"You were a princess. A princess behaves. So, you pressed your lips together until they were thin and pale, nodded stiffly, and let the weight of his words settle over you. Still, as the servants poured more wine and the conversation turned to other matters, you couldn't stop your mind from wandering. Somewhere across...
"But now-now Telemachus is here. His hand doesn't grip, doesn't force. It hovers by your cheek, his touch so light it barely brushes your skin, as though even that might be too much. He waits, his breath shallow and steady, as though the world might come crashing down if he moves too soon. There's no pressure, no forc...
"We're not friends," you snap, narrowing your eyes into a glare sharp enough to pierce stone. "And stop calling me that." He tilts his head, his curls catching the faint, flickering light of the soul-lamps nearby. "Calling you what, darling?" he asks, his voice smooth and lilting, every syllable soaked in feigned inno...
"For one fleeting moment, the urge seizes you-violent and insistent-to tell him. To tell him everything. The visions that have haunted you since childhood, the truths you have spoken and been scorned for, the futures that have unraveled before your very eyes like threads unspooling from a loom. What would he do, if he...