Queen Elise
For a heartbeat, I could not move. The sight before me stole the very air from my lungs.
As I watched Caleb in my arms at the gates, pale as the moonlight that lingered over the courtyard, his breathing shallow, his hands trembling violently.
His eyes, those determined eyes looked dull and sunken, as if the life within him had been drained away overnight.
My pulse quickened in dread. “Caleb?” I whispered again, but this time his name came out broken, strangled with fear.
He tried to take a step toward me, but his knees buckled.
I dropped everything. The travel bags, the golden ring that had been clenched in my fist, all of it fell to the marble floor and scattered at my feet. None of it mattered anymore.
“Caleb!”
I rushed forward just in time to catch him before he co
