“I don’t want to rule. I just…want tobe.”
They lapsed into silence.
Then be, Auryn. I will continue to carve a place for you here. If you want to speak, then speak. If you want to spend your days in my bathing pool eating fruits and delicacies, then I will buy you all the oils and sweets you desire.
Auryn giggled.
But the one thing I won’t allow is for you to burn yourself out. You are mine. My one selfish wish. I will not let you break. I will not let you leave me.
This world is cruel, Kailorien. You can’t protect me from everything. And…I will not leave you. You are my origin, my heart, and the future I’ve chosen.
Kailorien’s breath caught as though it was her own—sensed how those words settled in his chest like a vow spoken back through time. He leaned down, and she rose on her tip-toes to meet him.
He kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her against him.
A press of lips to lips. A breath shared.
And then—he froze.
Pulled away.
She blinked up at him, confused, until he snapped off his gauntlet and brought his bare hand upwards, cradling her jaw.
“Auryn.” His voice was low. Tight. “You’re warm.”
She tilted her head, puzzled. “Of course I am. You’re always cold after Council because they don’t have a fluxhearth. It’s much warmer in that passage.”
“No.” His fingers brushed her temple, then trailed down to her neck. His brows furrowed. “You’refeverish. I can feel it through your skin.”
Auryn moved back a step and crossed her arms. “It’s not a fever.”
His eyes narrowed. “It feels like one.”
“It isn’t. I promise. I’m simply warm. Not sick. You know full well this body doesn’t carry illness.”
He didn’t let it go. “Then what is it? Your wounds have healed, haven’t they? From the fall.”
“They did. That first night. This warmth, this heat—it happens now and again.”
She tried to make her voice sound offhanded, but the lines of tension in his shoulders only deepened.
“Now and again?” he asked, suspicious.
She sighed, brushing her hair back. “It’s truly alright. Maybe it’s the Priests’ rituals. Or something in the Jade Lattice. Magic clings here. Sometimes this body grows warmer. I feel more tired. My wounds heal more slowly.”
He stared at her as though seeing her in a new light, as if he could see the threads of mana beneath her skin.
“How often? Since when?”
“Every moon cycle or so since we first came to Krystopolis. Sometimes it doesn’t happen at all.”
Kailorien’s jaw tightened. She sensed his mind was elsewhere now. Strategizing. Predicting threat.
Auryn stepped forward, tension coiling in her stomach. “Kail…what is it?”
“It’s not possible,” he murmured. “But if it is…”
Speak to me. What are you thinking?
