“You liar.”
I almost smiled as I bit my lip. “Yes.”
A pause. The longest I’d ever let exist between us.
“Tell me the truth,” she whispered.
“The truth,” I said, “is that I stopped knowing where you end and my restraint begins.”
The aurora outside flared crimson. The crack beneath us widened with a groan that sounded like the end of an age.
“I told you what happens when I lose control,” I said.
She lifted her chin. “And what happens when you finally stop fighting it?”
“Then the frost burns.”
She took another step forward. “Show me.”
For a moment, everything inside me went still. The roar, the wind, the light—all dimmed to the space between her words and my breath. I could feel the pull of her heat even through the layers of armor. My hand rose again, fingers bare now and trembling.
When my knuckles brushed her cheek, the frostlight flared so bright it turned the world white. The Sea of Glass below shattered in a soundless flash.
She gasped, soft and sharp, and I knew then that nothing could unmake this—that my control had already failed.
I bent my head before reason could intervene. The space between us vanished. Not yet a kiss—just breath shared, the thin edge of a promise breaking.
The tower groaned. The sky split wider. The light turned gold and red at once.
And still, I didn’t move.
The tower leaned into the wind. Every stone seemed to know how close we stood.The frostlight dimmed, leaving only the crimson shimmer of the aurora bleeding through the cracks in the wall. The air smelled of cold metal and her.
She was a step away—one breath—and I could feel her warmth even through the layers of leather and steel. The space between us throbbed like a pulse the world couldn’t decide to keep or kill.
“Katria,” I said, and her name left my mouth like an oath.
She turned, face lit by the fractured sky. “You sound like you’re saying goodbye.”
“Maybe I am.” My throat tightened. “The Veil’s weakening. I can feel it in the bones of the keep.”
She lifted her chin, her gaze full of the same defiance that had me falling for her. Kael was right. “And you think I caused it,” she said.
“I know you didn’t mean to.” The words came low, almost gentle. “But you are the crack it found.”
Her gaze slid to my hands. “Then why are you still standing this close?”
I wanted to answer, but breath came before thought. The wind caught her hair and flung a strand across my glove. It clung there, fine and bright against the black leather. I traced it with my thumb before I realized what I was doing.
She didn’t move. The color in her eyes shifted with the light—gold fading to smoke, to storm.
“Kaelith,” she whispered. “You said frost burns. What does it feel like?”
“Like this,” I said.
I reached out—slowly, deliberately—and let my fingertips brush her sleeve. A spark ran up my arm, a hum through the runes etched into themetal of my vambrace. The air around us shimmered, frost melting into droplets that steamed as they fell.
Her breath hitched, but she didn’t step back. “It doesn’t hurt.”
