The manor had gone quiet.
Too quiet.
The kind of silence that didn’t soothe—It pressed.
Adrian stood by the window again.
But this time be wasn’t working.
It hadn’t been for a while.
Not since earlier.
Not since he saw them.
Rowan and Lyra.
Moving together.
In sync.
Too close.
Too aligned.
His jaw tightened slightly.
That controlled calm he wore so easily was cracking.
Not visibly.
But internally.
And he didn’t like it.
Not the feeling.
Not the loss of control.
Not the fact that distance—his usual solution
Wasn’t fixing anything.
It was making it worse.
A knock came at the door.
Soft.
Measured.
He didn’t need to ask who it was.
“Come in.”
The door opened.
Lyra stepped inside.
And the moment she did everything shifted.
She didn’t speak immediately.
Neither di
