I didn’t know what I was doing.
Every fiber of my being had screamed at me to stop, but I couldn’t. It was like I was trapped in a fog, my mind no longer my own. The urge had come so suddenly, so forcefully—I had bent down and kissed Alaric on the forehead. It was like my body moved on its own, without my permission, without any sense of reality.
But then, as quickly as it had happened, I was shoved away, the force of it knocking the breath out of me as I hit the floor. My mind snapped back into clarity for a moment, just long enough to see Dominico standing above me, his golden eyes blazing with fury, his face twisted in a rage I had never seen before.
I wanted to apologize, to explain—to do something—but before I could even form the words, Dominico reached down and lifted Alaric, stil
