Page 86 of The Sundered Realms

Liris shrugged. “You’ve gone from refusing to have dinner with me to taking me around town. You’re not unaware enough for that to be an accident.”

“And you notice too much for me to get away with that.” He flashed a quick, heart-stopping grin. “I told you before that a change in our relationship might affect our work, but worse would be not acknowledging that the change exists and being caught unprepared. I don’t want you to wonder where you stand with me. Or vice versa.”

Liris’ eyes narrowed. “You’re talking about how we present... whatever our partnership is becoming?”

Vhannor nodded. “What do you think will work best at the ball?”

Ah, at the ball specifically. Of course. Liris sorted through various diplomatic scenarios. “A façade that we’re business associates—comfortable with each other, but nothing more—is most likely to get us the results we want.”

“Then we’ll do that.”

Unfair, how she could be both relieved he was letting her lead and nervous about the very same. Like she had any idea what she was doing, but of course she did. Sort of. “You don’t mind pretending?”

Vhannor shook his head. “Not as long as we know we’re both doing it on purpose and are in agreement about the reasons. But, in case my actual intentions aren’t clear.” He reached into the bag at last and pulled out a large square box with a ribbon around it. “For you.”

Liris looked at him. “You didn’t.”

“I might have. It’s not like I don’t have funds of my own outside Special Operations or the university.”

“Vhannor—“

“You should make sure you know what I’ve actually done before you accuse me.”

It was, as Liris had suspected, the wonderful cloak she’d admired earlier. But looking past the shimmer, she found the cacophony of spells that must have actually taken his time: resisting wear and tear, impervious to rain, adjusting temperature depending on the climate—

“I can travel with this,” Liris realized.

“You deserve to have beauty and frivolity and choice in your life, not just duty,“ Vhannor said. His eyes were full lavender, but at the moment Liris wondered how she’d ever thought them icy.

Controlled, yes, absolutely.

But just because he hid his fire didn’t mean it wasn’t always, always there.

Liris’ throat tightened. “Even if duty is my choice?”

“Maybe especially then.” He hesitated, hand twitching like he wanted to reach out, but ultimately he faced the sculptures.

Too controlled.

“It’s not just that I burn partners out, you realize,” he said haltingly, taking a breath.

Liris’ eyes widened. Oh gods, he was actually going to try to be open with her.

They were really doing this.

“It’s that I can’t... trap anyone in the life that I’ve chosen,” Vhannor said. “The work that I do is fulfilling, and it’s all I’ve ever wanted, but it’s also all that I do. I haven’t taken a vacation since before I entered the university, because my family can no longer insist. It’s why my relatives would have been so shocked by a request from me to take a woman shopping, because they hardly hear from me at all. When I asked Lady Inealuwor her opinion on the dressmaker I selected, she was so excited she nearly tripped over her own cane in her haste before I could reconsider.”

Liris thought she was meant to laugh at that. “Does it make you afraid, to show me the world I’ve missed out on? That I’ll just up and leave you for something easier?”

“In the moment? No,” Vhannor said. “If anything, your endless interest in everything is a much-needed reminder for me that there is more worth paying attention to in this world, duty or not. Since I do selfishly hope you won’t decide on another path no matter how many options I show you, it behooves me to make this one more desirable for you than I’ve made it for myself.”

“And if you stop to think?” Liris asked softly.

“If I stop to think about it, sometimes,” Vhannor admitted, and her heart squeezed. “If I think about it for longer than a second and remember what you’re like, less. Once we’ve dealt with Jadrhun, I don’t want you to stay at this because you feel like you have to. That will burn you out.”

“It didn’t for you,” Liris pointed out.

“I think it did, and I was too deep to notice,” Vhannor disagreed.

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