“Were they?”
“No.” I met her gaze. “But they managed to convince everyone they were.”
She didn’t look away. And I hated how much that mattered.
The music shifted. Slow waltz. The world softened for a moment.
“Dance with me,” I said before I thought better of it.
She arched a brow. “You don’t strike me as the dancing type.”
“I strike better on my feet.” I stood and held out my hand. “Come on. Humor a relic.”
She took it. Her fingers were warm.
We moved to the floor. Only a few couples joined us. I led her easily—too easily. Her weight against me felt… right, as if she belonged there. And that thought was deadlier than anything that hunted us.
“You’re dangerous,” she said, barely audible above the strings. Oh, sweet little thief, if you only knew how dangerous you are.
“I know.”
She looked up at me. “And yet here I am.”
I could have kissed her.
I should have stepped away.
Instead, I pulled her a little closer. Let her feel the strength of my arm around her waist. Let her head rest near the place where, if I had one, a heart might still be.
She smelled of hyacinth soap and stolen perfume and something unmistakably her. I wanted to hold her there forever.
And I couldn’t.
Not again.
Branwyn’s blood was still on my hands. I wouldn’t let Daphne join her.
The music ended.
I stepped back. Not too fast. Not enough to make her question it.
But enough to remember myself.
“Come,” I said lightly, “you haven’t had dessert yet. I promise not to psychoanalyze the chocolate mousse.”
We returned to the table. She licked the crème brûlée from her spoon and rolled her eyes at something I said. I barely heard myself speak.
The curve of her smile, the flick of her wrist as she reached for her glass—it all got imprinted in my mind like a blade stuck deep in the bone.
I had survived centuries with teeth bared and heart locked. And now—
Now, I was watching her laugh and wondering how many ways I could lose her.
I wasn’t supposed to want this.
And yet.
When she brushed a crumb from the corner of her mouth and looked up at me, something old and buried cracked in my chest.
