"Both are possible."
She studied him for a moment longer than etiquette strictly required.
Most people would have called him composed. Some would have said that Arik was just elegant. Others, especially those inclined to fear imperial blood for sensible reasons, might have called him dangerous. All true. None sufficient for her.
There were nights in Pais, very late, when she had found herself thinking of him for no reason she liked. Not sentimentally. Not with the softness academy girls sometimes wasted on princes from a distance. More like intellectual irritation. An unfinished equation. A pattern glimpsed at the edge of sight and lost whenever she turned to look directly.
He noticed too much.
Not in the bright, easy way of clever men pleased with themselves.
In the quieter tone of someone who had long ago learned that seeing first was frequently the difference between survival and regret.
"You do that often," he said.
Natalie blinked once. "Do what?"
