POV: ARAYA Dawn pools cold in the Vale of Hollow Winds, a pale film over black pines and frost-bitten grass. Breath ghosts from my lips. The air tastes like iron, pine sap, and the tension before a blade is drawn. Across the clearing, Dorian moves. Not trains. Moves—like the world is something he wears well. Bare-chested, skin sheened with mist, he glides through a slow kata, bone-forged blade cutting deliberate arcs. Each step is a conversation with gravity: softer, closer, claim. The scars across his ribs flash when he turns—pale lines like constellations someone tried to erase. Nyxara purrs in the back of my skull, lazy and smug. Look how our mate balances the world. Imagine how he’d balance you. “Focus,” I breathe, setting my feet shoulder-width apart, blade raised. My fingers are steady. My pulse isn’t. He finishes a sequence, the last cut shaving a curl of frost from a fallen branch. Then his eyes lift—storm-dark, unreadable—and find me watching. Caught. An apology flick
Last Updated : 2025-08-15 Read more