The room smelled like cedar and fresh linen. Soft light filtered through high windows, turning the gold threads on the duvet into something that looked too warm, and safe.
Safe made Ravyn uneasy.
She walked inside slowly, hugging herself even though the air wasn’t cold. Her heart still felt cracked—hairline fractures she was pretending weren’t there. Kade’s voice still taunted her somewhere deep within, his rejection a bruise refusing to fade.
“I have a feeling this was Octavian’s idea,” Sebastian said softly, moving across the room.
Ravyn looked up. “No. It was mine,” she said without breaking a sweat.
He studied her with a softness she didn’t know how to breathe around. Like he was trying to figure out what she was planning. The thing is, she didn’t even know.
She figured they’d be
