The air in Kaelion’s mansion had started to shift.
Jenna felt it in the way her heart no longer pounded with dread when his footsteps echoed in the hall. She felt it in the way Maren smiled at her without pity now, how the servants bowed not because they had to, but because they wanted to. She even felt it in herself—how her shoulders relaxed, how she no longer slept with her fists clenched.
She still didn’t trust him. Not fully. But something felt different now.
And it terrified her.
Late that morning, she wandered through the hallways, barefoot and half-lost in her thoughts, when she heard his voice.
Kaelion.
She followed the sound like a tether, down the corridor toward the study. She had intended to pass, to avoid him and preserve whatever quiet control she still had over her fee
