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“Like a game,” Caelyn said.

Elowynn looked over her shoulder at him, then nodded. “Indeed.”

Being near him again was almost unbearable. He had changed in so many ways, but in many others, he remained exactly the same.

The way he watched her like she mattered more than the room around them.

The way his attention focused solely on her when she spoke.

The way she felt safer simply because he stood nearby.

It was a dangerous awareness, especially now that he was here in the Spire. Here in the city that would kill him in cold blood.

Elowynn suddenly felt her stomach lurch.

“Caelyn, you have to go,” she blurted out. “You've not even told me why you are here, but you cannot remain in the city.”

She turned toward him fully as he leaned both hands against the stone beside the window, close enough that she could feel warmth radiating from him. “If they find out what you are, they will kill you. I have watched it happen three times. They take Nulls and slaughter them as a spectacle.” She was panicking.

“You should not have been alone with him,” was all he said, throwing her completely off guard.

“W-what?” she asked, breathless. “That is not… You do not get to—”

“You. Should not. Have been. Alone with him.” His voice rumbled out of him as he interrupted her, and Elowynn could only stare as he turned his rich, forest-colored eyes upon her.

Caelyn turned his body toward her, then stepped closer, and she backed up. Not out of fear, but out of raw emotion and the inability to hold herself up any longer. She pressed her spine to the stone wall with him towering over her.

“You asked what I am doing here.”

“Yes,” she breathed, palms splaying on the stone beside her.

“I am here because my heart is here. Because I found out that if I didn't come and claim it for myself, like I should have turnings ago, I was going to lose it for good.” His eyes were feral, and Elowynn’s lids fluttered.

Stars, she was going to faint.

Caelyn lowered down just enough to be eye level with her. “I don’t care how much danger I’m in. I made the choice. Took the risk.”

He leaned closer then, close enough that she could feel the caress of his breath against her long ear. It made her shiver.

“And if some polished Veylspire bastard thinks he gets to put his hands on you,” he whispered, voice rough with restrained fury, “then the stars and gods themselves can come down here and drag me back out of this city.”

Elowynn’s breathing had become erratic while her heart slammed against her ribs, threatening to break free.

“Caelyn—”

“No.” His hands flattened beside her head against the stone wall, caging her there without touching her. “You don’t get to look at me that way and pretend you still don’t know my feelings.”

Her lips parted soundlessly. Every rational thought inside her had dissolved somewhere beneath the heat in his voice and the devastating closeness of him.

The astrylite lanterns cast shadows across the sharp, chiseled planes of his face. He was beautiful.

And furious.

And standing so close she could smell the familiar scent of cold sea air and cedar smoke clinging to him.

“You wrote me letters for five turnings,” he continued. “You kept every single one of mine beside your bed. You read them when you could not sleep.” His green eyes searched hers, almost desperately now. “And you are still asking why I came?”

Elowynn’s entire body had gone still with shock. She had imagined this moment a thousand different ways over the last five turnings. None of them had prepared her for the reality of him standing here now and looking at her like she was something precious enough to destroy himself over.