhaps forever.”
Kailorien took a step forward, his teeth grinding as his heart lurched. “I don'twantto lose you.You don't understand, Auryn. What I am. What I must do." He bit the inside of his lip. Damn his wagging tongue.
One breath. Then another.
"What do you see when you look at me?"
She paused, considering it. Her eyes roved over him from where his earrings dangled at his ears to the soles of his worn boots. "A man with too many burdens to name. A man whose shadow yearns to break from him." Her voice quavered. "A man who will not share any of it with me."
He swallowed."I’m trying toprotectyou.”
Her gaze didn’t waver. “From what?”
“From what’s coming,” he said. “From what I am. From the Resh’Agar. From what you’ll be forced to see, to become, if you follow me as the Sokâr.”
“I alreadybecamesomething, Kailorien. In fire. In silence. In blood. And I did itbesideyou, notbehindyou.” She took another step forward. "I let you name me that. I told you I would come with you." He voice lowered. "I see what you are. Do not think I am blind."
Her eyes jumped to a point on his shoulder. The faint warmth of her ribbon lingered there. The one she'd Woven into the strands of his hair. Void…that felt like centuries ago now.
