FREYA.

LYRA.

Sleep refused to come.

I had spent the better part of an hour lying beneath the heavy wool blankets, staring at the darkness above me.

Every time I closed my eyes, I felt the phantom heat of Kael’s fingers against my wrist. The way his gaze had seared through me. I saw him each damned time.

And the funniest thing was that I didn’t see the man who sat at the head of the council table, I didn’t see the Alpha King. Not the cold man who had looked at me as though my existence offended him.

I saw the man who had caught me. His arms had closed around me before I could fall, and for one treacherous heartbeat, my body had remembered him before my mind could stop it.

My skin hummed with the electricity of our encounter. It was a terrifying, and addictive pull. Even after all these years of hiding, one touch from him had made me feel more alive than a decade of safety ever could.

Driven by a restless energy, I threw a fur-lined cloak over my nightgown and stepped out of my chambers, not forgetting to use my veil. I bypassed the heavy stone corridors of the guest wing and slipped into the Moon-Glow Gardens. Here, the air smelled of damp earth and night-blooming jasmine.

Eight years.

Eight years of learning how to live without him, and one touch had been enough to make my body betray everything my mind had worked so hard to bury.

The same man who had looked me in the eyes and accused me of destroying everything he loved, the same man who ordered me out of Silver Crest. The same man who had told me to never return. I had no reason to remember the warmth of his arms. No reason to remember how my heart had stumbled when he said my name.

And certainly no reason to wonder whether he had felt anything at all.

The gardens were empty at this hour, at least, they should have been.

I stepped through the stone archway and immediately felt the cold night air brush against my face. The moon hung high above Silver Crest, bathing the gardens in pale silver.

I walked slowly along the narrow path. The gardens were different from what I remembered. Eight years ago, there had been roses beneath the eastern wall, now, most of them had been replaced by medicinal herbs and winter flowers.

The Realm had changed. Or perhaps, I was seeing it with different eyes.

I walked further, and then I heard it—a faint sound. Tap.

I stopped.

Tap. Tap.

My brows drew together. It sounded like wood striking stone.

I followed the noise until I reached the far end of the garden where an old oak tree stood beside a small stone pavilion. And there, beneath the tree, was a child.

A little girl. She couldn’t have been more than eight.

She was sitting on a folded blanket with her legs tucked beneath her, completely absorbed in what she was doing. Several small pieces of colored thread were spread around her. In her lap was a little wooden hoop, and she was painstakingly weaving the threads through it, creating some kind of simple pattern.

An old-fashioned pastime.

Something a noble child might have been taught by a nursemaid. But what caught my attention wasn’t the weaving. It was the fact that she was alone. At midnight.

In the royal gardens. I stopped several paces away.

“Little one?”

The girl’s hands froze. Slowly, she lifted her head. Moonlight fell across her face. She was beautiful. Small and delicate, with dark hair falling in loose curls around her shoulders and enormous eyes that watched me with immediate suspicion.

I softened my voice.

“What are you doing out here alone?”

She didn’t answer.

I took one cautious step forward. “It's late,” I said, and still nothing.

Her fingers tightened around the wooden hoop. I studied her carefully.

“Are you lost?” I asked her and she shook her head, her brows furrowed.

“Then where are your parents?” She didn’t answer her again.

Well, since she had decided not to talk, I might as well introduce myself to the little company I was about to join.

“Well then, my name is Lyra. And you don’t have to be afraid of me.” I said.

“Can you tell me your name?” I asked, settling down beside her.

Nothing. I smiled gently.

“It’s alright. I like silence too, so we can just both sit here in silence and listen to the night and I’ll watch you work. You have a beautiful pattern going on there.” I said, nodding at her work.

A beautiful, slight smile appeared on her face. Then, she looked up at me, as if asking, ‘You think so?’

And I nodded in reply.

“Not everybody can get those intricate patterns right,” I said. She smiled again and continued her work.

We didn’t say anything after that, although I was curious as to why she didn’t say anything. She just kept quiet and continued her work, the only sound in the night was…

Tap

Tap

Tap.

The sound of the wood meeting her patterns.

“May I see?” I asked her.

She frowned for a bit, hesitation clear in her eyes but slowly, she held it out.

I took it carefully, the pattern was actually not that simple. It was intricate.

“You made this?” I asked and she nodded.

“It’s beautiful,” I said and another tiny smile appeared on her lips.

I gave her back her work, and we continued in silence. The silence was strangely peaceful.

And then I heard footsteps. Heavy ones. She looked up immediately, shook her head, and sighed as if to say, not again.

She even rolled her eyes.

I turned toward the archway, and a tall figure appeared beneath the moonlight. Golden eyes.

Black hair falling over broad shoulders and a face carved into an expression of cold fury.

Kael.

My heart stopped. His gaze moved from me, the child now packing her things up.

And for the first time since I had returned to Silver Crest, the composure of the Alpha King cracked. Only for a heartbeat though, but I saw it.

“Freya.” He called and the little girl turned to him. A big and bright smile appeared on her face.

The world seemed to tilt on its axis as I watched the little girl sprint toward the man who had haunted my dreams for eight years. When she leaped into his arms, I expected him to recoil because I knew he hated to be touched, but instead, his powerful arms wrapped around her with a tenderness I hadn’t known he possessed.

And a word rang out.

“Father.”