Caleb
The corridor outside Queen Elise’s chambers felt colder than usual.
Maybe it was my imagination… or maybe it was the weight pressing on my chest heavy and suffocating that was pulling my shoulders down no matter how straight I tried to stand.
The moment the door closed behind me, I paused, letting the silence of the palace swallow me whole.
I could still smell her… Elise.
Her soft lavender-and-moonflower scent clung to me like a second skin, settling in the air around me, in my lungs, in my bloodstream.
The bond was getting stronger.
Growing every day, pulling me deeper, pulling her deeper regardless of what the world believed, regardless of what anyone said.
Despite everything, I found myself touching the place on my chest where the bond tugged the hardest, as if the invisi
