Aurelia's breath refused to steady.
She kept staring at Malion as if her mind were still trying to locate the joke...some flicker of mockery in his eyes, some twist of amusement on his mouth....anything to prove that what he'd said inside the carriage wasn't real.
But he looked back at her with an expression carved from absolute sincerity.
Aurelia swallowed. "You… you're joking. You have to be."
"No." His answer came instantly, cutting through the rattling wheels of the carriage. "I'm not."
Her breath hitched, forming a soft hiccup that made Malion's eyes flick briefly to her lips. She clamped a hand over her mouth, mortified, but he leaned back against the velvet seat with a calmness that only unsettled her further.
She could not think...not with him sitting there as though he hadn't just upended the very foundations of her world.
"Think on it," he murmured, as if discussing weather rather than confessions. "You don't need to respond immediately."
