After a moment, she gestured toward the stairs.“I’m making tea.You can come up if you want.”
His brows lifted slightly, but he nodded.“Lead the way, sunshine.”
She paused on the first step.“If you call me that again, I will stab you.”
“Worth the risk,” he murmured.
Lisa’s apartment was warm,cluttered, and smelled faintly of cinnamon, lived-in in a way only a human’s space ever felt.Once Oakley and Elora had decided to stay in the Elfin realm, Lisa no longer wanted an empty house to sit in.So she’d renovated the space above her shop and made it into an apartment.It was cozy and made her feel less lonely.
Rezer moved through it carefully, every step measured, like he might disturb something fragile just by existing too loudly.He didn’t belong here.Which only made the fact that he wanted to worse.
She put the kettle on.He leaned against the counter, watching her hands move with easy familiarity.“You look tired,” he said quietly.
“You look smug,” she shot back.
He huffed a soft laugh.“I’ve made it up to your apartment.I think I deserve smug.”
“Ass,” Lisa muttered.
The word warmed something in his chest.Dangerous, that.
When the tea was ready, she handed him a mug, motioned for him to take a seat, and curled into the armchair opposite his.He examined the cup like it might turn on him.
“It’s chamomile, not poison.”
“You say that,” he replied, sniffing it cautiously, “but you’d be surprised how often I’ve been handed drinks that weren’t supposed to be poisoned.And were.”
“That actually tracks.”
He took a careful sip.Blinked.Took another.
“I think every cup you make me is better than the last,” he admitted.“Very soothing.”
Her lips pursed.“Your surprise is offensive.”
“There’s very little in this world that soothes me anymore,” he said, softer now.“Forgive me if I notice when something does.”The words landed heavier than he meant them to.
She inhaled slowly.“Rezer ...what’s going on with you?”
Something inside him tightened.It was time to make a decision.Would he let Lisa in?What was the point of coming to her over and over, of having this burning need to be with her, if hewasn’tgoing to let her pass the walls he rarely let anyone through?It was time to be honest with himself, at least about this.He was tired of being alone.He wanted Lisa.Right or wrong, he didn’t give a damn.He wanted her, and he would have her.“I have dreams,” he said after a beat.“Or ...something like dreams.”
She leaned forward.“Define ‘something.’”
He stared into the tea, watching steam curl.“When I first left the casino and came back to the realm, they were just fragments.Shadows moving through fog.Voices speaking a language I know I should understand.”His jaw clenched.“I’d wake up with the sound of it still in my head, but no words.Just cold familiarity.Like I’d known it once.”
“And now?”she asked.
“They’re sharper.”His fingers tightened around the mug.“Every time I cross between realms, they get worse.The shadows have faces now.The voices don’t whisper anymore, they call.”He swallowed.“Sometimes I wake up and my magic feels ...drained.Like something fed on it while I slept.”
“That’s not normal,” Lisa said quietly.
He snorted.“I’m a centuries-old dark elf with a less than stellar reputation.Define normal.”
Lisa gave him an annoyed look.“You know what I mean.”
“Last night was different.”His voice dropped.“I saw a door.Stone.Light pouring from one side, shadow from the other.And behind it—” He stopped.“Something waiting.Like it knew me.Like it expected me to remember.”
“Did you?”she asked.
