"Fear does not destroy power; it destroys trust, and trust, once broken, leaves only blood and silence behind."
My skin still burned from his kiss, the warmth of him pressed against me lingering long after we had pulled apart. His hands rested heavy yet gentle at my waist, and I felt the strange steadiness of him settle into my bones. For a moment, I thought he would draw me back into another kiss, another soft unraveling, but instead his gaze shifted to the flames. The silence stretched. It was not the comfortable silence that had been growing between us lately, the kind where glances spoke louder than words but a heavy silence, burdened by something older than either of us. Something that lived in his eyes like a shadow that had never left.
I touched his arm. "Riven," I said quietly, "you are holding something back. I can feel it."
