The fire in the hearth had died down to a low, glowing bed of red coals. Shadows stretched long and heavy across the high ceiling of Julian’s private bedroom, moving like ghosts in the dark.
I lay perfectly still on the massive bed, staring blankly at the dark green silk canopy above my head. My left shoulder throbbed with a dull, heavy ache, but that physical pain was nothing compared to the storm raging inside my mind.
“I was thousands of miles away across the dark ocean… I didn't even know your family was dead until three days after the fires were put out.”
Julian’s deep, honest voice kept playing on a loop in my head, over and over again, like a broken record.
I turned my head toward the dark wood of the bedroom door, my fingers tightly gripping the silk sheets. My mind was spinnin
