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Stellan’s eyes dropped to my mouth. “You’re still angry.”

“Very.”

“I can give you space.”

I almost caught the front of his black shirt. Wanting him hadn’t stopped when he told me about Cecily. That was exactly why I needed to think before I let wanting decide what his confession meant.

I released his hand.

“I don’t want you gone. I want a boundary.”

He went still. “Tell me.”

“No bed. No feeding. Not while I’m still trying to work out whether you trust me with the truth only after I drag it out of you.”

Heat remained in the bond, sharp enough to make the distance between us hurt. Good. The consequence needed to cost both of us something.

“Understood,” he said.

“Don’t say it as if I’m punishing you.”

“You aren’t. You’re deciding what access I have to you after I hid something that mattered.”

The answer took some of the fight out of me. It didn’t take the anger.

“And if you’re frightened the truth will make me leave?”

“I tell you while I’m frightened.” His mouth tightened. “I failed to do that before.”

I believed him. Belief wasn’t repair.

Stellan stepped back without making me ask twice. The bond carried the strain of it, but he didn’t use that strain to pull me closer.

“One more answer,” I said. “When you feed from me, is that connected to the Crown?”

“No. Feeding belongs to us. Harrowmere and the Crown have no part in it.”

“And it doesn’t weaken the restraints?”

“It restores my strength. It doesn’t remove Adrian’s commands.”

Relief came first. I wanted his restraints gone, but not through sex or blood the court expected from me.

“If the bottles stop being enough, what happens?”

“I tell you. Then you decide what, if anything, you give me.”

“That sounds more like everything.”

“I’m learning.”

I sat on the edge of the bed. Stellan chose the chair across from me, leaving the space I’d asked for even though every part of him looked built to close it.

The distance gave me room to breathe. It also made the shape of the problem clearer. Stellan had answered every question once I forced it into the open. That wasn’t the same as trusting me before I knew which question to ask.

“An answer only helps if I know there’s something to ask about.”

“You’re right.”