"Mercedes Vaintz…" Strax repeated the name slowly, savoring each syllable as if they were notes of a song he loved to tease her with, just to see her squirm between irritation and surprise.
The Monarch looked away, not because she was embarrassed… but because it did something to her. Something she wasn't prepared to admit—not to him, not to herself.
Strax gave a slight, almost tranquil smile, the kind of smile that came right before the next inevitable tease.
But not this time.
He just took a deep breath, relaxed, warmth emanating from him like a small, living bonfire amidst the ice.
"Mercedes, then," he said. "Now that's more like it… it feels like I'm finally talking to someone real, and not a crowned ice tower."
She rolled her eyes with a sigh, fighting the urge to smile again.
He seemed dangerously good at it.
