There’s truth in that. The way she stood in front of that crowd, called the Ether without flinching, made space and shelter for people she’d never met because they needed it—I’ve never seen anything like it.
But I also saw the way she swayed afterward. The careful way she held herself, like she was afraid of falling apart if she moved too fast.
“Still,” I say, heat flickering under my skin without my permission. “She shouldn’t have to—”
The door opens, cutting off whatever protective instinct was about to spill out of my mouth.
Thane steps inside, and something in the room’s energy shifts immediately.
It’s not obvious at first. He looks like Thane—same controlled posture, same silver eyes that see too much, same dark clothes that make him blend into shadows. But there’s something different in the way he moves. A looseness in his shoulders that wasn’t there yesterday. A subtle ease that makes the dangerous edge of him seem less like a knife and more like a flame.
Fed, my brain supplies, and I don’t know why that word comes to mind.
But before I can place what’s changed, Stellan enters the room and goes completely still.
My jaw clenches the second I see him. Heat prickles under my skin—the memory of finding him in her bed flashing through my mind like a brand.
But he’s not looking at me. His focus is locked entirely on Thane, and there’s something about his stillness that makes my anger shift to unease.
Not human-still. Predator-still. The kind of motionless that means every instinct just snapped to attention.
Jace is still talking about something, gesturing with a piece of bread, but my focus narrows to Stellan’s face. The way his gray eyes track over Thane—once, quickly, then again slower. Taking inventory.
Then Stellan smiles.
It starts small, just a quirk at the corner of his mouth. But it spreads, disbelief and amusement and something that looks almost like pride mixing together until he’s grinning like he just witnessed a miracle.
“You son of a bitch.”
The words drop into the room like stones into still water. Conversation dies instantly. Theo’s book snaps shut. Wes freezes mid-reach for another piece of cheese. Gray straightens from the wall.
Stellan chuckles as he crosses the room with that too-smooth stride of his. When he reaches Thane, he claps him on the back—friendly on the surface, but there’s weight behind it. Like a test.
Thane doesn’t flinch, but something flickers across his face. Color. Actual color, rising along his sharp cheekbones like he’s—
Like he’s blushing.
Thane doesn’t blush. Ever. In the time I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him show that kind of reaction to anything.
“Okay,” I say, standing up because suddenly this feels like something I need to be ready for. “What the hell is going on?”
Thane’s jaw ticks. “Nothing.”
“Everything,” Stellan says at the same time, and his voice carries a note I’ve never heard before. Something between amazement and satisfaction. “Absolutely everything.”
He takes a step back from Thane, but his eyes never leave his face. Reading something there that the rest of us are missing.
“You’ve been fed,” he says, voice dropping lower. “Properly. And not just fed—”
The pause stretches, loaded with implications I can feel but don’t understand.
“Bonded.”
The word hits the room like all the air’s been sucked out.
Gray straightens completely from the wall, tension coiling through his frame. Theo’s book falls forgotten to the floor. Wes goes so still he could be carved from stone.
Jace breaks the silence first, because of course he does.
