Every brush of glass on leather sent a spike through my nerves. If I broke one, or anyone heard…it would all be over for both of us.A figure detached from a doorway ahead. It was another guard, alone this time, adjusting his belt. He turned right, not left. The space he left behind was a gap I fold
RonanI’d spent enough years here to know he palace’s rhythm; the rhythm of boots on patrol, the faint scrape of servants moving through lower halls, the way torches sputtered when drafts slipped between the stones.Tonight, I wasn’t listening to the rhythm to do something I never thought I was capa
LilaHunger gnawed at me like a living thing. At first, I thought I was dying; some new symptoms accelerating in my stomach. But after a full day I realized I truly was hungry for the first time in what felt like weeks.I told myself I could endure it; that I’d learned discipline under my father’s r
Why had everyone I loved lied to me, hurt me, or abandoned me?I pressed my hand flat to the floor, searching for some way to remind myself I was still here. My fingers twitched once, then stilled.The days blurred together, stitched only by the rhythm of unfamiliar hunger and cold.Ronan had left m
LilaThe nightmares kept me from truly resting. Every time I closed my eyes, I was back inside the palace, walls glowing orange with heat, ceiling beams shrieking as they gave way.Damon’s voice was there, always just out around the next corner, swallowed by the roar of flames. His howl split the ai
For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was. The last memory was smoke choking my lungs, Ronan’s arms carrying me through a forest that wouldn’t stop spinning.I sat up too fast, the movement plunging daggers through my throat. My chest seized with a cough, sharp and tearing, leaving me doubled ov