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Kesta stared at him.

There was no submission in his face.

No apology.

No request for approval.

Something inside her shifted.

Not trust.

Not yet.

But perhaps respect.

“That sounds dangerously close to an argument I might accept.”

Dreven's eyes warmed.

“I will try not to become overconfident.”

“You should.”

His gaze lingered on her face for a moment, then dropped toward her split lip.

“You still need that cleaned.”

“Go away, Dreven.”

A proper smile appeared this time.

It changed him completely.

For one disconcerting heartbeat, Kesta forgot the horns, the scars and the copper claim glowing around her wrist.

She saw only a man smiling at her.

Then he inclined his head.

“Sleep, Kesta.”

She waited until he had turned away before closing the door.

The inner bolt slid easily beneath her hand.

Kesta crouched and tested the emergency release again. The outside bar lifted exactly as he had shown her.

She lowered it, opened it again, and finally left it disengaged.

Dreven had given her a room no one could enter without her permission and shown her how to defeat the lock designed to keep danger outside.

That did not make Ash Camp freedom.

But for the first time since the empire declared her dead, someone with power over her circumstances had voluntarily shown her where the exit was.

Kesta stood in the quiet room with the copper light from her wrist reflecting against the wall.

Then she caught herself remembering Dreven's smile.