Page 41 of The Crown’s Temptation

He did not answer that.

She looked at him for a long moment. Something moved through her expression that she did not offer to him.

She stood.

"Ivanoxa."

She stopped.

"When I am well enough," he said, "I want to know everything that has happened."

She looked back at him once.

"When you are well enough," she said.

Then she left.

He looked at the ceiling.

He waited.

The Answer is Yes

TEORIN

Darkway Palace

"Who are you?"

"Dali." She tilts her head. "Dali Vaelor."

"How are you in here?"

"I have my ways."

He looks at her. The teal hair. The teal eyes. The way she holds herself, as though the room belongs to her and she is simply allowing him to use it.

Realization moves through him slowly.

She watches it happen. "Yes," she says. "You are quicker than I imagined. Though to be fair, there are few creatures with teal hair and eyes."

He says nothing.

She looks at him carefully. Then at Asharin. Then back at him.

"I can help you," she says. "Both of you."

She crosses to him without being invited and places her hand flat against his chest. The jolt is immediate, heat moving through him, spreading outward from the point of contact, pressing into his limbs. He feels himself come back into focus.

"I can awaken her," Dali says. "Not so much that she can leave you. But enough that she can function. Walk. Talk. Be in your company."

Something eases in his chest at that. His fingers tremble once and he hates that they do. He hates how badly he wants this. He wants Asharin alive. He wants her eyes open and her mouth moving and to see the way her mouth twists when she is annoyed. He wants all of it.

"What do you want in return?"

"Simply to be here," she says. "As Asharin's companion. Without interruption. Your needs for her presence become secondary to mine."

He narrows his eyes.