Hope
The bond hadn’t vanished.
That was the cruelest part.
Hope woke with the lingering echo of it still inside her — not warmth, not certainty, but the memory of both. Like waking after a vivid dream and knowing you’d touched something real… even if you couldn’t quite reach it anymore.
Ember stirred faintly.
Still here, came the quiet reassurance.
Hope pressed her palm to her chest and breathed through the ache.
Chance had walked her back into the territory without speaking much. Without touching her once the palace came into view. She understood why — intellectually.
Emotionally, it felt like being folded back into a shape she had only just begun to escape. She hated that the palace could shrink her back into something smaller.
As she moved through the palace halls, the pressure
