- Aurelian Salvatore:
He tells me he doesn't want my explanation, and this time I don't try to dress it in grand words or careful phrasing. I don't reach for centuries of logic. I don't reach for power.
I reach for something much simpler.
"I was scared," I say.
The words feel almost embarrassingly small in my mouth.
He goes still, though the vines still hold him pinned. His chest is rising hard, eyes still red at the edges from the power he tried to use. There's fury there. There's hurt. But now there's something else too — confusion flickering in the cracks.
"Scared of what?" he shoots back immediately, as the word offends him.
I swallow, stepping a little closer. Not enough to crowd him yet. Just enough that he knows I'm not retreating from this.
"I was scared of losing you," I admit.
The air between us shifts.
"And Elias," I add quickly, because that matters just as much. "I didn't want to lose what we had. The three of us."
His jaw tightens, but he doesn't interrupt.
