Shadewood kiaruk ❂

As simple as that- goading her stay through something as fickle as emotion, of using his own wife as a tool, a leash to this bird who was so destined to be free of him. He had a week left, and like midnight stricken clockwork, it would come soon enough. Perhaps by then he could work up another method, something else to keep her occupied while he felt complete, again.

It was a brief respite, but he would take it.

Nothing else said, he stepped aside to allow her passage.