The smile that accompanied the wave was radiant, delighted, completely at odds with the massacre he was currently wearing.
Eris felt her face heat despite the cold, despite exhaustion, despite every rational reason her body should not be reacting this way.
Her heart kicked into a rhythm that had nothing to do with exertion and everything to do with the fact that this man, this powerful, dangerous, apparently unhinged man, looked at her like she was the only thing worth noticing in the entire assembled crowd.
She was too aware of him. Had been since their first meeting, if she was honest, but the awareness had grown with each interaction, each moment of vulnerability, each instance where she'd seen beyond the emperor to the person underneath who seemed determined to make her believe she deserved kindness.
It was deeply inconvenient. Potentially catastrophic. Absolutely not something she had time or emotional capacity to process right now.
