Page 323 of Elemental Becoming

Then, I hear it. The heavy footfalls. The deliberate, clipped stride of someone marching toward me with a singular purpose. And gods, I swear I can feel the heat of his glare through the damn door.

Here we go.

I brace myself for the anger. The sharp-edged worry. The demand to know why I fought Ardyn and why no one stopped me. Why no one went to get him before it got that far.

But when Thane enters our quarters, I don’t feel any of that. No fury. No frustration.

What I feel instead is curiosity. Concern, certainly. But beneath it is something else.

Wonder.

That throws me.

I blink, turning my head toward him as he steps into theroom, his presence a slow-moving storm rather than the wildfire I expected. His smoke-gray eyes move over me, over the bath, over the last wisps of steam curling in the air as the warmth of my magics lingers in the chamber.

The door clicks shut behind him. He doesn’t speak. But I feel his thoughts stirring through the bond, like warm embers shifting beneath ash.

I exhale, sinking a little deeper into the water as I drag my fingers through it.

“You’re not mad.”

It isn’t a question. His lips twitch slightly, though he doesn’t smile.

“Should I be?”

I study him for a moment.

“I don’t know. Should you?”

His gaze drops to the surface of the bath, where tiny ripples still dance from the magics I was just playing with. That curiosity flares again.

And suddenly I understand.

He didn’t just sense the fight through the bond. He sensed this. The magics. The way I lowered my shields and simply let myself exist in it. The way I shaped it and played with it without purpose or restraint.

I swallow, surprised by the sudden shyness that washes over me. It feels strangely vulnerable, letting someone see this part of me when I am only just discovering it myself. Then again, vulnerability has become a familiar companion these past few months. Ever since the attack on my village, every new power, every revelation, every piece of myself I have uncovered has happened beneath the watchful eyes of others.

And it’s Thane.

His eyes search my face, as though he can feel my thoughts shifting beneath the surface, but he doesn’t press. Instead, hetakes another step closer, his attention lingering on the water.

“Show me.”

For a moment, I simply look at him. At the curiosity in his expression, the complete absence of judgment, and the lack of expectation. He’s not asking me to train. To fight. To prepare for whatever disaster is waiting around the corner.

He just wants to see.

I exhale and drag my fingers through the water again. “All right.”

I lift a hand, and the water follows, twisting up from the bath in thin, glistening ribbons. With a flutter of my fingers, I gather the strands together and begin shaping them, weaving them until the liquid forms the silhouette of a dog. The water shifts into delicate details, suggesting floppy ears, a wagging tail, and paws that splash against an invisible floor. Then it begins to move, silent and fluid, as though it is alive.

Thane inhales sharply.

I let the little dog pad across the surface of the bath, its tail wagging as it splashes through the water before I dissolve it with a single motion.

Then, I create a flower. A lily unfolds in the air, its translucent petals catching the candlelight as though they are carved from crystal rather than water.

His eyes follow every movement.