#Chapter 108: Yours

Ember "Yours." The word comes out smaller than I intended—just the one word, and then the room is so quiet I can hear the candle guttering in its holder on the desk. Kaine doesn't move. I watch his face and I can't read it, which terrifies me more than anger would, because I've learned to read him this past year in bits and pieces—the way his jaw sets when he's deciding something, the way his eyes go distant when he's afraid of what he might say out loud—but this isn't any of those things. This is something I've never seen before, and I have no defense against it. He asks me to say it again, and his voice cracks on the second word, just barely, but I hear it. "She's yours." I press my hand flat against the back of the chair I'm gripping, steadying myself against the weight of what I'm finally letting go. "Clara is yours. I was already—when you and I—I didn't know until three weeks later, and by then Bianca was on your arm in the Great Hall and I thought—" I stop. There's no v