Page 45

“Two minutes,” she repeated, and left the hatch open on purpose.

I looked down at him. His hand remained under my shirt. His pulse had not improved.

“Again,” I said. “Your timing remains terrible.”

“I’ll make it up to you.”

He made it sound like an order I would enjoy following. I kissed him until Tamsin counted down from the corridor, then left him alive, furious, and very clear about the future.

I picked up Soren’s case from beside the bench.

Two days, I thought, walking back to my quarters with my mouth tender and my whole body awake. Two days suddenly felt very long.

RYLOS

Tamsin cleared the shoulder forty-six hours after the Spire fell.

She delivered the verdict in the med bay with Lika present and her arms folded, because neither of them trusted me to translate it honestly.

“Full activity,” Tamsin said. “Within pain tolerance. The wound is closed, the muscle has reknit, and if you tear it open doing something heroic or stupid, I will sedate both of you.”

“Define heroic,” Lika said.

“Anything he calls necessary.”

“And stupid?”

Tamsin looked at me. “Anything he calls controlled.”

Lika nodded. “Clear.”

Tamsin left smiling like a saboteur.

We left the med bay, stopped at her quarters for the pin, and went to mine. Lika closed the hatch and stood with her back to it, hair down, mother’s pin in her hand. I had waited two days to ask her. Now I had to get the words out.

I did not touch her.

“Before anything else,” I said.

“The Claiming is permanent. Not marriage, not partnership papers. Biology. My bite changes you. You would carry my sigils in violet; they never fade and they cannot be removed. You would heal faster, live longer, hear and see closer to Vinduthi range. The transformation can take six to twenty hours. Tamsin will monitor it, and I will stay through all of it.”

She watched me without interrupting, which from Lika is a form of respect.

“The bond is empathic both directions,” I continued.

“Strong physical states and strong emotions become difficult to hide; your thoughts remain private. You keep your mind and your privacy. Skin to skin sensation can cross, as well. Pleasure. Pain. Heat. It can be intense before you learn to regulate it. The bond lasts for life, but it cannot make you stay with me. There is no biological reversal and no version where I pretend permanence means authority.”

“The Conclave file called it ownership.”

“The Conclave file was written by people who call any bond ownership if they cannot control it.” I held her eyes.

“You would not belong to me. I would belong with you. If you want the word mine in bed, I will use it. Outside the bed, the only authority I want is the authority you give me moment by moment.”

Something in her face opened, small and devastating.

“And the bite?”

My fangs descended at the question. I let her see them.