He's moving again. Pacing while he talks, hands cutting through the air, stepping forward to drive home a point about territorial boundaries. He's drifting closer. Not on purpose. He doesn't even notice. His body just expands when he talks, fills whatever room he's in, crowds out everything else.
Three feet closer than he was.
Two.
Iowyn's grip tightens on my jacket.
"We're done."
War stops mid-sentence. "I haven't finished—"
"I don't care."
"The alliance—"
"Isn't happening today." I'm already moving, already reaching for her. "Get out of my House."
"Koshin—"
"Out."
He's smart enough to leave.
His entourage follows, and the Discord elite stay frozen until Renan jerks his head toward the doors. They file out one by one. Renan stays.
"Kosh."
I don't answer. I'm lifting Iowyn, pulling her against my chest, and she's not fighting me. That's the problem. She's limp and passive, a doll I could pose however I wanted. The fire that spits back at me, that refuses to break, that makes my blood run hot—gone. Replaced by this terrified silence. This shell.
"Kosh, what—"
"Handle it."
"Handle what?"
But I'm already walking, carrying her toward the side passage where the corridors turn dark and narrow. Her weight is nothing. The walls press in around us and I find a door—storage room, doesn't matter—shove it open, set her down inside, follow her in, close the door behind me.
Darkness swallows everything except her breathing. Fast. Shallow. Prey breathing.
I fucking hate it.
I step into her space. She presses back against the wall but there's nowhere to go and I keep coming until I can feel the heat of her body, smell the fear on her skin.
She won't look at me. Her face is empty, wiped clean. That dead stare at the wall behind me.
I tilt my head. Watching her.
Her breathing gets faster. Shallow little gasps. She knows something is coming. She doesn't know what.
Neither do I.
I lean in and lick the side of her face. Slow. Deliberate. From jaw to temple, tasting the salt of her skin, the fear, the fury building underneath.
I didn't decide to do that.
The slap cracks across my face before I see it coming.
There she is.
