I woke before dawn with my wrist smooth and my memory raw.
Cedric found me at the stair and said Lord Vareth wanted me in the stillroom.
Cedric: He said not to keep him waiting.
The stillroom was a cabinet built into the wall, narrow as a coffin and twice as warm.
Vareth: Close the door.
Sorrel: I would rather leave it open.
Vareth: Close it, Sorrel.
He took my wrist before I could argue and turned it toward the lamp.
His bandaged hand was clumsy and careful at once.
Vareth: It is whole.
Sorrel: You made it whole.
He opened a jar that smelled of pine and iron and spread it over skin that did not need it.
Sorrel: There is nothing to heal.
Vareth: There will be questions. This keeps them smaller.
He wrapped my wrist in clean linen, slow, like he was building a wall between me and the world.
Vareth: You will say nothing about the fire.
Sorrel: Nothing?
Vareth: Not to Cedric. Not to Calder. Not to your brother.
Vareth: Last night did not happen. You will keep your mouth shut.
The words were cold enough to leave frost.
He tied the linen and did not step back.
I looked at his ruined hand, then at my whole wrist, and the truth settled like a stone in my chest.
Sorrel: You know.
Vareth: I know what I saw.
Sorrel: That is not what I asked.
Vareth: It is the only answer you are getting.
Sorrel: You know what I am. You have known since the court, maybe longer.
Vareth: Do not play the fool. It does not suit you.
Sorrel: Then stop treating me like one.
He put his hand on the shelf beside my head. The cabinet shrank to the space between us.
Vareth: You quieted my fire. That is a dangerous thing to be.
Sorrel: Dangerous to whom?
Vareth: To everyone who wants it.
Sorrel: Tell me what you know. Tell me why you counted me in that hall.
Vareth: No.
Sorrel: Damn you.
My voice shook, and I hated that he heard it.
He caught my jaw in his hand, thumb at the corner of my mouth.
Vareth: If you want me to stop, say stop.
Sorrel: I do not want your rules.
Vareth: Then say stop.
I did not say it.
He kissed me open-mouthed, hard enough to steal the breath I had left.
My hand fisted in his coat and pulled him closer before shame could catch up.
He bit my lower lip, not gentle, and a sound came out of me that I would deny later.
He pulled back just enough to breathe against my mouth.
Vareth: That is the only answer you get today.
He opened the door and stepped out like nothing had happened.
My lip throbbed. My wrist was wrapped. My secret sat between us, known and unspoken.
Vareth: Not a word, Sorrel.
Sorrel: You bastard.
He was gone before I could ask again.
He had tended me like something precious, then ordered me silent like something owned.
He kissed me like something he meant to keep.
I hated that my body still leaned toward the door.