Page 86 of Given to the Black King

“Mm.”

Sera goes back to the sheets. I keep cutting.

By sunset I have changed my mind six times. The wanting stays fixed. Sense does not.

Torgan can hear a mouse behind a wall. He can smell my body from the far end of a council table. Yesterday he broke stone because I asked him to follow me.

Tonight I mean to run.

The thought turns my stomach over and leaves heat behind.

I meet him in the old armory above the west stair. No guards inside. One lamp on the table.

He has stripped down to black trousers and a sleeveless leather coat. No sword. No armor. Bare forearms. Bare feet.

His claws are hidden.

For now.

He closes the door after me.

“You can still change your mind.”

“So can you.”

“No.”

The answer comes too quickly to be polite.

My pulse jumps.

He hears it.

“Good,” I say. “Then listen.”

I put both hands on the table so he can see they are steady.

“The inner wall is the boundary. The west passages, the night garden, the old orchard court. I do not leave them. You do not drive me beyond them.”

“Yes.”

“I left my cloak in the orchard court,” he says. “If you use ash, I cover you and walk you home.”

“Good.”

“If I say hold, you stop where you are and wait.”

“Yes.”

“If I say ash, the hunt ends. Completely. You let me go, you put your claws away, and you speak to me in your ordinary voice.”

His jaw tightens at the last part.

“Yes.”

“No mating bite. No fang point on my pulse. You may mark me with your back teeth anywhere else we already named. Shoulder. Breast. Hip. Thigh.”

His pupils widen.