They held each other tightly, neither willing to loosen their grip, savoring the lingering warmth and the intoxicating quiet that wrapped around them like a cocoon. The silence was not empty; it was dense, almost tangible, filled with unspoken promises and years of restrained emotion finally allowed to breathe.
At this precise moment, the vast Highwyrm Hold seemed to shrink, its layered courtyards, pavilions, and winding paths losing all sense of scale, compressing into a private world that belonged to only two people.
No elders lingered nearby.
No servants hovered in the shadows.
No guests whispered behind screens or curtains.
Even Julian Walker and Vera Hale were absent, having retreated long ago with a tacit understanding that some spaces were not meant to be intruded upon. Their abs
