Chapter 40: A Kiss in the Ruins
Rain had begun to fall by the time Eira and Alric reached the crumbling stone arch of the ruined chapel. Vines clawed through its broken windows, and the once-sacred murals on its walls had long since faded into ghosts of color. Yet something about the place still felt hallowed, alive in the hush of the storm. Maybe it was the way the rain softened the edges of the ruin, or the way Alric's presence beside her seemed to ward off the gathering gloom.
“This used to be Selis’s favorite place,” Alric murmured, brushing rain from his dark hair. “She’d come here when she needed silence… clarity. Or when the palace walls were too heavy with expectation.”
Eira shivered—not from cold, but from the weight of his words. The irony wasn’t lost on her. They stood in the
