Riven didn’t release her immediately. His hand lingered at her back, steadying her as they stepped out of the forgotten wing. The air there still clung to her skin—still fresh with the scent of s*x and passion—so thick it seemed to follow her even as the castle’s cooler corridors swallowed them.
He guided her without words. It wasn’t the kind of touch meant to claim, but neither was it casual. It said he had no intention of letting her stumble while the echoes of their acts of desire still unsettled her pulse. She let him. For once, she didn’t try to mask her unease.
The silence between them wasn’t empty. It pressed against her, filled with the weight of what he had said earlier. That the Veil was not a chain but a tether. That a tether could hold, yes, but it could also connect. That sh
