Novels by Ricky_writes

Chapter One Hundred and Nine Liana’s POV I remained seated on the edge of the bed long after the door had closed. The room was still warm from his presence, but it felt different now. Still. Quiet. My hands rested in my lap. The sheets were gathered around me, soft against my skin. For a moment, I simply breathed. The morning light was growing slowly, shifting from grey to something soft and pale. It touched the curtains and spread along the floor, moving toward me inch by inch. I hadn’t realised how deeply he held me through the night until I no longer felt the shape of his arm around my waist. The absence was not painful. It was just there. A quiet, steady ache that reminded me of how close we had been. I rose from the bed slowly. My body felt different. Softer. Less tense, as if something in me had finally unknotted itself. The floor was cool beneath my feet. I crossed the room and opened the window, letting the morning air wash over me. It was cold, but not sharp. Fresh.

Chapter One Hundred and Eight Liana’s POV I woke before the light reached the windows. It took a moment to remember where I was. The softness beneath me. The warmth around me. The feeling of someone breathing beside me. Then it settled, slow and certain. His arm was still around my waist, holding me close. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm against my back. My body was fitted against his as if we had always slept this way. The quiet was the kind that only existed before dawn. Still. Deep. Safe. I didn’t move at first. I just listened to his breathing. I could feel the warmth of it at the back of my neck. I could feel the weight of his hand resting over my stomach. His fingers were relaxed, curled loosely, but even in sleep he didn’t let go. My hair had fallen across my shoulder, and I felt the soft brush of his breath moving it. My own heart beat slow and steady, matching his without meaning to. The room smelled faintly of candle smoke and warmth and something else I c

Chapter One Hundred and Seven Liana’s POV His body stayed close to mine. There was a slow, steady calm in the room now, like the air itself had softened. The candles were almost gone, wax pooled at their bases, but the warmth between us was enough. I didn’t need more light to see him. I could feel him. His hand rested on my hip, fingers relaxed, not holding me, just there. The way he touched me made something inside me feel steady. I hadn’t realised until this moment how much I had been bracing myself every day. Always guarded. Always ready for something to be taken. But right now, I wasn’t bracing for anything. I let my body soften against his chest. The rhythm of his breathing was slow and even. My cheek rested against his shoulder. His skin was warm, familiar. I traced small circles along his ribs with my fingertips, not thinking, just moving because it felt right. He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. The silence between us felt safe in a way I hadn’t expected. His thumb bru

Chapter One Hundred and Six Liana’s POV The room was warm around us. The candles had burned low, the light softer now, golden and quiet. His body was still close to mine, our breaths touching the same air. I was lying on my back, but I could feel him everywhere. The shape of him, the weight of him, the heat of his skin. My thigh was still resting along his. My hand was still on his chest. It felt natural there. Like it belonged. He hadn’t moved away. He stayed exactly where he was, close enough that his presence filled every inch of the space between us. His arm lay beneath my head, his fingers brushing slowly through my hair. The motion was steady. Thoughtful. Like he was memorising the shape of me. My heartbeat was still uneven. He was slower now. Calmer. But I could still feel the echo of want running beneath it. A quiet, steady burn that hadn’t gone away. It hadn’t faded. It had just settled deeper. His fingertips moved along my jaw, tracing it slowly. I didn’t look away. I d

Chapter One Hundred and Five Liana’s POV His lips were soft and warm against mine. The kiss unfolded slowly, neither of us pulling the other in, neither of us rushing. It felt like breathing, like something that had already been happening between us long before either of us touched. His hand stayed at the back of my neck, steady and careful. He wasn’t holding me in place. He was holding me like he didn’t want to startle something fragile. The warmth of his palm spread down my spine, calm and deep, even though there was nothing calm about the way my chest was tightening. I slid my hand up to his shoulder. His shirt was soft under my fingers, warmed by his skin underneath. I could feel how tense he was, not from anger, not from power. From restraint. It ran through him like a pulled string. The kiss grew deeper in its own time. My lips parted. His breath mingled with mine. My fingers curled against his shoulder, and he responded, his hand sliding slowly from my neck to my jaw, gui

Chapter One Hundred and Four Liana’s POV My hand was still against the door. He was still on the other side. Neither of us moved for a long time. The hallway outside was silent now. I could hear only his breathing, steady and low, like he was trying not to break the moment. My forehead rested lightly against the wood, and I could feel the cool surface warming slowly under my skin. I didn’t know what I was waiting for. Maybe I was waiting to be ready. Maybe I already was. The candle behind me flickered, and the shadow of my hand stretched across the door. I felt the smallest shift of movement from him, just enough to know he was leaning in too. The space between us wasn’t empty. It had weight. It had heat. It had something I wasn’t ready to name. My fingers curled against the wood. I breathed in. Then I slowly pulled the latch. Not fast. Not dramatic. Just enough. The door opened a few inches. The hallway light touched my skin first, then his eyes came into view. He di

