A strange warmth stirred in my chest at that realization, quickly followed by embarrassment at myself for noticing at all.
I forced my attention forward as we entered a quieter chamber where the walls shimmered with carved designs that caught the violet light like ripples across dark water. A wide bed of fragrant moss filled the center of the room, and beside it a stone basin steamed gently beneath the glow of a crystal embedded in the wall.
I dropped on the mattress, my eyes tracing the elegance of the stone. “Your life is not what I imagined.”
Talon lowered himself before me. His hand closed around mine, turning it over so his thumb could brush across my knuckles in an absent circle.
“No,” he said. “It would not be.”
The corner of his mouth shifted, though there was no humor in it.
“You were raised on their stories.”
I studied him. “And they are wrong?”
“They are convenient.”
His thumb moved to the inside of my wrist now, tracing the delicate skin there as though measuring the beat of my pulse.
“Then why keep it?” I asked. “If you are not what they claim… why abide by their law at all? Why continue feeding on the unbound?”
His hand stilled.
For a moment he did not answer. His gaze drifted past me toward the chamber wall, toward nothing in particular, yet something in his expression hardened.
“It is not so simple.”
He leaned back slightly on his heels, though his fingers never released mine.
“That agreement ended a war that nearly erased both our peoples,” he continued. “Haelen calls it peace. We call it survival.”
A faint tension pulled at his jaw.
“They keep their city intact,” he added, quieter now. “And we carry the stain of the bargain.”
The bitterness there was subtle but unmistakable.
I looked down at our joined hands, the truth of it settling slowly into place.
I tilted my head slightly. “Haelen seems to hold a great deal of power over your realm, Master Veyr.”
“Power shifts,” he said quietly. “Those who believe they hold it forever rarely notice when the ground beneath them begins to move.”
I swallowed as Talon released my hand and bent to unlace his boots.
I found myself watching him far more intently than the moment warranted, my gaze lingering as he set the boots aside and rose to his full height.
He peeled his shirt over his head first, the fabric dragging slowly over the ink that wound across his shoulders and chest. The violet glow of the chamber caught along the dark patterns of his tattoos, making them look almost alive as the light moved across his skin.
Before he reached for the waistband of his black briefs, he paused.
“Would you like to join me, little flame?”
I rose slowly, my fingers brushing the ties of my clothing. The fabric slid from my shoulders and pooled at my feet, the cool air of the chamber prickling faintly across my skin before the warmth of the basin drew me forward.
The moment I stepped into the water, heat wrapped around me like an embrace.
I sank lower with a quiet exhale, closing my eyes as the warmth seeped into muscles that had been wound tight since the forest. The scent of minerals and stone drifted upward withthe steam, washing away the clinging traces of damp earth and smoke.