VALERIE.
I had woken from death, but I was not alive. My body functioned, my heart beat, my lungs filled with air but I was drifting—like a ghost between worlds, held together by threads that frayed with every step I took. The palace around me buzzed with energy, but none of it reached me. I felt it in my soul:
Something was missing.
Or someone.
My mates had saved me but since then, they had withdrawn like receding tides. Jason came only when summoned. Jasper never stayed in a room longer than duty required. Dorian watched me with quiet reverence—and terrible fear.
I stood in the center of my sanctum, arms bare, runes faded. My body pulsed with weakness, not pain. It was as though something sacred had been pulled from my core and left nothing but hollow air. I hadn’t spoken to them in
