Re: {Issy's passing!}
He shook his head, laughing again, a smothered sound this time. The sight of her with her head tipped just so stopped him and he came up short for a moment, studying her in a way he had not before. Once the thought was introduced it was hard to shake, and he much preferred seeing her as a Queen to seeing the woman beneath it all. He cared for Azyebel, and he would once have entertained more than chaste friendship, but in their time together he had come to see her in a way that desexualized her. She was the Chaldean, and now she was Queen. He did not forget that she was a woman, but she may as well not have been where it concerned him. Now it was all he could see. She may not have conformed to that conventional Sidhe standard of beauty, but she was undeniably something special.
“I do not mean…” He caught himself, which was a good sign, but the timing was unfortunate. Their relationship was a tricky one. There were secrets they shared between one another but when it came to their personal ordeals, they were not precisely “close”.
He did not draw away from her this time. His breathing had calmed, but that shivering was still there. “No, I suppose I do not. I am evidently well aware of all I am entitled to…” Grudgingly he would get to his feet, taking care not to lean on her. The floor may not have been a suitable place for him, but aiding him was hardly her place.