Rhydian's POV
The stars are fully out by the time either of us speaks again, the kind of clear, cold night that makes the whole valley feel suspended in glass, and I find myself more nervous standing next to her on this wall than I've felt facing down armed incursions or hostile councils in six years of holding this seat. It's a strange thing, discovering at twenty-six that the hardest conversation I've ever had to start isn't with an enemy or a council full of doubters, but with a woman who has every reason not to believe a single word I say.
She doesn't answer right away, and I let the silence sit between us instead of filling it, because I've learned enough about her in the last month to know that pushing too fast only ever makes her retreat further behind that careful, practiced calm
