Jade Fern Grove lift back and see the darkness hid

she circled him.
mahler felt a masculine pride rising upon the surface of his choked desire.
how easy it would be to revoke all he had said and turn to meet her with —
"yes," he said gently, lifting his chin with a smile that did not touch his gaze. "i vill meet you there."
it did not matter to say a day nor a time; their paths had twice touched now, and would again.
mahler lingered only a moment before turning and striding away, before the melancholy broke beneath a moment of something he would not call weakness then, but would see it as such only after.