The estate was automatically changed before dawn.
I noticed it the moment I woke.
The Sovereign’s Wing had gone unnaturally quiet during the night, but now the silence carried tension beneath it. Footsteps moved faster through the corridors outside, doors opened and shut downstairs, and wolves spoke in lower voices than usual.
Something had definitely happened.
Across the room, Bastián stood near the balcony doors, already dressed in black.
He had not slept.
Or if he had, it was only for a few minutes at a time.
The Bond made the exhaustion impossible to hide now. I felt the tension radiating off him through the pull the second I opened my eyes; it was a sharp focus layered over restless anger and the constant strain of resisting the connection between us.
He glanced toward me brie
