Lykor didn’t look as the covers rustled, just stared straight ahead at the place where his portal had unraveled. Maybe revenge was more for himself, but he couldn’t understand whyJassyn didn’t want to destroy those who had a hand in stealing some of his light. Why he had to be the one who suffered for someone else’s crimes.
Another movement on the bed. Closer now.
“You…” Jassyn’s voice was barely a breath in the dark. “You don’t have to sit on the floor.”
“I’m staying.” It was where he needed to be.
But a thought crept in, slithering under Lykor’s skin. What if his presence was making Jassyn uncomfortable and he was too polite to voice it? He couldn’t blame him.
“Unless…” Lykor swallowed, his throat constricting. “Unless you’d rather I leave. I could listen through the wall.” He winced. Fucking pathetic. He just didn’t know what else to offer.
The mattress shifted against Lykor’s back. Tentative fingers brushed against his shoulder.
Lykor tensed, the unexpected contact locking the air in his lungs. The fleeting touch vanished almost as quickly as it came. Before he could stop himself, he turned, gently snagging Jassyn’s wrist—a question, not a demand.
Their eyes met, the amber in Jassyn’s catching starlight like molten gold. But it was the green flecks that captured Lykor’s attention—thin striations, nearly swallowed by his pupils.
Lykor’s grip slackened as uncertainty seeped in. He should release him. Shouldn’t have grabbed him at all. He didn’t know what he was doing—only that he couldn’t let go.
But Jassyn didn’t pull away.
Slowly, Lykor guided Jassyn’s hand back, pressing his palm against his shoulder. Grounding. Anchoring.
As he slowly turned back around, his fingers curled around Jassyn’s. It was selfish, but maybe Jassyn needed the comfort too.
Jassyn’s thumb moved—just barely. A timid brush over his skin.
For the first time since opening the portal, something in Lykor finally eased. His shoulders loosened, a fraction of tension unwinding. His pulse still raced, but differently now, no longer pounding with rage.
He didn’t say it aloud, but the promise was there, lingering in the quiet between them. If Jassyn wanted him to stay, he wasn’t leaving.
CHAPTER 51
JASSYN
“When are you going to tell him?”
Serenna’s question yanked Jassyn from his thoughts, his mind still looping through what had passed between him and Lykor last night.
As they descended the palace’s wide ivory, he noticed Lykor already prowling through the courtyard below. A restless force barely leashed, his glare skewered Kaedryn, who waited for them beneath a vine-laden trellis.
“I…” Jassyn faltered, a bead of sweat prickling his brow despite the early hour. The evening before, Serenna had informed him that a chained dragon was somewhere in the city. They had agreed to wait until the others had a full night’s rest before revealing the discovery.
He’d nearly mentioned it to Lykor when the weight of his nightmare had lifted, but…
Jassyn pursed his lips. But what, exactly? The knowledge of Cinderax pressed heavily against him. Lykor had shown nothing but understanding and restraint. He wouldn’t have stormedthrough Asharyn, tearing the streets apart the moment he found out. Right?
Perhaps that hesitation had stayed Jassyn’s tongue. So he’d let the moment slip by, allowed the silence to linger. For reasons he couldn’t name, he hadn’t been willing to lose the quiet reassurance of Lykor’s presence keeping the dark at bay.
Stars, why is it so hot already?Jassyn adjusted the airy sleeves of his tunic, the loose folds shielding him from the sun.
Beyond Asharyn’s walls, the first rays of dawn speared between sandstone towers that cradled the desert expanse—rays that Lykor was squinting up at now, as though the morning itself had already wronged him.
“I’ll find the right moment,” he assured Serenna.
“Perhaps after Kaedryn shows us some of the city?” she suggested as they followed the winding paths around the garden’s fountains. “I think the tour ends at some sort of temple, or wherever Cinderax is.”
She halted and tugged up one of her knee-high boots, her attire a twin to his. “I’m worried that the moment Lykor hears of it,” Serenna said in a quick whisper, “he’ll demand to see the dragon. But we might as well learn something about their city and way of life first.”
