Reign POV
Reign had never understood how a single night could rearrange everything without changing anything at all.
He still woke in the same royal suite, under the same carved ceiling, with the same weight of the crown that was not yet on his shoulders.
But something new lived between his ribs now. A thread. A pulse. A name.
Celeste.
He could feel her, faint and steady, somewhere in the palace. Not the violent tug Luca had once described in theory—the kind of bond that hit like a blade to the chest. No, this was softer. A low, insistent current. A river running under stone.
There.
Not close.
Not far.
But his.
A knock came at his door.
“Come in,” Reign said, already knowing who it was.
Ash stepped inside first, hair still damp from a quick shower, shirt half-buttoned, eyes to
