"Did I have a choice?" She settled into the chair across from his desk without invitation, crossing her legs slowly. His gaze flicked down, just for a heartbeat, before jerking back to her face. "Because that message sounded remarkably like a summons."
"We have appointments with two more courts." He gestured to the maps like this was a normal strategic meeting. Like they hadn't stood in his garden with almost no space between them. "The investigation requires?—"
"Right to business, then." Brynn leaned back, studying him. Looking for tells. Weak spots. Places where his control cracked. "No acknowledgment of the fact that you've been treating me like I've got some contagious disease."
His jaw clenched. There, a tell.
"I haven't been—" The words came out clipped. "I've been managing court affairs."
"Is that what we're calling it?"
His hands flexed on the desk's edge, fingers digging into the wood hard enough that she heard it creak. The shadows at his feet darkened before he yanked them back under control.
"The investigation?—"
"Has been sitting idle while you hide." She leaned forward, forcing him to either meet her eyes or obviously look away. "So either tell me where we're going and why, or admit you've been sulking."
The shadows spread across the floor despite his efforts. His dark eyes blazed with an intensity that made heat curl low in her stomach.
"Careful, thief." The word came out low, edged with warning.
"Or what?" She held his gaze, refusing to back down even thoughher pulse was racing for all the wrong reasons. "You'll ignore me for another week?"
Silence.
The shadows writhed at his feet. His chest rose and fell with slow, controlled breaths.
When he finally spoke, his voice was dangerously soft. "We're visiting The Lingering Court today. Tomorrow, The Mourned."
"That's it? That's all you're going to say?"
"What would you have me say?"
The truth. That something happened in that garden. That he felt it too. That he'd been hiding because he was terrified of what was between them.
But she couldn't force those words out. Couldn't make herself that vulnerable when he was standing there behind his desk like it was a fortress wall.
"Nothing," she said finally. "Clearly."
Pain flickered across his expression before the mask slammed back down.
"You're needed because you're the only one who can read the ward damage patterns." He turned back to the maps, shuffling papers with unnecessary force. "Your abilities are essential to?—"
"Don't." The word came out sharper than intended. "Don't reduce this to my abilities. Don't pretend the last few weeks have been purely professional."
His shoulders went rigid. He didn't turn around. Didn't look at her.
The silence stretched, heavy with everything neither of them was saying.
"Right." She stood, moving slowly around the desk, closing the gap between them. Crossing into the space no one else dared enter, the twelve feet of distance that everyone in this court knew to maintain.
His shoulders went tight as a bowstring.
"Anything else I should know?" She stopped close enough to see the tension in his jaw, the rapid pulse beating in his throat. Close enough that she could smell him. The same scent that had hauntedher for a week. "Special protocols for dealing with ghosts and peaceful deaths?"
He didn't step away. Didn't move at all. But she could see the effort it cost him, the way every muscle in his body had locked down.
"Thessa's domain can be disorienting." His voice came out strained. Rough. He lifted his hand to point at the map, keeping several inches between their fingers like even that proximity was dangerous. "Stay close. Don't wander off. Don't touch anything without permission."
