Page 11 of Thunder's Reckoning

“Come,” I said, rising. “I’m not finished with you tonight.”

And I wouldn’t be finished tomorrow, or the day after, not until I knew who’d been close enough to speak to her through that curtain.

The chair would still be there in the morning, its legs one inch off the mark I’d left in the floor.

It would wait for me.

So would she.

CHAPTER SIX

I WOKE SOREin places that weren’t from the punishment,the ache sunk deep enough to hum every time I moved. I still smelled of him, sharp cologne and the darker, intimate scent beneath it, and for a moment I lay there staring at the ceiling, willing my mind blank.

But the night before refused to fade.

The weight of his hands.

The way his voice had gone quiet, like softness was just another tool.

The way he’d stayed inside me too long afterward, like possession was something that could be sealed.

When I finally dressed, the marks he’d left were the kind that didn’t bruise skin but lived under it, in the muscles, in the pulse.

I found him in the front hall, his black coat already over his suit, gloves in one hand. He looked the way he always did before leaving, composed, measured, but there was a keener edge to him this morning, like last night had whetted something instead of sating it.

“I’ll be gone two nights,” he said, as if it were the most important thing in the world. “Business.”

I nodded, keeping my gaze lowered just enough. “I’ll miss you.”

He stepped closer, close enough that the faint scent of leather rose from his coat. “You’ll keep to your schedule,” he said, voice low but not unkind. “I’ve left it with Rhea.”

“Yes, Gabrial.”

“And I’ll be watching.” His eyes lifted, just slightly, toward the corner of the hall where a camera lens caught the morning light. Then to another in the ceiling’s shadow. His meaning was as sharp as the flick of his gaze.

The back of my neck prickled. “Of course.”

His hand came up, not to strike, not to hold, but to let his thumb drag once across my cheekbone. The gesture was gentle in a way that carried more weight than violence ever could. “You’re looking at me differently today.”

“I’m tired,” I said, which was true in every possible way.

His mouth curved, almost a smile, almost not. “Rest. A rested mind is better at telling the truth.”

I forced my lips into something like agreement, knowing that in a few hours I’d be gone if Tallis’s plan worked.

He stepped back, gloves sliding on, and the housekeeper came forward to hold the door. He paused on the threshold, glancing once more toward the upper hall, the cameras, the invisible lines of sight he thought would hold me here.

When the door shut, the silence it left behind was too big to trust.

Every sound, footsteps overhead, the distant hum of machinery, felt like it could be him.

But today was the day.

Whatever he suspected, whatever he thought he’d see through those glass eyes, it wouldn’t matter by midnight.

I pressed my palm flat against my skirt to still its trembling and reminded myself of Tallis’s words.When the chance comes, take it. Don’t think, don’t wait—move.

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