I walk into it with my eyes open.
Izan is waitingfor me when I return.
He stands in my chambers like he belongs there, arms crossed, his body radiating a tension I feel from the doorway. His eyes lock onto mine the moment I step through—amber shotthrough with heat, with fury, with need that makes my blood sing in ways I won’t examine.
“Where.” Flat. Dangerous.
“There’s a servant’s passage behind the tapestry in the east corridor.” I don’t flinch from his stare. Don’t apologize. Don’t explain. “The wards are compromised. It leads to an external ledge overlooking the middle districts.”
Tension cords through his neck. I watch the war play out between fury and need he won’t voice.
“You found a way out.” His voice has dropped to a register that vibrates through my bones. “You found a way out, and you came back.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He deserves an answer—deserves the truth, probably, after everything that’s happened. But I don’t have a truth I’m willing to give. Not yet. Not when I’m still choking on the implications of my own choice.
“Because I decided to.” I hold his stare, refusing to yield. “Is that not enough?”
He crosses the distance between us in three strides. His hands catch my shoulders—not gently, but not bruising either. Firm. Final. Anchoring me in place as he looms over me, all heat and intensity and the desperate restraint of someone holding themselves back by fingernails.
“You could have run.” Ragged. His breath is hot against my face. “You could have disappeared. I wouldn’t have—” He stops. Starts again. “I might not have found you in time. Before someone else did. Before the Blood Regent’s people?—”
“I know.” My voice has gone quiet. My hands have risen on their own, resting flat against his sternum. I can feel his heart pounding beneath my palms—too fast, too hard, the rhythm of adragon losing a battle he’s been fighting for days. “I know what I was risking. I chose to come back anyway.”
“Why?” The question tears out of him again. His grip on my shoulders tightens. His eyes have gone molten, swirling with heat I feel against my skin. “Tell me why, Alerie. Give me an answer that follows any kind of logic.”
“Because I wanted to.”
The truth slips out before I can stop it. Raw. Terrifying. A confession dropped between us with nothing to catch it.
Izan makes a sound—low, rough, halfway between a growl and a groan. His forehead drops to rest against mine. His hands slide from my shoulders to cup my face, tilting it up, holding me still while he breathes in the scent of my skin.
“You’re going to be the end of me.” The words are barely audible.
“I know.” My fingers curl into the fabric of his shirt. “I think it might consume me too.”
He pulls back. Releases me with effort that shows in every trembling line of his body, his hands shaking as they fall to his sides. His eyes are still molten, still desperate, still fixed on my face with an intensity that makes my knees unsteady.
“The passage will be sealed by morning.” His voice has gone rough. “New wards. Guards. Whatever it takes.”
“I won’t use it again.”
“I know.” A breath. Two. “That’s not why I’m sealing it.”
I’m alone with my racing heart and trembling hands and the lingering heat of his touch on my face.
The war roomthe following morning is all business.
Volcanic glass table, maps shimmering beneath enchanted light, shelving units lined with intelligence reports and blood-oath samples. The pattern has changed since yesterday. More red points. Less blue. The Blood Regent’s network expanding faster than we can contain it.
“The merchant quarter cluster has stabilized.” Seravax’s tone cuts through the chamber, each word precise as a blade. “Our raid eliminated three nodes, but four new ones have been confirmed within the same district boundary.”
I track his position without looking up. Near the door, angled to observe both the room and anyone who might enter. He’s not hostile, exactly. He’s worse—indifferent to everything except what I can provide.
“The cascade structure is adapting.” I trace the pattern with my finger above the glowing surface. “He’s learning from our attacks. Each time we destroy a node, he adjusts the redundancy patterns.”
