Varyth’s grip on my wrist was the only solid thing in the world. His mist coiled around us like living silver, protective and lethal in equal measure.
“Isara.” My name pulled me from the chaos in my head. “Look at me.”
I dragged my gaze up to meet his. It burned with something between fury and terror, his jaw tight enough I could see the muscle jumping beneath the skin.
“Are you hurt?” The question came out clipped. Like he was using every ounce of restraint not to shake me. “Did they touch you? Didshe?—”
“I’m fine.” The words tasted like ash.
His eyes narrowed, scanning me with brutal efficiency. Looking for wounds, for blood, for any sign I was lying. “You’re not. Your hands are shaking and your fire—” He cut himself off, his grip on my wrist tightening fractionally. “Are. You. Hurt.”
“No.” I pulled free of his grasp, wrapping my arms around myself. The black flames along my fingers guttered out completely, leaving only smoke. “I’m not hurt. I’m just—” I cut off, glancing around. “Where are the others?”
“In the hall,” Varyth said, still carrying that edge of violence. “They’re fine. Areyoualright?”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Tried again.
“I lost control.” The admission scraped out of me like broken glass. “I just—she threatened them, and I couldn’t—I didn’t?—”
“Yes, you did.” Varyth’s tone was somewhere between resigned and almost... amused? “You absolutely lost control.”
The confirmation should have stung. Should have made me defensive. Instead, it just made everything inside me twist tighter.
“They’re going to come for me again, aren’t they?” My voice came out smaller than I’d intended. Hysteria creeping at the edges. “To kill me or take me or whatever the fuck they’re planning.”
“Probably,” Varyth said, and the honesty of it was almost worse than a lie would have been. “But we won’t let that happen.”
“We?” I let out a jagged laugh. “You saw what she is. Whatheis. They broughtfourpeople and nearly tore your entire court apart. How the hell are we supposed to?—”
“Isara.” Varyth closed the distance between us in two strides. His hands came up to frame my face. “Breathe.”
“I am breathing.”
“No, you’re panicking.” His thumbs brushed across my cheekbones, the touch gentle. “I can feel it. Your magic isthrashing like a caged animal and you’re about three seconds from either burning down my study or collapsing. So,breathe.”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to push him away, to insist I was fine, that I could handle this. But my hands were still shaking, and the black fire kept trying to claw its way back to the surface.
“Breathe,” he repeated, gentler this time.
One breath. Then another. Letting the air fill my lungs, letting reality settle back into something resembling order.
Varyth’s mist curled around us both, cool and soothing against the heat radiating from my skin. Like he was trying to calm the fire without smothering it completely.
“Better?” he asked after a moment.
“Not really.” But my hands had stopped shaking quite so violently.
His lips curved into something that might’ve been a smile.
“That display of power,” he said, his voice dropping lower. Intimate. “When your fire exploded across the table and nearly consumed everything in its path?”
I tensed, waiting for the lecture. The reprimand. The reminder that I’d fucked up spectacularly.
“That,” Varyth continued, his eyes darkening to molten silver. “Was magnificent.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Terrifying,” he amended, though his tone suggested he found that particular quality appealing. “Absolutely unhinged. Wildly dangerous.” His thumbs traced idle patterns against my cheekbones. “Andmagnificent.”
