9
Kiria
Kiria watched the guards lead Firian toward the doors.
Hopefully he wasn’t able to tell that her chest tightened when she saw him again after all this time. It felt as though they had just spoken—they had!—but seeing him in person was different. More shocking and emotional than she had anticipated. The last time they’d seen each other in person, he’d tied to her to a tree. And now…
She was on the throne and wielded power she didn’t have last time. For appearances’ sake, she stayed Beautiful. That was, after all, her royal face. To become less beautiful, to shrink to a lesser target for his gaze, would have been cowardly.
Seeing him again reminded her not only of the recent hostage trauma, but also of his greater moments. That pledge was one of them. Now that he ordered the Aca
