Maximus's hand finds the small of my back. We walk.
We’re ledout through a passage that opens at Lanthar’s gesture. The stone parts and reforms behind us.
In the passage, the air is cooler and quieter. The gold thins to threads.
Mira walks ahead with Seraphina. Her shoulders are rigid. The tension in the back of her neck is visible from three steps behind.
Then she stops.
She turns to Seraphina and says something low. Seraphina answers, lower still. Whatever passes between them, Mira’s chin drops. Just for a second. Then it lifts again, and she keeps walking.
She slows enough that I catch up to her.
"You okay?"
"I will be."
She walks a little faster. Catches up to Seraphina.
I let her go.
I fall back beside Maximus.
His hand closes around mine. His grip is harder than usual.
The tension that ran between us when Syrenne moved on me hasn't gone. The bond presses against my chest, raw at the edges. I press my fingers between his and feel it release a fraction at a time.
"Don't apologize for staying back."
"I wasn't going to."
A few steps.
"His." Quieter. "You saidHis."
"I did."
“Yes, you are mine.” His hand closes harder around mine. “And I am yours.” He lifts my hand. Presses it to his mouth.
His mouth lingers against my knuckles. Then he sets my hand back down, fingers still locked between his. We walk.
Neither of us speaks.
The gold threads in the passage walls warm where we walk, brightest where my boots cross them.
The passage widens. The stone ahead is darker, the gold pulled back to fine threads. Another passage opens. Smaller.
My hands start to shake.
He feels it before I can hide it. His grip firms. His shadow shifts at the edge of my vision, brushes the line of my hip, falls back. The tremor in my fingers settles where his pulse meets mine.
We walk through.
Chapter
Ten
Celeste doesn’t ask if I’ll come back. She knows.
