The moment the guard’s footsteps faded from outside the chamber doors, the warmth inside the room disappeared completely. Kael stood slowly from his bed, every trace of softness draining from his expression as though the future emperor had returned all at once.
Kaelira watched the change carefully. It unsettled her how quickly it happened. One moment he had been smiling faintly across breakfast while speaking quietly about childhood loneliness, and now he looked cold again like the prince the empire feared.
“You don’t have to look so worried,” Kael murmured without facing her.
“That sentence usually means I should absolutely worry.”
A faint breath left him, almost amused despite the tension now hanging heavily inside the room. Kael moved toward the dark coat resting across the arm of a
