Serein's face drained of color, until she looked almost white. She could not tell whether it was from lack of air or from the ideas that had just ignited inside her head. Perhaps it was both.
Once again, as if he could stroll through the corridors of her thoughts, Deimos smiled faintly and flicked his hand. The shadow that had held her loosened, then pulled her back a little, keeping a careful distance between them.
This time his smile carried none of mockery or arrogance. For a heartbeat there was something else in it, something like… loneliness. She squinted, trying to catch that fleeting emotion in his wine-red eyes. He turned away quickly toward the phonograph before she could study him any longer.
"Don't be so frightened." His long fingers lifted the phonograph needle. The saxophone that had been filling the room fell silent in an instant, as if a stone had been dropped into the space between them. "I'm tired of revenge."
