All the warmth she had imagined in Kivan’s Palace vanished. Leaving the stone that surrounded her, cold. The light reflected was too bright, and she stood blinking in the corridor as Daile reached the end and vanished around a corner. She heard movement, creaking wood as Kivan’s door opened. Sastra turned on her toes and fled. Head ducked as she hurried away, skirts gripped between her fingers as she sprinted back down the hallway. Past her own bedroom, back to the dining hall and out into the gardens.
Blind, she hurried until she bent, overcome with the need to reject her breakfast. She bent, hands planted on her thighs as she closed her eyes. Breathe, she reminded herself, breathe. She missed Jason. Missed the simplicity of loving him. The canopy rustled, the long shadows wrapping arou
