“You keep saying that.”
“Because I keep knowing it.”
Despite myself, something almost like a laugh tried to rise in my chest, but it got caught on everything else and came out as a rough breath instead.
Tobias watched me for another moment, and I could practically see him weighing risk against need, escape against distress, the locked room against the one part of this house that might actually calm me without feeling like another form of punishment.
“I can bring you camera feeds,” he tried.
“No. I don’t want to look at them on a screen.”
“Cove—”
“No.” I pulled my shoulders back, even though the movement hurt. “I want to be in the wing. I want to see them properly. I want to check on Puff Daddy because he was acting weird last night, and—and I want to make sure the cuttlefish has enough enrichment, and I want to know if the morays ate, and I want to—”
My voice broke.
I hated that it broke.
I hated that Tobias saw.
And I hated the way his expression changed, the way something in him seemed to pull toward me without his body actually moving any closer.
“Please,” I finished, quieter and more depressed than angry now.
Tobias looked down the corridor, then back at me.
When he spoke, his voice was low and measured. “If I allow this, you will remain beside me.”
I almost snapped that he was not“allowing”anything, that I was not a dog being granted fucking yard time, but the words dried up before they reached my tongue because the answer beneath his condition was yes.
Not no.
Yes.
My pulse jumped.
“I’m handcuffed to you,” I said instead. “So I mean, I’m kind of stuck beside you.”
“You will not pull away.”
“I won’t.”
He breathed out through his nose, eyes searching my expression to see any cracks.
“Please,” I whispered. “I just want to see them. That’s it. I want… I want to do more than that but I understand that’s not possible right now, so please, Tobias.”
He looked at me for another second, then gave a small nod. “Very well.”
Tobias adjusted his grip so I could lean on him without jostling the cuff between us, and together we moved toward the aquarium wing. Every step hurt, though I tried not to show it, because showing pain made him look at me likethatand Icouldn’t handle being looked at likethatwhile still needing his arm to stay upright.
The door opened, and my dream came back so vividly I almost felt water rise around my ankles.
Glass.
Light.
Tobias beside me.
