The silence in the alcove stretched after Kaelen's words, heavy with implication. You are not alone. You have never been alone, not since the dungeon. I don't understand why, but I know it's true. The confession hung between us, raw and unguarded, a crack in the ice of his usual reserve.
I should have responded. Should have acknowledged his words, offered some reciprocity, some hint of the truth I carried. But my throat was closed, my voice trapped behind the weight of everything I could not say.
He did not press. He simply stood there, his shadow falling across me, his winter-gray eyes holding mine with that same searching intensity. Waiting.
Then, slowly, he sat back down.
