The portrait weighed in Ariana’s mind long after she left Kael’s study. Her parents’ painted faces — her mother’s soft smile, her father’s sharp eyes — stared back at her in memory. She had seen only faint outlines of them in fading recollections, like shadows in dreams. And yet Kael had kept their image, hidden in his private space, untouched by time and dust. Why?
Her heart pounded with equal parts fear and fury. She needed answers, and only one man could give them.
By the time she found Kael again, he was standing on the balcony of his quarters, the night draped over his broad frame like a cloak. Moonlight clung to his shoulders, silvering the edges of his dark hair, and for a moment Ariana hesitated. He looked like a god carved of shadows, commanding and untouchable. But her fists cl
