Kael's POV
Like most mornings lately, Elara is still asleep in our bed, sprawled across silk sheets like something out of a painting. The memory of her beneath me, around me, completely undone and mine, sends heat spiraling through my chest even now.
I sit behind my desk, the heavy burden of political intrigue replacing the satisfaction of last night. Reports are scattered across the mahogany surface—fragments of information about a bloodline that supposedly doesn’t exist, references to “systematic eradication” that turn my stomach, investigations into what Draven has been up to, accounts of the losses the Tashina family is now facing since they’ve lost favor with the Crown Prince.
I’m three pages into a particularly cryptic document when heavy footsteps echo in the corridor outside. U
