Page 140 of Elemental Becoming

She sips her wine.

“Amara Thalor.”

Something in the way she says it catches my attention.

“I imagine it’s quite overwhelming.”

“A little,” I admit, because lying would be pointless.

Her smile widens, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

“You carry it well.”

“Thank you,” I reply evenly. “And you are?”

She doesn’t answer me.

Instead, she takes another slow sip of wine, angling her head as she studies me. The look in her eyes makes me feel as though I’ve walked into the middle of a conversation everyone else already understands.

“I’m sure Thane has helped with that.”

She sips her wine again, every movement purposeful andpoised. I don’t neglect to notice her casual use of his name instead of his title.

“Thane is always like that, isn’t he?” she muses, her gaze flicking briefly across the ballroom to where he stands.

I don’t turn to follow it. I simply keep my smile polite. But my grip tightens instinctively around the wineglass.

“Is he?”

She hums softly, her attention sliding back to me, studying me like she’s enjoying something I haven’t yet seen.

“You know, safe,” she says lightly. “Unshakable. The kind of man who makes you feel like nothing could touch you when you’re standing beside him.”

I nod, because she isn’t wrong. I know exactly what she means. There is something about the way she says it, a quiet familiarity in her voice, the way her lips curl slightly at the memory of it—she’s speaking from experience.

“He’s always carried everyone else’s burdens so easily,” she continues, watching the wine swirl in her glass as she speaks. “It’s just who he is, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so,” I answer carefully.

“And yet,” she murmurs, hazel eyes sharpening slightly, “standing beside someone like him . . . what a lonely place to be.”

Unease prickles along the back of my neck. Because she is not just making an observation. This isn’t idle chatter. This is someone who has seen the man beneath the Warlord.

And by the gods, why does that realization make my stomach twist?

“He’s always been like that,” she continues smoothly. “Always putting others first. Always doing what is expected. Always standing just a little apart from everyone, as if he can never truly let himself belong.”

My magics begins to stir beneath my skin, a restless pulse building at the edges of my control. I bite the inside of my cheekhard enough to ground myself.

Who the hell is she?

I tip my head slightly, keeping my voice polite. “You have me at a disadvantage. What is your name?”

She smiles, a smile too knowing to be kind. “I do.”

I study her more closely.

The confidence. The ease. The way she speaks about Thane with a familiarity that no one else does. Not as an observer. Not as a court noble whispering about the Warlord from afar.