He took this in, his eyes examining the teacups between them.
“Does your sister know of your plans, Lunelle? Does she realize how you see her?”
Lunelle let a long, dark breath loose. A silver tear pooled at the corner of her eye, and she fought the urge to flick it away.
“Does any little sister know the lengths their eldest would go to let them shine?”
“Your sister is not the only one worthy of having what they want, Lunelle.”
She twisted her fingers against her dress. “My sister will get what she wants because sheknowswhat she wants.”
“And you do not?”
Her eyes fell once again onto her stack of papers, at the ghost of the strange tome she’d been given.
“Or, are you simply too afraid to admit it?” he added.
Lunelle blinked, lifting her tea to her lips. It was decidedly that one, wasn’t it? She knew it as she watched his inescapable eyes blaze into her. In the very far recesses of her mind, she wondered if Astra noticed the lines at the corners of his eyes, the ones that promised a lightness at the ends of hard evenings.
For a moment, she wasn’t sure what was more of a threat to her. The manuscript within her reach, or the king just out of it.
“Does it hurt?” she asked, pointing to his chest as he pushed against the space between his lungs.
Mirquios tilted his head.
“Does what hurt?” he asked.
“The Tether?”
His hand dropped from his chest and wrapped around his teacup.
“Yes,” he settled. “I suppose it does.”
“I’m sorry,” she offered, though she wasn’t sure she meant it.
They fell into a comfortable silence as she focused back on her letter, his eyes watching her hands float across the page.
“You’re tired,” Lunelle said without looking up. She could feel the energy shift in the air. “Or perhaps I’m boring you.”
Mirquios chuckled, setting down his teacup.
“I find you… peaceful. Never boring.”
She allowed one side of her mouth to accept the compliment in the form of a half smile, the letters making less and less sense as she rambled. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Perhaps we both should stop fighting it,” the king said.
Lunelle’s eyes snapped up to his from her parchment. “Pardon?”
“Sleep.”
“Ah. Yes,” she mumbled. “Perhaps you’re right.”
She quickly gathered her things, hardly giving him an audible farewell before disappearing from the terrace.
She’d almost madeit back to her room, half asleep already, but a shadow moving in the library caught her eye.
Lunelle poked her head in through the door to see a set of hunched shoulders wrapped in blue velvet.
