Page 34 of Lay It Bare

“Do you have a plan, precious?”

Rei gave Sevastyan a darting glance. “I want to trust him. He only hates you because he thinks he knows what you are. He was brighter for a few days, right after the fever. Now he’s fading again.”

Sevastyan replayed the last few days in his head. Lisa had been quiet, eating properly, taking his supplements and doing light exercise as directed. He still slept for long hours but that was to be expected. “He’s still close to Alexi. Every time he wanders, he goes back. If he wanted to die, all he had to do was stay away. He still loves him.”

Rei nodded. “You love Alexi. And you’re still plotting to bring him down.”

Sevastyan stopped walking.

His slave faced him, not backing down. “I love Alexi, Master. He saved us. Winning is going to be bitter. That doesn’t change what we’re going to do.”

Thoughts refused to settle into one pattern. Sevastyan stared at Rei’s eyes. There was quiet acceptance there. These weren’t new thoughts to his slave. He wanted to say Rei was wrong. Loving Alexi fell outside his own morals. Alexi was a means to an end. Sometimes it was comforting to go to him. His estate and homes around the world had become places of refuge. He could drop a couple pieces of his mask but never the full mask, not like he could with Rei or Ellisandre.

But he couldn’t deny Rei’s assessment. There was warmth in his chest when he thought of the older man who had taught him how to walk like a master through the underworld.

Rei blinked slowly. A lone snowflake caught on his lashes and melted away.

“I don’t know if what I feel towards Alexi is love,” Sevastyan finally responded. “I feel warmth towards him.”

“Attachment,” Rei said. “There are too many definitions of love. But what Lisa has for Alexi isn’t so different from what I have towards Alexi. If Alexi had me, I’d be like Lisa. I’d give him whatever he asked in service. And I’d slowly fade.”

“Lisa is different from you. He lashes out.”

“We have different souls,” Rei murmured. “Fading for Lisa won’t look the same.”