20. Lyra

After the shower with Declan we reluctantly parted. His hands siding over my body left me breathless when I should have been talking, telling him everything I felt. Confessing my secrets.

But that would mean breaking this tiny moment of happiness. He gently stroked my cheek with a mournful expression before a batch of chefs clattered past. The Full Moon is very much over and I am reduced to being simply the daughter of his enemy all over again.

Dressed in my tattered purple and gold-buttoned dress, my first thought was to give the herbs back to Reu. With a guilty, slinking walk I headed to the deputy’s rooms. Howen was thankfully not there, Corina apparently still keeping him occupied. The white-haired Reu sat hunched at his plain metal desk, scribbling in a leatherbound journal. “Hey,” he said softly. “Are you okay? You looking for Declan?”

With trembling hands I placed the dried purple flowers on the desk. “I’m so sorry…I got desperate.”

He shook his head, abandoning his writing