“You’re probably right about that.”

The sentence landed with no preamble, no flourish. It didn’t ask for forgiveness. Didn’t ask for contradiction. It just sat there, a single shard of truth lying naked between them.

And for a beat, Elara stilled.

Because it hadn’t sounded like self-pity.

It hadn’t sounded like guilt either.

Just… a fact. As simple as the mist curling around their ankles or the weight of silence in old halls.

Her breath caught, just slightly.

Because that—that—wasn’t the Lucavion Thorne she remembered.

That pause.

That flicker behind his lashes, the slow falter of his lips—that was the closest she’d seen him to slipping. To stepping beyond the careful mask of arrogance and calculation. Not shedding it, no, never that. But… thinning the veil.

And the way he looked upward—toward nothing, not even the stars—felt too quiet to be an act.

’That’s Luca,’ she thought, unbidden. Not the creature of court games and cold betrayals, not the polished heir or the dueling prodigy. That’s the one who pushed me from the vortex like his own life was an afterthought. The one who watched, not because he wanted to dominate, but because he needed to understand.

And for a heartbeat, the tension in her shoulders loosened. Just slightly.

But then—

Lucavion blinked, slow.

And the moment cracked.

His head jerked subtly, the motion almost imperceptible, like a string tugged in his spine. His eyes snapped back to hers—not wide with revelation, but with calculation. Something turning behind them. Resetting.

And then the smirk slid back into place like a dagger returned to its sheath.

“Well,” he said, the word drawn out like it had been waiting in the wings for its cue. “That’s not the first thing that comes to mind when someone looks at me…”

His voice regained its rhythm. That easy, deliberate rhythm that always danced just shy of sincerity. But it came a little too fast, as if covering something that had stumbled out before it could be filtered.

“Normally,” he added, smile sharpening like a glint of moonlight on glass. “But—it is the first thing that comes to mind when someone’s eyes look at me like they’re trying to stab me straight through the heart.”

Elara’s expression didn’t shift.

Not outwardly.

But she felt it, that recoil in the center of her chest, that flutter of alarm beneath the stillness. Because he wasn’t wrong.

That’s exactly how she’d been looking at him.

She hadn’t masked it well enough.

’Damn it.’

He was watching her now—not with flirtation, not with mockery, but with interest. Keen and edged, like he was solving a puzzle he hadn’t expected to be given. And worse… he seemed to be enjoying it.

“But,” he continued lightly, eyes narrowing with something far too intent to be called amusement, “if you were planning to stab me, I’d prefer you gave me a little more warning. I didn’t bring a second shirt.”

Elara tilted her head slightly, lips pursed in what might have been a smirk—or a warning.

“I’m not the kind who warns first,” she said.

He chuckled.

Low. Soft. And far too knowing.

“I figured.” His gaze dipped slightly, almost lazily. “But just for the record… if you ever do stab me—make sure it’s not in the heart. It’s a bit overdone.”

There it was.

The full return.

The mask. The banter. The Lucavion who danced circles around sincerity so that no one noticed what he wasn’t saying.

But Elara noticed.

Because just beneath that returned smirk, just beneath the play of wit, was the echo of that first tone. The one not meant to be heard.

“You’re probably right about that.”

A confession that had slipped out like it didn’t belong to him. Or like it had, once—and he’d buried it so deep he forgot what it sounded like.

And now?

Now he was retreating behind charm again. But something in her had already heard it.

Elara drew in a breath, slow and quiet, steadying herself against the urge—the need—to react.

Not to his smirk. Not to the twist of sarcasm in his voice. Not to the memory of his voice softened into honesty for just a breath.

’Don’t be stupid,’ she told herself, almost scolding. ’This is still Lucavion Thorne.’

Not Luca. Not the boy who had once yanked her from death’s edge like it was second nature. This was the heir of House Elarion. The Academy’s cleverest mouth and sharpest smile. The boy who watched people bleed metaphorically—and sometimes literally—and turned it into a lesson or a joke. Depending on the day.

She couldn’t afford to forget that. Couldn’t afford to see the fracture beneath the polished mirror and imagine it meant anything.

So she forced the thought down. Pressed it flat beneath the weight of who she was now—Elowyn Caerlin. Quiet. Mannered. Just slightly dull.

And Lucavion—right on cue—tilted his head with a theatrical flourish, like a nobleman’s son playing court jester for his own amusement. His grin broadened.

“Well now,” he said, drawing the words out like a silk ribbon. “Since you’ve spent such a fine portion of your evening glaring holes through my soul—if I have one—”

She arched a brow, cool and unimpressed.

“—I can’t help but wonder…” He took a half-step closer, his hand now lazily resting against the carved stone balustrade between them. “Do we know each other?”

Elara didn’t blink.

Lucavion lifted a hand to his chest, as if struck by a thought—or simply trying to sell the performance harder.

“You seem so familiar, Lady Daggers-for-Eyes. Surely we must’ve crossed paths before?” He leaned in, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “A past life, perhaps? A drunken banquet mistake? A shared enemy?” A beat. “Do you remember what name you cursed me by under your breath?”

She stared.

Deadpan. Unmoved.

He grinned wider.

“Would you, then,” he added, with the airy bravado of a man halfway through his third wineglass, “grace me with your name? Or shall I continue calling you Lady Stare-First-Stab-Later?”

Elara exhaled—half sigh, half controlled laugh.

It was so him. That too-easy turn to absurdity, like tension didn’t cling to him the way it did others. As if he was made of something lighter than consequence.

’He’s trying to disarm you. Don’t let him.’

But instead of deflecting, she shifted her weight slightly, letting a trace of amusement ghost across her lips. Barely there. The kind of smile that made people lean closer to see if it had been real.

“Elowyn,” she said finally. “Elowyn Caerlin.”

Lucavion repeated it under his breath, trying it out like a wine he wasn’t quite sure he liked yet.

“Hmm.” He tilted his head the other way, slower this time. “Elowyn…”

Lucavion’s eyes gleamed with something far sharper than amusement now—though he still wore the shape of it like a tailored coat.

“Elowyn Caerlin,” he repeated again, tasting each syllable like it might confess its own lie. “Curious. I don’t recall ever meeting someone with that name.”

His gaze slid over her—slow, calculated, but never crude. He wasn’t ogling her. He was assessing. As if she were a puzzle piece that had appeared in a box she was never part of to begin with.

“Strange, isn’t it?” he continued, voice still light but dipped in something colder. “You look at me like we’ve met before. Like I’ve done something… memorable.”

Her breath stilled.

He leaned in slightly—not crowding, not threatening, just close enough to be unmistakably deliberate. The cat on his shoulder had settled into a sphinx-like stillness, its mismatched eyes half-lidded in silent observation.

“Or,” he added, eyes narrowing just faintly, “perhaps you go by other names. Or wear other faces.”

Elara’s heartbeat thudded once. Then again. Not loud, but hard—like a fist against a locked door.

’Careful.’

She didn’t look away. Didn’t flinch. But she could feel the mana beneath her illusion shift—tense like coiled wire. If he pressed harder, if he reached with intent instead of insinuation, she wasn’t sure the enchantment would hold.

Lucavion tilted his head. “Tell me, Elowyn Caerlin—are you always this intense with strangers? Or just the ones who remind you of someone you hate?”