Chapter 17: What He Chooses Tonight

Noah caught Adrian's wrist before he reached the latch and pulled him back from the door.

Adrian's mouth was already open to say something about the hall.

Noah kissed him before he could.

Adrian made a low sound against his mouth, half surprise, half something older.

The door stood at their backs, barred from the corridor side, and beyond it Valerius was waiting for his general to come and kneel.

Noah took the latch key out of Adrian's hand.

He turned the lock himself and slid the key up his sleeve.

'You are locked in your own rooms,' Noah said.

'So I am,' Adrian said.

He was smiling a little, the way he did when a thing amused him and he did not want to admit it.

Noah let him have the smile.

Then he took Adrian's face in both hands and made him look at him.

'I want you tonight,' Noah said. 'Say it back the way it is.'

Adrian's breath went uneven.

'Say it,' Noah said.

'I want you tonight,' Adrian said.

'And it is not forgiveness.'

'It is not forgiveness,' Adrian said.

'And it is not permission for the rite your father made you put on me.'

Adrian's jaw moved.

'It is not permission,' he said.

'Good,' Noah said.

He let go of Adrian's face.

One condition, and he said it plainly, because he had learned in this fortress that a thing not spoken aloud did not exist.

'No one comes into this room before morning,' Noah said. 'Not Malchior. Not a guard. Not your father.'

Adrian looked at the locked door.

'Not my father,' he said.

'You agree.'

'I agree.'

Noah took that and put it away with the key.

The hours until dawn were his now.

He reached for the buckle at Adrian's shoulder.

Adrian moved to help him and Noah caught his hand and set it back at his side.

'Stand still,' Noah said. 'Hands there. You do not touch until I tell you.'

Adrian went still.

His hands stayed at his sides.

Noah took the coat off him one shoulder at a time.

The heavy knit underneath came with it.

Adrian stood in the cold of his own room and let Noah look at him.

Noah had healed men in the ward and seen every kind of body under his hands.

This was different and he did not pretend otherwise.

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