Page 104 of Quarter Labyrinth

His eyes snapped back to mine, dark and unrelenting, like storm clouds rolling in. “Could I?”

My heartbeat tattoo pounded uncontrollably.

His lips twitched. “Had you sent for your lover?”

“Clark’s not my—”

“I found his note.”

Well.

Leif gestured to the table, where my note sat—now bloodied. “It was half out of your pocket when I found you.” He made no apology for reading it, but the contents of that letter burned in my mind.

I can’t stay and watch you fall in love with someone else.

“Clark doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’m not…what he said…it’s not true.”

“Why haven’t you killed me?” Leif asked. “You’ve had plenty of opportunities.”

He sat close, but I couldn’t scoot back. His gaze held me in place, raw and unguarded, like he’d stripped away all the layers he usually wore.

I swallowed hard. “Why haven’tyoukilledme?”

The space between us seemed to shrink, though neither of us moved. The cottage, the fire, the world beyond—it all faded into a blur. My mind, clear a moment ago, clouded over. There was only him now and the way his dark eyes roved over me like he was memorizing the sight of me.

“Someone once told me to protect my heart,” he said, his voice quieter now, barely more than a whisper. “Turns out I’m incapable of harming it anyway.”

He raised his arm and slowly peeled back his sleeve, exposing the tattoo etched into his forearm. My breath caught. It matched mine perfectly, that shape of a heart that pulsed with a rhythm. It thumped beneath his skin just like mine did.

“Aurelia put your heartbeat on your arm too,” I said, the words coming out shaky, as though saying them aloud might somehow ground me.

Leif shook his head, his gaze never leaving mine. “No, Ren. This isn’t my heartbeat. It’s yours.”

The heat of the room pressed down on me all at once. My pulse thundered in my ears as Leif reached for me, his hand warm as it brushed against my arm. Gently, he tugged up my sleeve to reveal my tattoo that beat in time with the heart on his forearm—but slower, calmer.

“And this one,” he said softly, his fingers brushing the edge of my tattoo, “this one is mine.”

I couldn’t process it at first. My mind scrambled to make sense of it, racing back to when Aurelia first marked me. That day had been before Leif and I had spoken, before we’d crossed paths in anything but shadows. How could she have known?

But as the pieces fell into place, they painted a picture I couldn’t ignore. The times when the tattoo didn’t beat in time with my own heart. When it would race without cause or slow when I was panicked. How it grew louder—more vivid—when I was near him.

“I figured it out while you were sleeping,” Leif admitted, his voice almost hesitant, as though unsure how much of this I could take. “My tattoo was so faint, as if it were dying, but then I heard the noise—your heartbeat. I checked, and there it was. Yours.” He let out a shaky breath, a hint of a rueful smile touching his lips. “I even did push-ups, trying to see if it’d make mine come back to life, but it only made yours go crazy.”

He shook his head, a quiet, disbelieving laugh escaping him. “You should’ve seen me, Ren. Frantically trying to make sense of it all.”

I was still trying to make sense of it all. My mind reeled as the truth settled in, heavy and undeniable.Protect your heart.That’s what Aurelia had told me when she marked me. All along, I thought it had been about survival. About shielding myself from the labyrinth’s dangers and the people in it.

But I’d been wrong.

All along, Aurelia Brightspire wanted me to protecthim.

Leif stood there, so close I could feel the warmth radiating off him. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his arm. I’d come to terms with my heart being on my skin. But seeing my heart on his skin didn’t feel real.

“Maybe we are wrong. It’s another trick from the gods. That couldn’t be my heartbeat.”

I looked up in time to see Leif’s lips twist in amusement. “I can prove it.”

He hesitated for the barest moment.

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