CHAPTER 27
AVA’S POV
The room stayed quiet after the guard’s departure, the air was heavy with the weight of what we’d just learned. Someone inside the palace was orchestrating this, using Southern marks as a mask. The realization settled over me like a cold blanket, but for once, my mind didn’t spiral back into old wounds. Instead, I found myself focusing on the man beside me.
Draken hadn’t moved. His hand still rested on my wrist, thumb absently tracing small circles over my pulse point. He didn’t even realize he was doing it. But I noticed. I noticed how his shoulders remained tense, how his eyes kept flicking to the darkened veins on my arm, and how he hadn’t left my side since we returned.
“You haven’t slept,” I said, the observation slipping out before I could second-guess it.
D
