ログインAuthor's POVJem did not know he was dreaming.That was the strange part. There was no moment of confusion, no blurry edges, no feeling of unreality. Everything was simply there — present and clear and vivid in a way that ordinary dreams never were.He was standing in an open space that had no name and no era.Not ancient. Not modern. Just vast and still, the way a place feels when time has decided not to apply to it. The ground beneath his feet was solid. The air carried a warmth that had no source. Above him, the sky was neither day nor night — just a deep, luminous quiet, like the moment between one breath and the next.And in the distance, there was a figure.Tall. Still. Dressed in robes that belonged to no specific century — heavy fabric, deep in color, moving slightly though there was no wind.Jem looked at the figure.And the figure turned.The face was not his own.But it carried something of him. Something in the line of the jaw. Something deep in the eyes — a particular ste
Author's POV Mara did not rush.That was the thing about her that most people never understood. She was not impulsive. She did not act out of anger or emotion or desperation, even when all three of those things were sitting inside her chest at the same time.She acted out of calculation.And she had been calculating this for a very long time.***The folder on her desk was thin.It did not look like much. A few printed pages. Some handwritten notes in the margins. Dates, times, names written in her neat, careful handwriting.But every single detail in it had cost her something to collect.Dante's travel schedule for the next three weeks — pulled from careful observation and a source inside the logistics team she had cultivated quietly over months.His security rotation patterns — she had watched long enough to know which hours had the thinnest coverage, which guards rotated at what time, which gaps existed in the pattern that Dante himself probably never thought to question.The timi
Author's POV The car arrived early.Earlier than Jem expected.He was still in the sitting room when he heard the gates open, and something in him shifted before he even stood up. Like his body knew before his mind caught up.He walked to the entrance.The door opened.Dante stepped through it.He looked composed. Suit in place. Expression controlled. Everything about him said nothing happened, nothing is wrong, everything is exactly as it should be.Except the color of his face.It was slightly off. Not dramatic. Just enough that someone who had been paying attention would notice.Jem had been paying attention.They looked at each other across the entrance hall.Neither of them spoke.Neither of them needed to.The silence between them said everything that words would have taken too long to explain. Dante knew that Jem knew. Jem knew that Dante knew he knew. And for a long moment they simply stood there, two people on either side of something that had shifted between them permanentl
Author's POV Night came heavy over the estate, the kind of night that did not feel like rest but like waiting. Everything inside the mansion had gone quiet hours ago, the corridors dimmed, the staff withdrawn, the world outside reduced to distant sounds that never quite reached the upper rooms. Jem had fallen asleep without realizing how tired he was, his body sinking into the bed as though it had finally accepted silence as normal again. But somewhere deep in the stillness, something changed.It started as pain.Sharp. Sudden. Right in his chest.Jem jerked awake immediately, breath catching in his throat as his hand flew to his chest. His eyes snapped open in the dark room, the ceiling above him barely visible, but the pain was so real it didn’t feel like his own. It was foreign, like something being pulled through him from far away. His breathing became uneven as he sat up quickly, his back pressing against the headboard. For a few seconds, he couldn’t even think properly, ju
Author's POVThe estate was quieter without Dante in it.Not in a bad way. Just in a way that made every small sound more noticeable. The soft creak of a hallway floor. The distant movement of staff somewhere downstairs. The wind pushing gently against the windows.Jem felt it from the moment he woke up.He lay in bed for a few extra minutes, staring at the ceiling, before he finally got up and started his day.***By mid-morning, he had checked on Madam Frost.One of the staff mentioned quietly that she was having a slower day. That she had chosen to remain in her room rather than come downstairs. Jem did not hesitate. He made his way to her room, knocked softly, and pushed the door open when she answered.She was sitting up in bed, propped against several pillows, a light blanket across her lap. She looked tired. Not unwell in a frightening way, just the kind of tired that came from a body that had been carrying things for too long.Her face brightened slightly when she saw him."Yo
Author's POV She was already seated at the table, a cup of tea resting near her hand while she looked over something on the tablet in front of her. But the second her eyes lifted and landed on them, everything else immediately became irrelevant.Her gaze moved from Dante to Jem.Then back again.She did not say anything at first.She simply looked.Because there was something different.Something she had spent months hoping to see.The way Dante stood slightly closer to Jem without realizing it.The way Jem no longer looked like he was preparing himself to run.The way they moved around each other naturally.Something in Madam Frost’s expression softened.Her eyes filled quietly.But she did not make a comment.She did not tease them.She did not say anything that would embarrass either of them.She simply reached across the table the moment Jem sat beside her and placed her hand over his.Jem looked down at their joined hands.Then he looked at her.Madam Frost only smiled faintly.
Jem's POV Then quietly, calmly, Dante said something that made my entire body go cold. “The people waiting for me.” He paused, his gaze holding mine steadily for a brief second before he continued, his expression still unreadable in that calm way that somehow made everything feel worse. “They’r
Jem's POV For several long seconds after Dante said those words, neither of us moved. The words kept replaying inside my chest over and over again, and no matter how many times I heard them in my head, they still didn’t make complete sense to me. Because part of me wanted to feel angry. I wante
Jem's POV For a moment after I turned around, everything inside me just stopped working properly. My hands were still holding the papers, the marriage contract still shaking slightly like my body couldn’t decide whether to drop it or hold it tighter. Dante was standing right there in the doorway
Jem’s POV For several long seconds, even after Mara had already walked away, I genuinely couldn’t move at all. My chest still felt tight from everything the guards had said earlier, and somehow Mara’s words only made the feeling worse instead of better. The marriage arrangement alone had alread







