538 You're Really Here

ELIA

Aymora wiped her face quickly, squeezed Elia, and hopped off the sleeping platform. "I'll leave you two alone," she said, not meeting Elia's eyes, or Reth's.

Elia wanted to comfort her, to reach out. But she couldn't take her eyes off Reth. And he stared at her like she was water in the desert.

He was wearing the vest he'd worn the first night she saw him—shirtless again, though unaware of it. He stood in the doorway, on hand on the handle, his chest bare under the vest, his muscles casting shadows down his torso in the lantern light. His hair was tied back, though some pieces had fallen forward from his temples to frame his eyes, that were a touch too wide. Reth was drinking her in, scanning her from head to toe again and again, as if reassuring himself that she was still there.