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The contact was ordinary compared with feeding. I still wanted to keep it.
“How much can you feel now?” she asked.
“Your mood, the direction of strong reactions and whether you’re hurt. The sharper parts of feeding have faded. I can’t hear your thoughts.”
“Good. Some of them are private.”
“The interesting ones usually are.”
Her foot pressed more firmly into my hand, and the room went quiet again.
I moved my hand slowly up her calf until the blanket stopped me. Her breathing changed, and I paused.
Bryony lifted the edge of the blanket and let my hand settle against her knee.
I stroked the inside of her knee with my thumb. Her thighs shifted, and the memory of her body pressing against mine returned with enough force to bring my fangs down.
I turned my face towards the fire.
“Hunger?” she asked.
“Desire.”
She went still for a moment, then relaxed again. “You said they were different.”
“They are. Hunger wants your blood. Desire currently has several other fucking ideas.”
Her knee warmed under my palm. “Can you control those?”
“Yes.” I looked at her again. “That doesn’t mean I want them gone.”
She held my gaze, then lowered the blanket over my hand.
I left it there.
The room settled around us. Firelight moved across her red hair, and the scent of her skin no longer carried fresh blood. For the first time since she arrived, neither the Crown nor Adrian demanded our attention.
Bryony’s eyes drifted closed again.
Stone clicked behind her chair.
Her eyes opened at once. I removed my hand from under the blanket and stood.
A narrow line had appeared in the back wall of the sitting room. Silver light traced a door where there hadn’t been one. The middle darkened, then split as the stone opened inwards.
Warm air entered the room, carrying damp earth and roses.
Beyond the doorway, black vines covered high stone walls. Red flowers opened along a path lit by a false night sky.
Bryony stood beside me. “The garden?”
“Yes.” I watched the thorns turn towards her. “Don’t step inside yet.”
12
BRYONY
The thorns had noticed me.
