Kylian
The estate felt different when we finally returned, sunlight cutting through the windows of the study in a way that seemed, after nearly a week away, almost unfamiliar in its ordinariness. Marcus’s team confirmed the property secure within the first hour, and by evening the extra patrols had scaled back to something closer to the routine precautions we’d lived with for months rather than the heightened alert of the past week.
“It’s strange,” Ella said, standing at the terrace doors, looking out at the gardens where we’d first admitted what had grown between us. “I keep waiting to feel unsettled again. Some part of me expected coming back here to feel dangerous, after everything.”
“Give it time.” I came to stand beside her, my hand finding the small of her back. “A year of vigilan