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Four The orchard didn’t move. The trees didn’t sway. The air didn’t shift. It felt like the world was waiting to hear what came next. Alvarez didn’t look away from me, even with Ethan’s dagger drawn between them. His expression stayed steady, calm in a way that made my heartbeat feel too loud. “You should put that away,” Alvarez said to Ethan. “If I wanted to harm either of you, we would not be speaking.” But Ethan didn’t lower the blade. His voice was controlled. “Say what you came to say.” Alvarez didn’t argue. He turned his attention back to me. “You were taken from the capital when you were a child,” he said. “Not because you were lost. Not because you were abandoned. You were hidden.” My breath stopped, like something inside me recognised the words before my mind did. Ethan’s jaw clenched. He didn’t look at me like looking would make it real. Alvarez continued. “There are only two families with the power to end the war,” he said. “Only two b

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Three Maya’s POV The air felt sharp as I stood between them, even though neither of them had moved. Alvarez’s eyes stayed on me, not on Ethan, and the way he watched me made it feel like the trees themselves were holding their breath. Ethan didn’t shift his stance, but the tension in him changed. I could feel it through how close he stood, the slight tightening of his jaw, the way his shoulders drew just a little higher. He was choosing. He was preparing. He had already decided how far he was willing to go. Alvarez’s boots barely made a sound on the leaf-covered ground as he took another step forward. He wasn’t rushing. He wasn’t forcing anything. He walked like someone who knew the outcome before anyone else did. “You’re not thinking clearly,” Alvarez said, still speaking to me, not to him. “This place. This man. None of this is safe for you.” Ethan didn’t look away from Alvarez, but his voice was low enough that only I heard it. “Don’t answer him.”

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Two Maya’s POV We didn’t run. Running would have been loud. Visible. Desperate. Ethan moved in long, controlled strides, every step calculated to avoid broken branches and dry leaves. I followed his exact footsteps, watching where his boots touched the ground before placing mine in the same spot. The orchard stretched out ahead of us rows of old trees thick with twisted branches and dark leaves that blocked the moonlight. The path between them was narrow and uneven, scattered with fallen apples that had long since spoiled. The night smelled like damp earth and wood rot. The kind of place where things could hide. Ethan stopped just inside the line of trees, pulling me gently into the shadow beneath a low, crooked branch. I could barely see his face now, only the shape of him tall, tense, alert. “We stay in the inner rows,” he whispered. “The outer path is too exposed.” I nodded, but he was already moving again, guiding me deeper into the orchard w

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One Maya’s POV The night air hit hard. Cold. Sharp. Real. The door to the hidden passage slid back into place behind us, sealing the dark away. For a moment, all I heard was my own breathing. Too fast. Too loud. Ethan moved first. He pulled me with him, guiding me across the clearing where the grass grew tall and unkept. The stables were close enough to smell hay and old leather, but far enough from the main courtyard that no torchlight reached us. His fingers were tight around mine. Not possessive tight. Urgent tight. I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t need to. We ducked behind the far corner of the stable walls. Horses shifted inside, hooves scraping the dirt. One of them blew out a deep breath, sensing movement, or fear, or both. Ethan let go of me just long enough to press his back to the wooden boards and look toward the courtyard. I watched his jaw tighten. “Three patrols,” he murmured. “They’re moving faster than before.” I knew what that me

Chapter One Hundred Thirty Maya’s POV Ethan’s hand was still on my arm when the sound came. Soft. Barely there. Like a whisper behind the wall. He didn’t hear it at first. His eyes were still locked on mine, his voice low, steady. “Talk to me.” But my gaze had already shifted past him, to the far end of the crypt — to where the light from his torch didn’t reach. There was movement there. Small, quick, almost too fast to catch. A flicker. Then gone. Ethan noticed the change in my breathing before he turned. “What is it?” “Someone’s here,” I whispered. He moved instantly drawing the dagger from his belt, his body tense, his stance shifting into something I’d only seen in battle drills. He scanned the darkness, eyes sharp, shoulders square, but the silence didn’t break. I took a step back, my pulse hammering in my chest. The crypt was too still. Too quiet. And then another sound. A low scrape, metal on stone, from the upper passage. Ethan looked up. “Sta

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine Maya’s POV The castle felt different that night. Quieter. But not the peaceful kind of quiet — the kind that hums beneath your skin, the kind that makes you feel like you’re being watched even when you’re alone. I pressed my back against the cold stone wall, my fingers still curled around the folded parchment I had hidden beneath my sleeve. The letter Alvarez had received earlier was gone now but the words from it were burned into my memory. And the name I had whispered when I thought no one could hear. Lior. My brother. I shouldn’t have said it out loud. Not here. Not anywhere in this castle. But sometimes silence felt heavier than truth, and tonight it was choking me. The hallway stretched long and dim, the torches throwing soft orange shadows across the floor. I could hear the wind outside, sharp against the glass, the soft echo of footsteps in a corridor far away. Ethan’s room was down the other end. Part of me wanted to go to him. To te