NORA POV
Peace is a strange thing.
It doesn’t arrive with trumpets or songs. It tiptoes in after war, wearing silence like a veil.
The crowd had long since dispersed. The howls had faded into the distance. Only the moon kept watch as I sat on the edge of the Citadel’s stone balcony, cradling a mug of spiced tea I didn’t remember making.
Kalen hadn’t gone far.
He was never far now.
My daughter slept inside, wrapped in linens, cheeks flushed from exhaustion—but safe.
Safe.
I whispered the word aloud like a spell. As if saying it too loudly might shatter it.
Safe.
But safety was not silence. My mind still raced, flickering between what we’d survived and what would come next.
Because what did come next?
The door creaked softly behind me.
“I figured I’d find you out here,” Kalen s
