It was him.
He was the one hiding in the trees when something sent me the message that I was safe.
I part my lips to ask a question when Varic lifts a thin black cord to tie around his neck. The material seems to be made of something delicate and woven. A sense of envy rolls through me, combined with the need to know who this sentimental object belonged to, because the reverent way he is placing it around his neck indicates its importance to him.
I pull in a deep breath and stare at the gold endcaps shaped like two talons.
“What is that?” I storm toward him and gesture at the necklace while his smile rises in response. “How long have you had this? And why haven’t I seen it?”
His stomach clenches above the towel slung low around his hips as he laughs. “Which question would you prefer I answer first?”
I lift my chin in challenge. “How about you go in order?”
His eyes flash with mischief as he closes the distance, until the threads from the knot of his towel brush against the fabric of my dress.
“Take a guess as to what it is.” He juts his own chin to mimic my action.
I reach for the woven fiber, feeling just as uncertain until a familiar scent seems to emanate from it. I lift the end of the cord closer and smell the faint impression of the deep floral we’ve determined is too unique to come from anything he could have obtained outside of this fabric having been something belonging to me.
“Now, have you determined its origin?”
I shake my head, hoping he’ll tell me.
“It is silk from a nightgown you left behind the day you returned to the Imperial Palace.” His eyes never leave mine, yet my vision grows hazy with tears. “I hid it within my uniform during the day to prevent it from being confiscated. Then I would sleep with it over my pillow at night.”
My chest no longer rises, and I am not entirely sure I am breathing.
“I needed it to help coax me to sleep when the worst of the memories haunted me. It helped to trick my mind into believing you were still there, so I could drift off with the safety I felt in your presence.”
Tears roll down to my chest where they seep inside the fabric of my dress.
“That’s beautiful, Varic.” I swipe more tears away, and he stops me, holding my wrist so I can feel without hiding. A sob makes its way past my lips. “And rather tragic.”
His expression lifts in amusement. “Eventually, I feared something might happen to it, so I asked a seamstress if she would help me make strips of the silk into something lasting. Then, when she mentioned the ends of the cord would eventually fray over time, I knew what to use as a cap to protect it.”
“Where did you get the gold to craft these?” I twirl one of the talons between my finger and thumb, expecting it to be something he considers special, or else he would never allow it to touch anything I had worn. “Knowing you, it has to be meaningful.”
The tips of his ears burn brighter with my slip of the tongue. “Jase used to wear a ring, which his parents insisted I take as a token of their forgiveness?—”
I flatten my palm over his collarbone to let him know I am here and I know.
“The first time I was invited to the Palace, I asked the Imperial jeweler if he could fashion the ring into two talons.”
“Signifying?”
“Why do you assume their shape symbolizes anything?”
“Because it’s you, Varic. Everything has meaning.”
His mouth curves in the corner, tugging my own. “Like the Dragons on my back, the talons signify freedom, strength, fight, and life.”
His words settle in, embedding themselves into my marrow, each bringing more meaning than anyone else could guess, because Varic infuses them with so much more than their definition.
“Why two? Wouldn’t it be easier to wear if you connected the ends?”
“Two things can be separated, yet still belong together, Tasch.”
A storm brews behind his irises, containing and communicating multitudes.
