The Knight's Claimed Bride
My heart had pounded with every step past those guards in polished armor.
And then I saw him.
Newly knighted, seventeen, his sword still too big for his frame. But he stood like he was carved from something ancient, eyes already too sharp, too quiet.
Not yet the Commander. Not yet feared. Just a boy trying not to look like he was still grieving.
He’d nodded at my mother. She nodded back, without breaking stride. Later that evening, I asked who he was.
“Gideon Malik,” My mother said, grinding dried bellroot into a vial. “Of Blackthorn Hall.” She didn’t look up when she said it, but I remember the way her hands slowed for just a second.
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