Arkai caught him looking. One eyebrow rose. "What?"
Roarke shook his head. "Nothing."
Yep. Arkai had completely changed.
He was assured now. The assurance of a young man playing at confidence? No. Also not the brittle certainty that came from being told he was the best and believing it because he had to.
This was something old. Something that had been tested, and held, and come out the other side knowing exactly what it was worth.
Arkai changed to become… experienced.
Not in the way of a boy who had seen things, done things, collected moments like trophies. Which in a way, he previously was.
This was the experience of someone who had lived through something that could have broken him and had not. Who had looked at the worst parts of himself, of his family, of his world, and had not looked away.
Arkai felt more like the patriarch than the patriarch himself.
He was confident. Absolute yet quiet. Without the need to announce itself or proof anything to anyone.
