"We have sharks and lawyers. Close enough."
They laughed together, and something twisted in Azelon's chest.
How easily they had fallen into a rapport. How comfortably Corin leaned into Jamie's space… and how casually Jamie accepted it.
Azelon told himself he was watching for signs of instability. He'd spent eight months monitoring Corin's emotional state, learning to read the subtle shifts in his magic that preceded danger.
But the truth burned colder than any deep ocean trench: he wasn't watching for danger. He was cataloging every smile, every laugh, every casual touch that wasn't directed at him.
The jealousy was ugly.
Of course it was.
But he couldn't stop it.
A memory surfaced, uninvited. Corin thrashing in the drowning dreamscape, water closing over his head as his panic trapped him in a prison of his own making. The villages had been evacuated, their inhabitants half-mad from the nightmares Corin's power had inflicted. The local authorities had been ready to execute him.
But Azelon had insisted there was another way.
He'd waded into that mental sea. He'd found Corin suspended in darkness, terror etched into every line of his face.
He'd wrapped his arms around the smaller man and dragged him back to consciousness. Back to life.
And Corin had looked at him afterward with something like devotion.
"I didn't know someone could touch me during an episode," he'd whispered that first night, curled against Azelon's side like he belonged there.
Azelon had allowed the contact then. It was a medical necessity, he told himself. Corin needed grounding to prevent a relapse.
But he'd kept allowing it, night after night. Corin gravitating to him in the darkness, seeking his steadiness, his calm.
And each time, Azelon withdrew a little more the following day. Maintained his distance. Reminded himself of the price he'd pay for succumbing to the pull between them.
He'd told himself it was mercy. That he was protecting Corin from an inevitable heartbreak.
He'd told himself many things.
"Are you planning to join us, or just loom ominously in doorways all morning?"
Jamie's voice snapped Azelon from his thoughts. Both human and fae were looking at him now, Jamie with that direct gaze that seemed to cut through pretense, Corin with a carefully constructed mask of indifference.
"I was assessing the building's stability," Azelon lied. "It doesn't seem to be leaking as much magic noww."
Jamie nodded, accepting this at face value. Corin's eyes narrowed slightly, disbelieving.
"That's good to hear," Jamie said. Then he handed a book to Azelon. "Look at this one. It's about marine life. Thought you might find it useful."
Azelon took the book, careful not to let their fingers brush. "Thank you."
"We were talking about trying to map the store," Jamie continued. "It keeps creating new rooms."
"There's a chamber to the left side that wasn't there an hour ago," Corin added. "Has a pool that reminds me of the oceans near Tidespire."
The casual mention of his homeland caught Azelon off guard. "What do you know of Tidespire?"
Corin's expression flickered with something like hurt, quickly masked. "You mutter about it when you think I'm asleep."
A tense silence followed. Jamie looked between them, then decisively stood.
