Asher’s POVI stood frozen in the doorway, staring at the bed.My heart felt like it had dropped straight through the floorboards. But as my eyes adjusted to the gray dawn leaking through the sheer silk curtains, I realized the gilded links weren't bolted to anything anymore. They lay dead on the rug—snapped, sheared at the mounts, pooled like cold brass ribbon where someone had taken an iron chisel to the stone headboard. The scars in the stone were fresh, their pale edges dusted with white powder.And then the smell hit me.It wasn't cedar or stale wine. It was the clean, sweet, cold scent of home.Eastern white lilies.Dozens of them. Heavy porcelain vases crowded the mantelpiece, the window ledges, and the low tables, overflowing with the rare, star-shaped blooms that only grew on the high crags of the Eastern mountains. Bringing them across the frost line alive must have cost a fortune in heated wagons and courier bribes.The dark, coarse blankets had been stripped from the bed,
Last Updated : 2026-10-26 Read more