But instead, Cindrissian sighed. Slow. Unsteady.
“No.”
I swallowed, watching how his fingers curled against his own thigh, like they wanted to be fists but didn’t have the strength.
“What happened?”
Cindrissian’s head dipped downward.
“She made me hurt Fenric.” A tremor ran through his frame.So small I might have imagined it. He didn’t look at me. “I’ve done a lot of evil in my life.”His voice was too steady. “But that? Hurting him?Thatwas the worst thing I’ve ever done.”
A tight breath wedged itself in my throat. I forced it down. Forced myself tostay still.To give him space.
“What did she make you do?”
His head tilted.
I tracked his gaze. Fenric lay on the other side of the cell, curled against Linc, chest rising and falling in uneven, pained breaths.
Several brutal slashes marred his clothing, the fabric sliced through in jagged, ugly lines. Blood soaked into the cloth, into the stone beneath him, turning the ground a deeper, slicker shade of crimson. His face was half-hidden, but the exhaustion was carved into him, the way his body twitched with each breath.
Cindrissian’s fingers flexed against his thigh before curling inward, nails biting into his palm. “He won’t forgive me.”The words came low, hoarse.“And he has every right not to.”
I didn’t speak.
Because there was nothing I could say. Nothing that would make it better, nothing that would change what had been done.
I wasn’t sure what I could say, what I had been about to offer as I opened my mouth, when Fenric moved. It wasn’t much. A shift of his weight. A quiet, pained inhale. His head lifted.
And then, he raised a hand to his chest.
Two fingers.
Three taps.
A pause.
Then again.
For a long, long moment,Cindrissian didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t so much as twitch. The air in the cell was unbearably thick, pressing in too tight, too heavy. Then, slowly—as though it cost him everything—he lifted his own hand.
Two fingers.
Three taps.
Fenric’s chest stuttered violently.
For the briefest second, surprise lit his bloodied face. A raw, unguarded flash of disbelief. But then, as quickly as it had appeared,he smoothed it away. Hidden beneath a smirk,beneath smug nonchalance as he nuzzled his face against Linc’s throat.
Like it meant nothing.
Like it wasn’t asilent, aching answer.
I swallowed against the tightness in my chest, my throat suddenly dry.
Whatever had passed between them wasintensely personal,a glimpse into a moment not meant for anyone else. A history I couldn’t see, but it wove through the air between them.
But the question spilled from my lips. “What was that?”
