PAEDYN NOVA
He didn't return!
When he left, the silence in the dungeon became deafening. I could still feel his presence lingering… Cardan’s scent of pine and smoke clinging to the air like it refused to leave with him.
I hated that my chest still rose and fell unevenly, that my heart still thudded with the echo of his voice.
‘Do you believe in mates?’
The question wouldn’t stop replaying in my head.
I’d told him no, that I didn’t believe in the bond. And I wanted to mean it. I wanted to bury every trace of what that word used to mean to me. But there was something about the way he looked at me when I said it—like he could see through the lie I had spent years convincing myself was truth.
I pressed my back against the cold wall, shutting my eyes.
For the first time in a long while
