The Severer's Bargain
Selene's hand had lingered a moment against mine as she passed it over — long-fingered, ringless despite her rank, the knuckles slightly swollen with the particular ache of a woman who'd spent decades holding a pen rather than a blade, and I found myself unexpectedly moved by the plainness of it, the total absence of the ceremony her office could easily have demanded.
"Thank you," I said again, quieter this time, "for not letting me walk into that hearing blind."
"Ride safely home, Briar Ashgrove," Selene said, rising at last from the table to her full height, taller than I'd registered while she sat, the candlelight catching silver in her loosened hair as she straightened — the exhaustion i