MY CRUEL PROTECTOR
I lived on one side of the glass; Nevan lived on the other.
His new quarters were a masterpiece of architectural cruelty—a transparent wing of the palace constructed from lead-tempered silica and reinforced with pressurized air-curtains. It was beautiful, filled with the finest silks and the rarest books, but it was a gilded jar. Through the Sovereign’s sensors, I could see the heat of his body, the black web of the Icarus Strain pulsing in his veins, and the steady, agonizing grey of his eyes.
I sat on the floor of the observation deck, my back against the partition. On the other side, Nevan sat in the exact same position. We were inches apart, separated by a barrier that neither my power n