It had been a long time since she’d seen him look so carefree. The sparkle in his mahogany eyes erased some of the lines that had settled onto his face. She didn’t argue when he put a finger to his lips with one hand and took her arm with the other. He pulled her toward the wall, sequestering them behind another marble statue as Max and Seba entered the corridor.
“You’re being impossible,” Seba snapped.
“And you are being manic. Go see Taeleia—you look like you’re about to keel over.”
“I’m perfectly fine, thank you very much,” said Seba, though anyone with half a brain could see she wasn’t. “Don’t deflect. If you go to the Erastate—”
“I’ll be safe,” Max assured her. Their footsteps halted. Keriya dared to peek around the statue and saw that they had stopped in front of Max’s door. “Saf
