“We’ve breached doors together for five years, Selene. I kick it, you clear it. That’s the deal. Sending you up to the roof while I play decoy downstairs… it feels wrong.”
“You need to be with them when Varessia’s main forces hit the atrium,” I said. “Riven and Goran will need your speed and muscle to hold the line.”
“I know the tactics,” he muttered. “Doesn’t mean I have to like them.”
He looked past me, to where Riven was inspecting a set of throwing knives at the other end of the room.
“You trust him,” Dane said. It wasn’t a question.
“I do.”
Dane sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “He’s… capable. I’ll give him that. I saw him in the ring. He held back against me.”
“He did.”
“Right.” Dane’s jaw set. “Then I guess my job isn’t just to make noise. It’s to make sure he doesn’t get overwhelmed before you finish the job.”
I stepped closer, lowering my voice.
“Keep an eye on him,” I whispered. “Please.”
I looked at Dane, letting the plea hang in the air between us. The truth sat heavy in my chest. I was still figuring out the depth of this connection between Riven and me, but I knew I needed him to walk out of that tower so I could find the answer.
Dane met my gaze. He studied my face, reading the desperation I refused to voice. He didn’t ask for an explanation; five years of partnership meant he understood the things I couldn’t say.
“I’ll watch his back,” Dane promised. “Even if he is a spooky bastard.”
He clapped me on the shoulder and walked out.
I turned back to the bench, reaching for a standard Registry knife—simple, serviceable.
A hand intercepted mine.
Riven reached for his belt, ignoring the standard blades on the table. He unclipped a leather sheath and used it to block my reach.
“Don’t take those,” he said, his voice low.
He drew the blade fully, the metal sliding free with a quiet hiss. It was forged from a dark, glass-like steel that drank the ambient light.
“Vaelor iron,” Riven said softly. “Cold-forged. It rejects magic. It severs the flow.”
Heflipped the weapon, pressing the scuffed leather hilt into my palm.
“The machine is a hunger, Selene. If it takes hold of you… if it begins to drain you dry and you cannot break the hold…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t have to. We both knew that total depletion meant death. He offered me a path to survival. He was giving me the means to escape the trap.
If the machine tries to hollow me out, I cut the link. I sever the magic to save my life.
I took it. The balance was perfect. The metal was a bite of winter against my palm.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
“Goran gave it to me,” Riven said. “The night he found me after the lab.”
He ran a thumb over the worn leather of the sheath, his expression distant for a split second, then he closed the distance. The space between us vanished.
He reached out, his fingers brushing my hip as he attached the sheath to my belt.
