Chapter 16 · The Gilded Lie

"Don't let go. Please, just this once, don't let go."

I didn't recognize the voice. It was too soft. Too stripped of the jagged edge that usually defined Dax Riven. But I knew the arms. I knew the heat of his chest against my back, the way his breath hitched against my ear.

Everything was too bright. White roses. Gold-trimmed fountains. A sky so blue it felt fake. I wasn't in my combat gear anymore. I was wearing pale silk that felt like water against my skin.

"Where are we?" I whispered, leaning back into him.

"Home," he murmured.

He turned me around. His hands slid from my waist to my cheeks. His eyes weren't haunted. No resentment. No memory of him begging me to kill him in a past life. He looked at me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.

Hope surged in my chest. It felt like poison. "This isn't real, Dax. You know it's not."

"Does it matter?" He stepped closer. The gap vanished. I could smell cedar and rain on his skin. "If it feels like this, why fight it?"

He kissed me. It wasn't a fight; it was a surrender.