Page 21 of Emylia

My gaze lifted—and found his.

Whowashe?

He stood half-swallowed in the darkness of a narrow overhang, arms crossed, gaze unreadable—like he’d been watching long before I noticed. He filled the space without trying, his presence too heavy to ignore—a quiet storm, contained, but only just. Shoulders set like stone, eyes downcast like he had no interest in, well… anything. He was all hard edges and stillness of something barely leashed.

He didn’t speak.

Didn’t blink.

He didn’t need to.

He was the kind of quiet that felt dangerous

There was something in his composure. Like he was built to wait. To endure. To watch a war unfold before deciding whether to end it with his own hands or just let the whole world burn around him.

No softness.

Nor warmth.

Just the echo of something wild. Something caged. A violence held back by threadbare control.

It wasn’t an invitation.

It was a warning.

Yet I wanted to step closer anyway. The primal part of me wasn’t just drawn to him.

It demanded him.

“Maalikai?” Sebastian repeated.

His voice, when it came, was quiet, a low rumble edged with power. I felt it more than I heard it.

“It’s not my burden.”

Sebastian laughed. “No shit. That’s why I asked.”

Silence.

Like he had somehow learnt how to control the shadows and sat silent with them commanding the air around him.

Then—his gaze slid to mine.

As if in slow motion, thick, dark lashes swept up revealing the eyes of a God, and for a second I was completely engrossed in the deadly deep pools of azure.

He raised a single brow, and though no smile crossed his face, it almost felt like he was daring me to ignore the world around us, as if he and I were the only two in existence.

It wasn’t the first glance that undid me—it was the second, the one thatlingered.

His stare didn’t just meet mine.

It swallowed it.

Taking the last of my breath with it.

His eyes didn’t soften. Not really. But they changed. Just enough. Like something flickered beneath the cold, something unspoken and wild, something that made my blood heat in a way I didn’t understand.

His stare pinned me, unreadable and sharp, and my heart betrayed me by thudding far too loudly, rushing through my head, each beat a treacherous roar.

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