"Leave us."
The door clicked shut behind Nico, sealing Cassian and Elias in a silence so profound it felt like a physical presence.
He looked at Elias, and for the first time in ten years, he didn't know how to bridge the distance between them.
The distant music from the Grand Ballroom was reduced to a faint, mocking whisper.
The room was cold.
Cassian stood with his back to the door, still as a statue. His eyes—for the first time in months—were fully fixed on Elias with a raw, hunted intensity.
Weeks of silence hung between them like a blade.
Elias did not move from where he sat. He did not speak.
He simply waited.
Cassian took a step forward. Then another. His boots were soundless on the thick Myrish rug. He stopped an arm's length away, close enough for Elias to smell the scent clinging to him.
Cassian raised a hand, reaching for his already open collar.
