Page 7 of Third

“I said stop that!” she protested.

“You left.”

“I moved six inches!”

“You moved six inches away.”

Her breath came fast again—not out of fear this time, but pure exasperation. “Do you even hear how that sounds?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“I do not care.”

His voice was calm, but his expression said more than his words ever could. His eyes, glowing and unreadable, didn’t flicker. His jaw remained locked, his brows low. Not with anger, or even frustration. Just certainty. As if her proximity wasn’t a preference, but a requirement encoded into his bones. There was no smugness in it, no possessiveness. Only unwavering resolve.

She stared up at him, heart thumping.

His violet eyes glowed.

Not flickered. Not sparked.

Blazed.

She’d seen his eyes before. Bronze. Earthy. Alien. But now they were a gorgeous amethyst, burning with something deep and resonant. Piercing. Beautiful and terrifying.

She lifted a hand and waved it in front of his face. “Hey. You’re... glowing.”

He blinked, glanced toward the corner of his vision, then touched the skin beneath his eye with two fingers. “There is a shift in pigmentation and luminosity. Ido not possess sufficient data to determine its cause. Explain it tome.”

“That doesn’t freak you out?”

He looked at her for a long beat. “Your species reacts to anomalies with fear. Mine reacts with analysis.”

She snorted softly. “You’re glowing like a damn reactor core. Ithink a little fear would be understandable.”

“I have no data to confirm whether this is harmful or permanent. Until then, fear is inefficient.”

She shook her head. “You’re like a terrifying Spock with a murder streak.”

For a half-second, her own words caught her off guard. Awild, inappropriate urge to laugh rose in her chest—because if she didn’t laugh, she might scream. She bit it back, jaw tightening, startled by how much lighter that moment felt, even with him towering over her like a loaded weapon.

His brow twitched. “I do not know what that means.”

Anya opened her mouth, then closed it again, lips twitching. “It’s a human thing. Acultural reference. He’s logical, like you. No emotions. But not nearly as scary.”

“I have emotions.”

She arched a brow. “Really? Because so far, all I’ve seen is fury, logic, and about seventeen ways to glare.”

He blinked once, solemn. “There are twenty-three.”

Her mouth twitched. “That... actually explains a lot.” She tugged gently against his hold.Her brain whirled, but beneath the spinning thoughts, something else emerged. Aquestion she didn’t want to ask but had to.”What happens,” she said slowly, “if I don’t stay close?”

Tor’Vek’s expression hardened.”Then I lose control.”

She swallowed. “Completely?”

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