Chrystal stared.
The most she had ever seen from his stone face was smirks or mirth that died before they could bloom.
The smile now was pulling at her in ways that defied logic.
Chrystal’s training, however, had not been for nothing, as her mind did one thing, her mouth did another.
"Disappointed?" she all but snarled even as Ari purred quietly.
"Intrigued," Castian rumbled.
The single word hung between them, loaded with possibility and danger. Chrystal felt her carefully maintained composure waver under the intensity of his gaze.
That budding smile widened.
Chrystal tightened her hold on the cloak as his scent soothed her all over again. She forgot the moving circle that surrounded them, forgot the cut on her head, which Ari was already healing, forgot the pain in her left arm, o
