Page 136 of Iron Beneath the Snow

She searched for the distinction.

“It’s just… there.”

He stepped closer, though he stopped short of touch, the distance between them now something intentional rather than incidental.

“No pain?”

“No.”

The answer came easily.

He studied her for a moment, and though his expression did not change, something in his stillness did.

“You felt it change,” she said.

“Yes.”

“Was that expected?”

There was a pause, not long but deliberate.

“No.”

Through the thread came a brief, sharper disturbance, there and gone before she could place it.

He straightened almost imperceptibly.

“It does not alter the situation with Frostvein,” he said.

She watched him quietly.

“It alters something.”

“It alters control.”

“For you?”

He held her gaze.

“For both.”

The answer did not claim. It defined.

She lowered her feet to the stone and stood, allowing her balance to settle naturally. When she moved closer, it was her choice that closed the distance, not the thread.

Her hand came to rest against his chest.

He did not respond at once.

The brief pause felt deliberate, as though he were deciding what the contact meant now, after what had already happened.

When the thread answered, it did so differently than before, not rising sharply but spreading inward, contained and steady.

She exhaled slowly.

“You’re holding it back.”

“Yes.”