Caroline’s fingers tightened around Ezra’s wrist, the weight of her decision settling into her bones like a storm she could no longer outrun.
Caelan knocked again, his voice calm—too calm.
"Caroline, open the door."
She didn’t move.
Didn’t breathe.
Because she could feel it now—the truth coiling around her throat, suffocating.
Caelan already knew.
And if she opened that door, she would never walk out alive.
Ezra’s golden eyes flickered.
"Now or never."
Caroline chose never.
She spun toward the window, barely registering the movement before Ezra was beside her, already tearing open the glass pane, already pulling her onto the ledge.
The wind hit her like a blade, cold, cutting, real.
Below them, the palace sprawled out in a sea of stone and shadow, torches flickering, guards st
