"I love you Sophie," he said. "But this can't wait. I've already delayed longer than I should have."
She searched his face. Whatever she found there made the reasonable expression stay in place but shifted something underneath it.
"Then tell me why," she said. "The real reason."
He sat up.
He was quiet for a moment, not because he was deciding whether to tell her but because he was deciding where to start. Then he reached out with his aura, carefully, precisely, and enclosed the room. Every surface, every corner, the walls and the floor and the ceiling, wrapped in a layer so fine it was invisible but complete. Airtight in the way that mattered. He found the thread of his link with Vaelith and stilled it, not severing it, just pausing it, the way you cover a flame without putting it out.
Sophie watched him do all of this without speaking.
Then he told her everything.
