The dance ended, but our performance did not.
Kael led me from the dance floor with that same quiet authority, his hand light at the small of my back. To everyone watching, we looked composed, elegant, in perfect control.
Inside, I was burning.
Kael guided me outside. Beyond the open tent flaps, the night air was cool, a mercy after the suffocating heat inside the tent. Laughter and music spilled faintly from behind us, muffled by distance. For a moment, neither of us spoke. The silence stretched, brittle as glass. Then I asked, quietly,
“Will I ever be free again?”
Kael didn’t answer at first. His gaze drifted toward the sky — dark velvet scattered with stars — before finally settling on me. There was no mockery in his eyes now, no trace of the arrogance he wore like armor inside t
