Page 193

Silver-white light flared instantly beneath the axŭ markings.

Neither of us pulled away.

Talia watched the glow travel up my arm. “So that still happens.”

“Yes.”

“Does it hurt?”

“No.”

Her eyes held mine, waiting.

I considered lying. I didn’t.

“It feels like awareness,” I said.

“Of me?”

“Yes.”

Something shifted between us at the admission.

Her grip loosened but didn’t release. I could feel every point of contact as if my skin had been newly calibrated—an intensity that wasn’t normal.

None of this was.

“What if we don’t call it anything?” she asked quietly.

I frowned. “The recognition? The bond? Whatever Darev thinks is happening?”

“For tonight,” she said, and my pulse kicked hard enough that she noticed.

Of course she noticed.

“I don’t want to choose you because some biological system picked you for me,” she added.

“Good.”

My response surprised her.

“I do not want that either.”

“Why?”

The truth left me before I could restrain it.

“Because then I would never know if you chose me.”

Talia went completely still.

That was too much. Too personal.

I looked away.

Her fingers tightened around my wrist, a grounding pressure against the rising static in my veins. “Look at me,” she said, her voice low but unwavering.

I forced my gaze to meet hers.