Fen turned away.
The last wisps of shadow slipped back beneath his skin, but I could still feel them lingering in the cavern, cold and electric and alive. My heart stumbled unevenly, unsure whether to race forward or freeze completely.
He had shown me everything.
Not a demonstration.
Not a warning.
A truth.
And now he stood with his back to me, fists clenched at his sides, breathing like he’d run miles.
I swallowed. “Fen…”
“Don’t,” he murmured.
The word wasn’t harsh. Not sharp. It was tired, frayed, like something inside him was holding on by a thread.
I stepped closer anyway.
The cavern floor crackled beneath my boots, a tiny sound swallowed by the hollow space. He didn’t turn, but I caught the way his shoulders stiffened, bracing—as if expecting me to reach for him, or expecti
