MasukNot gradually. Like something had been cut. The growl died in his throat. His fist opened — the warrior stumbled back, freed. His breathing was still ragged, still too fast, but the violence had drained out of his body in a single heartbeat, as if my touch had reached past whatever feral thing had t
Lyra's POVI did as he asked. I moved my things that same afternoon — the bundle took less than a minute to carry — and set them on the chair by the window in his room.Then I waited.The manor shifted around me in the days that followed. Not loudly. No announcements, no alarms. But I could feel it
"I made something for you." She set down her own fork. "This morning. I was going to bring it earlier. Wait — please, just a moment—"She was out of the chair before I could respond, and back again in two minutes, carrying a covered bowl with both hands like it was something precious.She set it in
Lyra's POVThe dining hall went quiet.It rippled outward from the door — chairs scraping, spines straightening, the young warrior in front of me turning around mid-sentence. I looked past his shoulder and there was Cassian, filling the doorway, his jacket slung over one arm.His eyes swept the room
Lyra's POVI hit the floor hard.The recoil from my own shove sent me stumbling backward, and my bare feet slipped on the polished wood, and then I was sitting on the ground with my palms stinging and Cassian's hand already extended toward me.I didn't take it.I scrambled upright on my own, nearly
I didn't know what to do next.Sleep seemed presumptuous. Waiting seemed worse. I stood in the middle of the room and listened to the quiet, and that's when I noticed the light.A thin line of gold under the sitting room door.He was still awake.I told myself I was just going to check. Make sure he







