Eli
“Why do you do it? In council. You cut them down like they’ve insulted the gods themselves just for speaking my name.”
He doesn’t answer. For a heartbeat I think he won’t, that he’ll let the question rot unanswered. Then his hand fists tight enough to turn white.
“Because they don’t see you as you really are. They see weakness where I see-” He stops, throat working. His gaze flicks away, like the word itself might undo him.
My chest tightens. “Where you see what?”
The silence this time is deliberate. He won’t give me more. Won’t let himself. But the crack is there, raw and unguarded, and it says enough.
I step closer, close enough that my shoulder brushes his arm. His heat bleeds into me, steadying and unraveling all at once. “You’re breaking, Ronan.”
His laugh is harsh, strippe
