~LENORA'S POV
I sat with my back to Alaric, because facing him felt harder than not knowing what his expression was.
His chamber stretched wide around us as though it had room for every secret in this world except mine.
His presence behind me pressed against me in a way that made my thoughts quieter, like my body had decided it was safer to listen than to react.
When he began to speak, the words did not rise or fall in any way I recognized.
I didn't understand the language he was speaking, but my body did.
The first silver trace slid beneath my skin without pain.
The sensation continued to spread slowly through my chest, my throat, my wrists, and with it came a strange quieting, as if something inside me had been wrapped in cloth and tucked away where no one could reach it.
It was not protection.
It was concealment.
He was altering the way this world would read me.
