Seron stopped a few feet away, and for a moment, something raw passed over his face before he mastered it. "I heard this place belonged to the Ruby Byron," he said carefully. "I wanted to see it for myself."
"Oh, really, I'm she and you've seen it." She let her gaze sweep over him once, cool and assessing, the way she might look at a customer who hadn't yet decided whether they could afford what they were touching. "Is there something I can help you find?"
"Do you know who I am?" Seron asked, looking at him, trying to read the expression on her face.
The question hung there, and Ruby let it hang a moment longer than necessary, watching him with an expression carefully arranged to reveal nothing at all.
"Should I?" she asked.
Something in his face cracked, just slightly disappointed, or grief, or some tangled version of both. "No," he said finally, quietly. "I suppose not, we haven't met before."
