Chapter 110: Sweet Lies
The silence between them stretched long after Orion's first swallow, as if the woods themselves held their breath to watch him. Sophia leaned forward on her elbows, studying every twitch in his jawline, every shift in the shadows across his face. When he lowered the wineskin, his lashes stayed down for an extra beat. It was such a small thing, but she caught it, the flicker of surrender, of letting the taste linger longer than necessary. Her lips curled.
"It's sweet, isn't it?" she asked, unable to keep the note of triumph from her voice. Her grin split wide, softening the tension she had carried since climbing that tree. "Ronan gave it to me. I thought it was alcohol at first but then I found out it wasn't."
Orion cracked an eye open and met her stare. There was a strange softness in his expression, like dawn sneaking into a storm. One corner of his mouth tugged upward. "Sweet and deceitful," he said, voice low, almost fond.
