We checked one another over without speaking, cataloging wounds that had already begun to heal. Only the sounds of our breathing, the brush of cloth filled the small space.

“Lin,” he said.

I froze as surely as though the word was his hand entering my chest, and I a construct. I didn’t know what to say. I wanted more than anything to step into his embrace but I wasn’t sure where we stood.

“I love you,” Jovis blurted out into the silence. “Please don’t execute me. Not even later. Ah shit. I’m no good at this. I mean – let me start over. I’ve made a mess of things. I don’t care what you are. Whatever your father did to make you. I care about who you are. And who you are is a person that I care about.” He pursed his lips, wrinkling up his nose. “I’m not even sure if – does that make sense?”

I laughed in spite of myself. “It makes sense, I promise.” I lifted a hand to his cheek, wondering at the way he leaned into my touch, the feel of his warmth below my palm. I studied his face. There was tension in the lines at the corners of his eyes, his jaw set but not clenched. “But there’s something else, isn’t there?”

“It’s Mephi.”

My heart clenched. Mephi wasn’t with him. Mephi was always with him. He was as much Jovis’s shadow as Thrana was mine. “He’s not…?” I couldn’t even finish the sentence. Dead?

“No,” Jovis shook his head. “No. I’d know. I think I’d know. It’s Kaphra. He was there that night you saved my life and he got away. I should have known. I should have been more on guard. He doesn’t like to leave things unfinished, and when he wants something, he does everything he can to get it. I can’t be sure, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. He took Mephi. And I know where he’ll take him to.” He took his hands in mine. His fingers were cold, though mine weren’t much warmer.

“Then you have to go.” There wasn’t anything else he could do. The thought of someone taking Thrana, of not knowing where she was, of knowing she was in unfamiliar hands – I couldn’t bear it. “You have to find him.”

He ran his fingers over my knuckles, his gaze on our entwined hands. “I shouldn’t leave you. I’m your Captain of the Imperial Guard. You’ll need me now, more than ever.”