THORNE
She recoiled like she had been struck, but even then I caught the way she tried to restrain her reaction, to control her expression. So she went completely blank, the food stopped halfway to her mouth.
She refused to meet my eyes, hers widening just a fraction too wide for her to hide it.
Even now, she was refusing to show what was beneath, but I could read her like words on parchment. She was hiding something grievous.
I tilted my head, scrutinizing her to see just how long she wanted to draw on this facade of calm and play off the question I had asked like she had not heard me.
We stayed like that for what felt like ages, the sound of the rest of the retinue being the only thing filling the terse silence between us.
Even Kuma was quiet and I could feel his gaze on us. The shift in the air had not gone unnoticed by him, no doubt.
