Kael did not return to the ballroom after that. Even after Ronan followed him downstairs and several noble families attempted to pull him back into conversation, his attention remained elsewhere, trapped upstairs on a quiet balcony beside a human girl who somehow managed to disturb his peace more than an entire battlefield ever had. It irritated him and most of all, it unsettled him.
Kael had spent years mastering control over himself. Emotion was dangerous in his position, attachment even worse. He had seen powerful men destroyed by obsession, watched rulers weaken because they allowed themselves to care too deeply about the wrong person. Yet now he found himself searching crowded halls for a woman he had spoken to for less than an hour.
“That expression on your face is concerning,” Ron
