And that… surprises me.
“Okay,” I say carefully. “What happened to starving him for days?”
Talon looks off to the side and shrugs. “That’s not us doing the torture, you know? You lock the fucker up, he doesn’t eat, and nature does its thing.”
“It’s still premeditated,” I counter.
“Yeah, yeah.” He works his jaw. “It just… feels different when it’s you signing off on it.”
Okay…?
That’s how I know something is really wrong with him. And I don’t mean he’s rattled by what we need to do, or stressed because our world just got flipped upside down.
I mean deeper than that.
I don’t feel it through the bond anymore—probably because his emotions aren’t as intense now, they’re buried—but that doesn’t change the fact that something’s in there. Emotions like guilt or loneliness are quiet and slow. They eat you from the inside, and most people never notice.
I exhale through my nose.
“How about you two go down to Mark?” I tilt my chin at Cassian and Nathaniel.
“What about you?” Cassian asks.
“I’ll… join you in a minute,” I say, casual like it’s nothing.
But Cassian’s gaze flicks to Talon anyway. Then to me. Then back again.
He gets it.
“Sure,” Nathaniel says before Cassian can comment. “Let’s go, man.”
Cassian huffs like this is a huge inconvenience, but he just stands, rolling his shoulders again.
“Fine,” he mutters. “But don’t take long. We shouldn’t split up for long.”
Nathaniel falls into step beside him, and in a couple of breaths, they’re gone. The door shuts behind them, and it gets really quiet in here.
“Real subtle, Skye,” he says at last. Skye. Not Little Grim. “Might as well have told them, ‘Go take a lap, I’m about to crack Talon open.’”
“I just think you could use some heart-to-heart,” I say, already moving closer. We’re not exactly fluent in emotion, either of us, but we already talked some heavy shit once. We can do it again. “They get it.”
“Yeah,” he says. “Even Cassian didn’t object.
“What can I say? He listens to me a lot better now.”
His mouth twitches. Not a smile. More like the ghost of one.
“Can’t argue that.” He tilts his head. “We all listen to you. You’re like… the middle of this whole thing.”
“The shitshow?” I joke.
“Nah.” His eyes lift to mine. “Life. Like you’ve got gravity, and we’re all stuck in your pull.”
And, um… I think my heart skips a beat at that. He already confessed his feelings for me once, but that was before his ex crawled back from the dead. Still, it gives me enough courage to be the calm one—to nudge us toward actually resolving our feelings.
You know. Communication. Honesty. Acceptance. All that terrifying stuff. And without meaning to, he just handed me the spine to try.
I lift my chin. “Sit down on the floor.”
